I just finished putting turn signals in my '48 International KB-1. The truck is still 6V positive ground. I used an Arrow 286 signal switch. Everything works perfectly except for the indicator light on the switch. I have the pilot light hooked to the "P" terminal on the signal flasher. Power is hooked to the "X" terminal, the wire to the switch is hooked to the "L" terminal. The light barely illuminates, it's incredibly dim. I tried running a jumper wire from the bulb base to a good ground with no change and tried a different bulb. What am I missing here? (Yes, I used a 6V flasher and have a 6V bulb in it)
Dim usually means bad ground or bad connection as in corroded. That the light comes on solves the major problem but now you have to figure out why it is dim. How is the housing of the switch grounded? are there any suspect looking connections in the wires that feed that pilot light?
It may be a neon lamp, and there's several reasons it could be dim. One, if powered by DC, only half of the lamp lights up, and if the unlit half is blocking the lit half, it will appear dim. Two, as neon lamps age, they can get a 'coating' on the inside of the lamp which reduces their brightness. Neon was/is pretty commonly used for indicator lamps because they have a long service life, but it's not indefinite.
Thanks for the tips so far, but it's a standard 6V bulb. I'm using the same ones in the gauge lights and they're plenty bright. I tried running a jumper wire from the bulb base to a good ground with no change either.
Did you try swapping in one of the gauge lamps? This..."I tried running a jumper wire from the bulb base to a good ground with no change either"...if you have jumped both poles of bulb with no change, I would start suspecting that it's a 12v bulb that got wrong marking or wrong box at the bulb works.
Another flasher didn't fix it. I ended up wiring 2 diodes to the wires for the front turn signals, tied the positive ends of them together and ran that wire to the indicator. Works great now!
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