MTFCA Forum

At the end of the last driving season, I installed the 7-wire turn signal kit that the vendors carry. I'm sure everything is wired correctly, but they hyper-flash. I did tap the power from the back of the key switch, so the flasher is near the coil box on the dash. The bulbs are 6 volt incandescent. Any ideas on where to start troubleshooting? Is it something in my setup or do I just have a bad flasher?

I think you will find that 6V draws a lot of amps which makes it flash faster. They should make a "heavy duty" 6V flasher. I'd try that first.

That's what I was thinking, but it's odd that Lang's and Snyder's would sell a kit that requires modification.

Thats odd, I bought a run of the mill two prong 6vt flasher Napa works perfectly...

Tom Hicks wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:11 am

I think you will find that 6V draws a lot of amps which makes it flash faster. They should make a "heavy duty" 6V flasher. I'd try that first.

6v Or 12v makes no difference. The laws of physics and electricity demand that V=IR, or I= V/R no matter what. Get the right flasher and 6v bulbs. I bought this flasher and it works great, AND it has a buzzer I can actually hear in my open car. Any 6v motorcycle flasher should work fine.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07G85SZ ... b_pd_title

Jeff

AdminJeff wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:37 am

Tom Hicks wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 06, 2019 8:11 am

I think you will find that 6V draws a lot of amps which makes it flash faster. They should make a "heavy duty" 6V flasher. I'd try that first.

6v Or 12v makes no difference. The laws of physics and electricity demand that V=IR, or I= V/R no matter what. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07G85SZ ... b_pd_title

Jeff

E definitely equals I X R!

Resistance is constant in this case,
so if E =12 , then 12 = I X R
If you change E to 6 with the same R, then I doubles, E = 2I X R. You are drawing twice as many amps.

Years ago I found that when I hooked up my truck to a trailer with incandescent bulbs (all they made back then) he signal flasher went really fast. I bought the "heavy duty" flasher from NAPA and had no more problems. So that is why I think current draw effects the rate of flashing.

The first thing to check is did you buy the 12V unit. Vendors sell the turn signal for both 6V and 12V. The 12 volt unit would have a flasher capable of handling the lower ampere draw of a 12 V system.


Then call the vendor, tell them the problem, I bet they have the answer. And I suspect that you have a lot of lights and your current (present) flasher unit can not handle the current(amps).

The supplier has supplied sometimes mismatch. They just reship what their supplier prints on the box.

If you bought the 7 wire kit with the indicator light, I have specified 6V and received 12V which means at high noon it looks like a blown out match! They have been helpful, sent me replacement bulbs, but they too were 12v so I changed it out myself...they do try!

Not sure about the flasher tho’. I trashed the one they sent because it wouldn’t blink with led in front and rear 4 corner...replaced it right off the bat with one someone forum said was rated for led duty. It worked

I have the standard turn signal kit on all three of my running T's. One TT and the speedster are all LED lighting. LED's draw very little current, the flasher will not work with them alone. I had to put a resistor in parallel with each turn signal to draw enough amps for the flasher to work.


The TT Ellie Mae I am presently building also has the signal kit, but the flashers work because the front turn signals are incandescent. They draw enough current for the flasher to work.


Your problem has a simple solution, I suspect an incorrect flasher, and I will be interested when you get back with what you find!

FYI. The flasher speed is inverse to the current flow. So when a light bulb burns out the turn signal flash faster because of less current draw. Found this on the web.

What causes turn signals to flash fast?
When a turn signal bulb burns out, less current flows through the mechanical flasher, so the bi-metallic strip cools faster and snaps back to its original shape faster. So the on/off cycle runs much faster when even just one bulb is burned out.

An electronic flasher mimics the operation of a mechanical flasher by flashing faster when it detects a lower current draw due to a burned out bulb.

©, 2018 Rick Muscoplat

I think George may have the answer. My flasher unit is marked "heavy duty", but may be the 12v unit. The box was marked 6v, but the kit was supplied with 12v bulbs. Lang's swapped them out no problem. I'm thinking the whole kit was mislabeled.

I had the correct flasher, but it must have been bad out of the box. I ordered a replacement from Snyder's and everything is working perfectly now.

Good deal. I wired up the flasher and could not believe it when they worked. I am not the best at following directions but this kit works well.

Spade wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 16, 2019 8:41 am

Good deal. I wired up the flasher and could not believe it when they worked. I am not the best at following directions but this kit works well.

Great! Thanks for getting back with the solution. It can be aggravating when you do the installation correctly and one of the components is defective, but you should have no more problems with it.