Indicator erratic when driving

[scottymalotty]

Hi,


I wonder if someone can help me with the following problem I seem to be having with my 1964 Morris Traveller.

when I am driving I start to get an erratic flashing from the indicator stalk when turning right. It either flashes very slowly or not at all. at the beginning of any journey everything appears to work fine but after a while this problem occurs.

The funny thing is that once I stop the car the indicator works perfectly well inside and outside the car.

Any help most appreciated.

Cheers,
Scott

[beero]

I can only guess that you have a bad contact somewhere which is being made worse by the vibration of the car moving.
First thing I would check would be the light fittings where the lamp bayonet sits in. Is it rusty or is the spring weak?

[scottymalotty]

Thanks beero,

I am not sure what is happening on the outside of the car when the indicator stalk stops working. This is what worries me when I am driving that the indicators are not actually working. I need to get my wife or someone to check for me when I am driving.

cheers,
Scott

[GPO_Van]

I agree with beero, bad contact somewhere, I had a side light that was very erratic, cleaned up bulb and holder then ok.
Reg

[mike.perry]

[quote="scottymalotty"] I need to get my wife or someone to check for me when I am driving.

Is she a fast runner?

[scottymalotty]

No Mike neither are that fast. As Peter Kay once said "You need two kinds of wife. One for sex and one for heavy lifting"

[scottymalotty]

Hi,

I ended up buying a new flasher unit. When I replaced the old one the indicator stalk lamp stayed on all the time although when driving the indicators appeared to work fine. Does this mean I have the wrong flasher unit for the year of the car? I was careful to ensure I changed the wires to match the existing one. I then swapped back to the old one and no indicator working when I indicate right as before.

Stuck again!

Thanks for any suggestions….

Cheers,
Scott.

[mike.perry]

You should have a 3 pin 42+5W rated flasher unit which requires 2 x 21W bulbs to be working to operate the warning light

[bmcecosse]

I suggest taking the flasher out of the equation - just join the two main wires together - do the lights come on when you switch the stalk? If so - give the lights a rattling/shaking/bulb wobbling to see if anything seems loose.

[scottymalotty]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions and sorry for the delay in response but it's been far too cold to go out to the garage and tinker until this weekend.

I had dismissed the suggestions about a loose connection or lamp as I had replaced all these parts after the respray so did not think these could have been the problem. How wrong I was. After I removed the sidelight cover from the left side I found lots of rust and corrosion around the lower bulb fitting. I managed to extract this from the holder and cleaned this up and refitted it and thought I had found the issue.

When I then tested it I was still getting a weak signal from the light and the indicator arm in the car... But only when I removed the cover from the other side did I spot my mistake...the bulb I was focused on was the lower small bulb and realised this is not the Indicator bulb but the side light bulb

So I now have another problem...when I put on my indicator to turn right my side light flashes (weakly) and my indicator bulb does nothing. I traced the wires and it seemed correct according to my Haynes manual but I don't really know auto electrics so any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks Scott

[bmcecosse]

Bad earth - it's finding an earth path through the side lamp circuit..........

[scottymalotty]

Thanks BMCEcosse,

So I should follow your previous suggestion and create an earth wire between the sidelight and the wing of the car?

Cheers,
Scott

[bmcecosse]

Indeed!

[scottymalotty]

The next time someone says "It's a bad earth" like they did 5 posts ago I will immediately go and fit an earth wire

Fitted the wire from the Engine bay earth point through the sleeve and onto one of the sidelight bolts. Indicator and sidelight and indicator arm light all now working perfectly.

Many thanks for everyone's help.

Cheers,
Scott

[DaisyMayFozz]

I had exactly the same problem! If I had seen this earlier I would have posted. I solved it by buying 2 new indicator/sidelight units, as the old ones had rusted to high heaven! My wings are Fibreglass so a earth wire was run from one of the securing bolts to the inner wing.

Glad you got it sorted!

[scottymalotty]

Thanks Chris,

These were new sidelights and did not come with an earth wire and I just fitted them assuming they would work. I dug out the old ones and noticed they had an earth wire fitted post install and screwed into the back of the light fitting. I managed to find a spare original wire with a bullet connector on one end. It was a wee bit short but managed to connect it to the inner wing earth point in the engine bay and fitted a connector and attached this to one of the bolts holding the side light. Simples

Cheers,
Scott

[scottymalotty]

Hi,

Greetings from Edinburgh....

My problem has returned unfortunately. I was out one day for a decent long run and it was raining. On the way back the indicators stopped working again.

The new earth wire I added seemed to be the problem. As I only had a small wire available with a bullet connector I had struggled to connect this to the front side light due to the shortness of the wire. It seemed the wire had lost its connection to the connector I had used as I had wrapped the bare wire around it and tried to secure it with electrical tape.

Tonight I decided to extend the original earth wire and solder the new wire to this and solder the connector also so that I had a good connection for my earth wire. Refitted it all and thought I was sorted.

Still no indicators.

I re-checked the bullet end of the earth wire that goes into the inner wing cleaned it and sprayed with WD40. Still nothing.

I then happened to check the fuses and found the bottom one was blown. Great! Changed it for a new one still nothing! Decided to remove the fuses to clean the holders as I could see they were a bit green but I managed to create a spark with my screwdriver which seemed to blow both fuses.

I am now down to only having 1 spare fuse so need to go and buy some. Can anyone tell me if anything I did caused the blown fuse? I must confess I did not detach the battery before starting with my earth wire fixing

Also what fuse size is correct for the Morris? 35 Amp? 10 Amp?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Cheers,
Scott.

[bmcecosse]

35 amp is the norm...... You didn't connect the 'earth' wire to a live feed by accident - did you??

[scottymalotty]

Hi,

Thanks for that...are they easy to get a hold off? Can you get them in Halfords?

I don't think I did. I disconnected the end attached to the sidelight and soldered on an extension wire to that and soldered the connector to the end of that wire. Reconnected it to the sidelight. I then disconnected and checked the bullet end in the inner wing. Cleaned it and sprayed it with WD40 and reconnected it. I did not disconnect the battery when I did this which I thought afterwards I maybe should have.

It was them I checked the fuses and found the lower one was blown. I removed that and replaced it with a spare. Still nothing so decided to clean the fuse holders with some emery paper, it was difficult to remove the top one with my fingers so I used a screw driver. It was then I got the spark and both fuses were blown

Cheers,
Scott.

[scottymalotty]

Ok..new fuses purchased and yes you can get them at Halfords £1.69 for a pack of 3

Tonight I decided to reposition the earth wire using a self-tapper to the back of the sidelight plate rather than via the securing bolt. I had disconnected the complete sidelight from the wing to do this.

When I re-attached the earth wire in its new position I decided to test it before I re-attached the sidelight to the wing. The fuse was fine and did not blow. "That's good" I thought so went ahead and re-bolted the sidelight to the wing again. Re-tested and.....pop went the bottom fuse

Stuck again

Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Scott.