Back to the Electrical Drawing board (89 245 Flasher Unit)

My flasher unit supplies me with entertaining 'Ghost' clicks. The
flasher unit works perfectly when either the blinkers or hazards are
engaged but during rest it intermittently clicks all by itself. This
morning I pulled the rear headliner and disconnected the two wiring
harnesses leading into the tailgate, sure that this would cure the
problem but no luck. I have replaced the flasher unit and hazard
switch, cleaned all fuses and a lot of grounds. Can anyone point me in
another direction since apparently the tailgate harnesses are not to
blame either.

Thanks, Danny.

 

Hello again Danny,

Apopolgies all for top posting it seems appropriate this time.

You are having fun aren't you, I'd bet your very fed up with seeing behind
that centre console now!!
The amount of testing you've done so far is directing the process of
elimination to the unsavoury area of the seatbelt warning system unless
anyone else knows better, I think there is only one easy definitive way of
testing for this causing your problem, but, it does involve interfering with
some more wiring, it's as follows:- from terminal 49a on the flasher there
should be three yellow wires, two of them go to the front seats, the other
goes the indicator stalk switch, then back to the hazard switch, if you are
confident enough, pry at the small catch which releases the yellow bunch of
wires from the relay plug, and remove the yellow wires from the plug,
reconnect the relay to the plug; you need to then separate all three yellow
wires from the previously freed spade connector, strip a small amount of
insulation from the end of each; turn on your hazard light switch, at this
point nothing should be flashing, touch each of the yellow wires in turn
back to terminal 49a (through the hole in the plug), one of them will cause
the flashers to start working, this is the important one to reconnect back
properly (you should be able to figure a way) to 49a; one of the other
yellow wires should cause the seat warning lamp to flash (assuming LHD with
no one currently in the passenger seat), put a label on this wire to the
effect that it's for the drivers seat, the other yellow wire, if there is a
passenger seated (seatbelt unclipped), should also cause the seatbelt
warning lamp to operate, also label this wire for future reference.
Leaving the two seatbelt wires disconnected, but insulated, re-assemble
things to your satisfaction, try a short drive somewhere (after checking
your flashers still work ok!), if your flasher relay is now behaving itself,
then celebrate, if it isn't, then the only other thing I can think might be
causing this problem would be an unstable or 'dirty' supply voltage from
your alternator, though this is extremely unlikely, it's fixable by changing
the voltage regulator, other than this I'm now officially stumped, unless
there is some third party electronics, such as an alarm somewhere attached
to the indicator wires, but it would have to be very faulty to cause this.

TTFN, Ken

 

Thanks for your help Ken

And yes, I am having fun, I love a puzzle. I went out to do as you
instructed and found only a single yellow wire coming off terminal
49a. I hunted around for some homeless, cut yellow wires from a
possible previous attempt at this repair but to no avail. In looking
through the wiring diagram I came up with two other plans. The easy
one seems to be taking out the seatbelt warning bulbs which woul cut
out most of those circuits (with the exception of the wire running
from terminal 49a to the bulbs themselves. the more difficult but
slightly better option seems to be disconnecting terminal 49a and
running a jumper from it straight to the direction indicator switch.

What do you think?

Danny

 

Check the ground in the steering column

--
"*-344-*Never Forgotten"
Is for the New York City Firemen who lost their lives on September 11,2001.
The official count is 343, but there was also a volunteer who lost his life
aiding in the initial rescue efforts. And I will never forget them as long
as I live,
nor should any American.
"Mow Green"

 

Thanks, the ground on the steering column looks good!

Danny