DeTomaso Mailing List: April 2000, Message #192

John wrote:

>The turn signals on my car do not work.  The switch
stays up or down but no blinking light.  Any
suggestions as to where I need to look first?

>>>Well, first of all, consider yourself lucky that the switch itself is 
still working.  That's what usually conks out over time, and that's big $$$ 
to replace.

When your turn signals go belly-up, the typical problem is either a burned 
out bulb (amazingly, losing one lamp in the circuit is enough to screw up the 
whole thing), or more likely, a toasted turn signal flasher.  You know, the 
clicka clicka clicka thing under the dash.  It's got a bimetallic chingus 
inside that rapidly heats and cools, and moves around and makes and breaks 
contact, resulting in the aforementioned clicka clicka clicka and the 
resultant flashing of lights.

When that thing dies, it never makes contact, hence you lose your clicka 
clicka clicka.  Sometimes they die slowly; I had a problem on the 427 Cobra 
where my turn signal would work until I stepped on the brakes, then the turn 
signal would simply illuminate and stay on with the brake pedal, when I 
released the pedal it would resume normal ops.  That was because the flasher 
was in the process of croaking.  It still did the job under no-load 
circumstances, but when the added drain of the brake lights was introduced, 
it just coul na take ana more, Jim!  Installing a new one with a higher 
rating solved the problem for about four bucks. :>)

Good news is, these things are fairly standardized.  Pull out your old one 
(located in a metal basket bolted to the underside of the dash ahead of the 
glovebox on Pre-L cars, and located in the relay panel behind the panel just 
ahead of the driver's door pillar on L-models), remember which wire goes 
where, then take it down to your local auto parts store.  The flashers come 
in all sorts of varients, different resistance levels etc., and some even 
incorporate a beeper or a more pronounced clicka clicka clicka mechanism to 
prevent you from driving for 50 miles with your turn signal on, should you be 
prone to doing that from time to time.

That's my best guess--electricity is all FM to me really...:>)

Mike