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Inoperative Direction Indicator Warning Light

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Scotsman

Scotsman

Jedi Hopeful
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Recently had the steering wheel off and central indicator assembly apart on my 59 TR3. In process I foolishly blew the fuse, flasher unit, and dash bulb. Have replaced all, and the signal lights all work but the direction indicator warning light on dash does not. Horn works. I also converted car from positive ground to negative.
I have tested dash warning light bulb, it works.
Done a continuity test on lead from flasher unit through bulb to ground. Dash bulb and continuity tester bulb illuminate.
Rearranged the 3 wires attached to new flasher unit in all possible combinations and dash light will not illuminate (solid of intermittent).
Got a second flasher unit. (Nappa Thermal Flasher 550). Still no luck.
I have the central terminal on flasher unit going to warning light. If I reverse the leads on the other two terminals indicator lights will no longer work.

What am I am missing (be polite)? Wrong flasher unit? An additional circuit I need to check?

Thanks.
 
Scotsman, run a bit of sandpaper on the metal behind the dash where the switch rest as when you used a continuity light you were getting a good ground. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Wayne
 
Wrong flasher, IMO. I went through this a few years back, and even though they were supposed to be compatible, the thermal flashers from the local parts store did not work properly. I eventually bought one of every 3 terminal flasher they had in stock, and the only one that made the light work properly was a Tridon EL-13 "electronic" flasher.
https://www.amazon.com/Tridon-EL13-Flasher/dp/B001I1QPNG

The other solution that seemed to work with the 550 flasher was to re-wire the indicator lamp to hot instead of ground.

In spite of the "electronic" name, the EL-13 is actually electro-mechanical (a relay plus resistors & caps), so I believe it will work with either polarity. But my TR3A was already converted to negative ground, so I didn't actually try it with positive ground. If you do use the EL-13, you may need a mounting clip for it (my car already had one). Make sure the clip isn't too tight, or the plastic housing will eventually break.
 
OK, tested the center prong marked "P" as suggested by Jedi Knight and still no luck (connected to a circuit tester and grounded other end).

I have converted the car to a negative ground. Could this effect things? As stated earlier the front and back indicator lights do work.

It appears there are quite a few posts on the net relating to this issue and the suggestion is to use a "heave duty" flasher unit. NAPA THERMAL FLASHER 550 does state HEAVY DUTY on unit.
 
I had that exact problem. Bought new flasher,OEM style,didn't work. Bought A/M 550 flasher, didn't work. Ordered another new OEM style flasher,and it did work. I intitially thought that hooking the first new one up wrong, fried it, but I think it was just a bad unit. Seem to recall the 550 worked intermitantly, meaning the dash indicator would flash about 2 times and quit but the signals would still work.
 
Believe it or not you had better start with a Lucas flasher,there are cheap Chinese flashers on the market
that dont work at all.I tried all the flashers my local"parts " store had not a single one functioned.Finally the Lucas arrived from TRF
,plug and go.
MD
 
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