Re: KPack's 1954 Panama

Posted by HH56 On 2020/9/13 11:36:14

Removing the dark blue wire from pin 2 of the flasher socket and connecting it directly to ground will place the indicator lamps in parallel with the other two. That will take the drive out of the flasher transistor and power them with the thermal part. That may work as long as the total resistance doesn't change so much the thermal spec is disrupted but will also reverse the way they would normally get power and ground since they would now be powered with the outside bulbs. You may need to reverse the lights in the cluster to have them flash with the correct side. Rather than the original way of having ground run thru the opposite off sides bulb filaments so they won't both flash at once and also take advantage of the extra resistance, they will now have power plus a solid ground and may be quite a bit brighter. This really should not be necessary if the connections and grounds are good.

The phenolic insulating board which holds the contact buttons on both the switch and inside the sockets has been known to warp or otherwise deform allowing one contact to be positioned at a different level than another generally resulting in a poor connection. The inline Wade (flat tabs) or Douglas (round bullets) connectors are also known to corrode internally particularly if they have been sitting for years in a moist environment.

As mentioned before, grounds are notorious for causing issues even if they look clean at a bolt to sheetmetal surface. The other end that is threaded into potmetal could still be corroded. Grounds for the parking lights go thru several bolt connections in the pot metal grill pieces and are particularly susceptible to the point that some owners have needed to solder or otherwise attach a ground wire directly to the socket shell and connect that wire directly to sheet metal on the fender.

One fairly easy way to tell if there is still a ground issue is to get a long length of hookup wire. Attach one end directly to the ground post on the battery and go around to each socket with the other end. Use some sandpaper to clean a bright spot directly on the socket shell and touch it with the ground wire and see if the lamps start working or get brighter.