[Spridgets] halogen

David Lieb dbl at chicagolandmgclub.com
Mon Jun 25 05:25:51 MDT 2007


>> Do your turn signals blink, Frank? Because of a relay?
>
> I thought that was a "flasher" ;) It says flasher right on it.
> Hey I can wire a Spridget with my eyes closed but I can NOT for the life 
> of me figure out a relay. Yes you explained it to me once (or twice)
> But power to switch to device is sooooo simple and has worked for me 
> trouble free for many decades.
> I have a drawer full of relays lots of them came with horns over the years 
> some Lucas relays too, all new. But I just can't see adding something that 
> may fail where nothing was used in the first place.

The "proper" term is "flasher relay". Given the nature of the beast, it must
have resulted from early Lucas research into relays ;-)

In the case of headlights (or the starter motor of later Spridgets like 
mine),
all the relay does is to use the existing headlight circuitry to drive the
comparatively small load of the electromagnet in the relay rather than the
significantly larger load of the headlights. Even a marginal headlight 
switch
will handle that. Thus, the "power to switch to device" becomes battery
connection on solenoid (optionally through a fuse) to relay (switch) to
headlight. As mentioned before, the path is shorter and simpler. Installed
properly, the relays can be bypassed with two connections without carrying
anything with you to do it.
David 


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