1 Last Elect Problem on my 60

[Bob Malone #35242]

I'm down to one final electrical problem on the restoration. The parking brake flasher on the instrument panel doesn't. I can't tell from the wiring diagram what the flasher in the circuit is supposed to do. I have found that the switch that is engaged by pulling on the parking brake makes the circuit as opposed to breaking the circuit when engaged.
This may be a dumb question but how can I check the circuit by bypassing the flasher? Secondly, how do I check the flasher itself? I have two flashers..., the old one which I know worked before and a new one that I don't have any confidence in.

[John M.]

Re: 1 Last Elect Problem on my 60

Bob,
Yes, you can test the circut by bypassing the flasher. Just remove the two leads from it and connect them together with a clip lead or something similar. If the light glows then the flasher is the problem. There is no further testing necessary for the flasher. It either works or not. The flasher is in series with the light and if the light does not glow with the flasher in the circut but does when it is bypassed, then the flasher is open. These flashers are getting hard to find, but they are still out there. You should be able to find one for arround $50 or so. If functionality is the prime motivation, you can bypass the flasher and put a flashing bulb in it's place. There are those who even do so and leave the old Tungsol flasher in place for judging points even though it is non-functional. It takes a pretty sharp judge to notice the bypass if you are clever!

Regards, John McGraw

[Mike M.]

Re: 1 Last Elect Problem on my 60

john: my guess is that after seeing this post, P.V. judges will start pulling flashers during the test. regards, mike

[John M.]

Re: 1 Last Elect Problem on my 60

Mike,
The great part of this is that the emergency brake warning was optional equipment, and all traces of the setup could be removed in a couple of minutes!
If you had any worry about PV, you could just present it for judging without the flasher and switch. I was thinking more about the quickie op's check for flight judging. In addition, you could substitute a generic flasher for PV, since originality is not an issue. It would be a good question whether the flashing bulb would not meet the intent of the PV since the only issue is whether it works correctly. I replaced every electrical part that I could on my car that I could with brand-new current parts prior to PV to avoid any aggravation when some old original part failed.

Regards, John McGraw

[Bob Babcock]

Re: 1 Last Elect Problem on my 60

Hi again Bob. I used a flashing bulb for my first judging event and received an appropriate deduct. They caught it immediately. I found a flashing module (expensive, but available) and installed it for the second judging event.

[John M.]

Re: 1 Last Elect Problem on my 60

Bob, did you have a non-working module installed and bypassed? If so, how did they spot it? I have allways thought that it would be almost undetectable if the bypass was done out of sight.

Regards, John McGraw

[Bob Babcock]

Re: 1 Last Elect Problem on my 60

Hi John,
I am not sure. It was two years ago. I just recall getting a deduct for the flashing bulb. We did not try to bypass the module to fool the judges. Perhaps the module was missing.....I just don't remember.

[Nicholas L.]

Re: 1 Last Elect Problem on my 60

I just bought a flasher from Mary Jo for my 1960 Corvette. It didn't work so she sent me another one which worked fine. I new the first flasher was no good because the dash light came on when the flasher was bypassed and did not come on when the flasher was connected. The price was $60.00 and it is NOS. By the way, Mary Jo is a very nice person to deal with.