'72 Turn Signal Saga -- A Rookie Takes on the 'Trons

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Maintenance Restoration and Repair
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Aloha Again!

Sorry for my absence. It was a busy end of year and, while the COUGAR’s transmission seems to be OK, there was no way I was going to pass inspection with the turn signals not always working. After perusing the forum and a few other resources, I decided it was the flasher can. This prompted my question, “What is a flasher can?” The shop manuals seem to assume anyone with shop manuals possessed that knowledge, so I cross-referenced the part with e-Bay and the price was prohibitive at the time. In the meatime, I engaged in contortionist activities as time allowed to find the flasher can.

Flash forward to this last week…In a fit of inspiration, I went to O’Reillys. I bought this.

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Today’s COUGAR yoga uncovered the flasher…
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…which, while smaller than the one I bought, was rated for the same voltage and fit the pins. All went well, I went to start the car and found the battery had died since I gave it a run last month. Schimpf…

The battery is charging, and I will give an update tomorrow.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Eric

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Update:

Lefthand turn signal worked. Center light on the righthand side is not working. It may be out or loose. This one has alwasy given me grief!

Eric

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Update:

Working on the theory I might of had a bad bulb or a bad socket, I swapped the bulb with the one in the outboard socket. The whole thing works! Odd…Maybe something was just loose?

Now to schedule the inspection before the next failure!

Thanks for letting me document my thoughts and troubleshooting here!

Eric

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Sometimes problems like this can be caused by loose or bad grounds, sockets not seated fully in the housing or worn contact nubs on the bulbs.

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Thanks!

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Aloha All!

The COUGAR passed her annual safety inspection, so she is street legal again! Thanks for all your help on this! The mechanic did note a few things we might want to work on this year as we try to keep her on the road. You can expect a note or two when we get to that!

Thanks so much for all your time!

Eric