Hi all,
Been awhile since I've been around. I sent this question to Speedy Jim but thought I would run it past all of you for input. Thanks Buggrn 74.
I have an electrical question for you. First a little history. :-)
Since buying my 74 super beetle, the turn signal indicator light has not worked. The flasher worked and the lights worked but not the indicator light. I finally decided to see what was going on and took the speedo out and checked all the lights and general clean-up. I marked all the wires "as they we connected". All the lights in the speedo were good so I just cleaned up the connections and put everything back together.
The one thing that I did notice is that the compartment that contains the turn signal, oil, and charge indicator light is made of plastic and the metal plate on the back did NOT have a ground wire to it. This seemed odd to me and as I suspected I could not get the lights to light until I manually grounded the metal plate itself. (On the test bench)
Back in the bug, I couldn't get the lights lit either. So I took the light socket out of the holder and grounded it manually and the light lit. But when I ran a ground to the plate and connected everything up and turned on the ignition, the light flashed very rapidly and the flasher unit (of course) clicked very rapidly. When I turn on a turn signal the lights and the flasher operate normally. When I turn the signal off, it resumes the rapid flashing. If I disconnect the ground everything still operates except I have no indicator light again. I have run the ground from several different locations and have pulled the flasher. When I test the flasher with a multimeter I have continuity to all three posts all of the time. I even took the flasher cover off and operated the breaker points inside manually and still have continuity between the three poles. This is a relatively new flasher (2001) but still could be bad. But I suspect a short somewhere. Maybe the turn signal switch? Any advice would be great.
Sorry about the long explanation.
Thanks for you help
Rog