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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ Turn signal indicator light(s)

Posted by: theer Jul 20 2017, 08:42 AM

Having had a few aircooled VW's back in the day, I was not surprised that my turn signal indictor lights blink as one. Then I read here that they are indeed supposed to blink separately (certain years, only? early vs late?)

Upon closer inspection, I see that the first blink is just the correct left or right arrow lighting up brightly, then after that both arrows blink, but only dimly... as in hard to see in the daylight.

Outside blinkers all work fine.

Any idea what is "supposed" to be happening?

My car is a mash-up of a '72 tub with interior, motor, etc. from a '70.

Thanks,
Tom

Posted by: Spoke Jul 20 2017, 09:04 AM

The circuitry driving the "K" lead on your flasher relay is weak. The "K" lead drives one side of the tachometer turnsignal indicators. When the "K" lead gives up, both indicators flash at the same time with 1/2 intensity.

You need a new flasher or rewire the tach turnsignal indicators to ignore the "K" lead.

You can make a jumper shown below to connect the indicators to ground instead of the "K" lead. I had the same issue with my flasher and just rewired the indicators as shown.

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Posted by: Garland Jul 20 2017, 09:40 AM

This is a very common concern, great post!

Posted by: theer Jul 20 2017, 10:00 AM

Dang! The answer AND the fix AND pictures.

Pretty much perfect - thanks, Spoke.

Posted by: Tom_T Jul 20 2017, 11:22 AM

Tom,

In addition to the great fix post above by Spoke/Jerry, it is the "Silver Bullet" 70-73 gauges which used the dual TS indicators, then the later "Black Button" 74-76 gauge went to just one light.

It irked me to pay in the $20K range for our `88 Westy, & it still had that cheapo one TS indicator, as if VW couldn't afford 2 when they had several unused spare mini-lights in the Vanagon dash!

You can get info on those types of what was when MY questions at p914.com (.org & .net), as well as other good stuff; & Jeff Bowlsby's websites are excellent resources too.

http://bowlsby.net/914/Classic/

http://bowlsby.net/914/WiringHarnesses/

http://bowlsby.net/914/CanAm/

http://bowlsby.net/914/PartsFS/

Jerry - 'tis the season to update your avatar to the Steelers!

Tom
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Posted by: Dave_Darling Jul 20 2017, 11:26 AM

I don't think this works on the 74+ cars. They only had the one indicator, and the wiring was rather different than the 70-73 cars. Note that some early-74 cars had the earlier style tach with two indicators, but since they only had the wiring to run a single, both were wired to blink at once.

--DD

Posted by: theer Aug 20 2017, 08:45 PM

Finally got around to doing the fix today.

Works like a charm.

Thanks, Tom