flasher unit question

[georgeramos]

My friends 72 sport coupe is having many electrical gremlins. No flashers or turn signals are among the must fix problems. The cylindrical flasher is known good. The hazard switch we had 2 (both old) and we took one apart, cleaned all the contacts and guts and put back together. We do not have a replacement for the flasher unit that resembles a relay. Is that a relay? Csaba do you carry that part? This is Darins car in Portland I know hes been buying many parts from you guys and will probably call you next week but Im stumped after working on this for most of the day. We did make some headway and have working head/tail lights and brake lights...

Thanks

[spider2081]

The Square hazard switch switches power between the 2 flasher units. Power for the signal lights passes through the ignition switch. Power for the hazards is "hot all the time".
I would focus on the signal lights first because you can access that flasher without removing the instrument cluster. It is pretty common for the hazard flashers to fail, however I don't think a defective hazard flasher will keep your turn signal lights from working.
Do you have voltage on the signal light flasher labeled +, when the ignition switch is "on" and in only one position of the hazard switch. I think that is a yellow/black wire.
Does the green turn signal indicator in the Speedometer light.
For what its worth I purchased a flasher from Autozone that did not work. I would only get the flashers from one of our vendors.

[georgeramos]

The troubleshooting guide provides a step by step process of checking voltages. I asks for 8 to 12 volts as your benchmark. At the flasher + we are getting about 7.2 v. Same at the hazard switch. I say the flasher unit is known good because we pulled it out of his spider in which it worked seconds before. We havent gotten the instrument cluster out yet to check the directional lights yet.

[spider2081]

A lot of flashers will not work with less than 10 volts on them. Did you measure the voltage with the engine running???
If your battery voltage is around 12 volts and you are measuring 7 at the flasher I think you have a poor connection some where . The first place I would check is the fuse panel for corrosion. Personally I like to clean all the fuse terminals and only install fuses that are brass colored. I replace all tin colored fuses. The battery should be disconnected to clean the fuse panel because some of the fuses have voltage on them with the ignition switch in the off position

[georgeramos]

Thanks for the info. I had told him the next thing he should do is clean all grounds he can find, clean all fuse box connections and replace all the old bulbs making sure to clean the sockets/connections etc. The fuse box on the BC Coupe is way harder to get at than in a similar year Spider. He has a not fun job ahead but it is a must. The car is not running yet, still needs an exhaust system...

[spider2081]

I really consider all you mentioned necessary routine maintenance for our cars to be reliable. For me its better and easier to maintain the electrics than it is to troubleshoot them.