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TR2/3/3A TR3A directional indicator dash light

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jdubois

jdubois

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Is that sucker supposed to be on when the indicator switch is not engaged? Somebody did a very strange rewire job on it, adding some wires and sending the ground on the light to a weird place. The dash light has never worked since I've known the car.

So I pulled all the homemade wiring and put the wiring back to match the factory schematic (and replaced the flasher unit for good measure). Now it works fine, except that the dash light is on all the time (except when the indicator switch is engaged, then the light flashes correctly.)

The circuit is so simple, it was easy to verify that I've got the external wiring to the flasher unit correct now (switched/fused 12VDC to the X terminal, indicator switch on the L terminal, and dash light on the P terminal). So either this is the way it's supposed to be, or my new flasher unit doesn't work right. (I put back the old flasher unit, and it doesn't light up the dash bulb like this one, but only flashes the bulb once on switch activation, though does flash the side and tail lamps correctly)
 
Nope, not supposed to be on all the time. Most likely, IMO, your new flasher doesn't work right (and neither does the old one).

It used to be that a model 550 flasher would fit and work. I had an old 'Ideal' brand 550 in my TR3 until just a few weeks ago that worked fine (other than flashing a bit slower than I wanted). But the Wagner (I think it was) brand model 550 that I bought from Kragen a few years back would leave the dash light on all the time, just as you've found. At the time, I bought one of every 3-terminal flasher they had, trying to find one that would work.

I finally made the Wagner 550 work (on the TR3A) by moving the ground wire for the indicator lamp to a terminal that was hot when the ignition was on. With that slight modification, it worked fine.

A Tridon EL13 also seems to work with the stock wiring. That's what I'm running now, mostly because I was able to open it up and modify the flash rate to be a little faster than the 550. But if you mount it into a clip, be careful to spread the clip fingers apart so they don't press so hard on the plastic. I neglected to do that on the 3A, and the pressure eventually broke the plastic housing.

An enterprising person could probably stuff the guts of an EL13 into an original housing.
 
Thanks Randall. Sounds like it might be easiest to just build my own and jam it into the metal can... It's not like it's a difficult circuit to put together.
 
Well, it does get a bit more difficult if you don't rely on the can for a ground...
 
Switching the ground lead to hot worked, thanks Randall. I just tied it, non-destructively, to the white switched hot wire coming off the ignition switch and all was good. As was easily predicted, it now flashes opposite the marker lamp, but I think I can live with that :wink:
 
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