On Mon, 24 Nov 1997, Tom Reichard wrote:
> If the bulbs are good, the flasher is good, the switch is good and the
> wiring is good, then the turn signal ought to flash, right? Wrong. The
> singal lights, both front and rear, come on, but don't flash. (On the right
> side only. The left side flashes fine.) Since the lights are coming on, I
> know the bulbs, wiring, and turn signal switch is good. Since the other
> side flashes, I know the flasher is good. What am I missing???
> Thanks
Tom:
>From the symptoms you describe, I would almost guarantee that you have a bad
connection or connections somewhere in the right side. Not bad enough to stop
the lights from turning on, but enough to stop them from blinking. The
turnsignal flasher is sensitive to current and voltage conditions. They are
designed that way purposely to fail to blink if you have a bulb out to warn
you of the bad bulb. They do this by refusing to blink if the current is too
low. A moderately bad connection will drop the current enough to stop the
blinking, but not enough to stop the lights from glowing at all.
This is the classic failure mode of turn signals in a British car. Carefully
go through all the connections on the right side, cleaning them with fine
steel wool til they shine, and reconnect them. Start with the green wires to
the hazard switch, and work your way clear through to the ground connections
at each bulb. Be very suspicous of the hazard switch - it is most often the
cause of turnsignals failing to blink. As a test, take the two green wires
from the hazard switch and connect them together and see if the right side
doesn't start working. Power to the turnsignal flasher goes through the
hazard switch, and is turned off when the hazard switch is in the hazard
mode. This set of contacts in the hazard switch often gets cruddy from lack
of switching, since we usually don't use the hazard flasher very often.
Turnsignals most usually fail right after using the hazard flasher.
After you have done the above, I'm confident the right side will now work.
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://www.sky.net/~boballen/mg/Masters/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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