This should be so simple- I don't know what I'm missing. Here's the hardware: Older EZ wire harness with separate turn and hazard flashers that plug into sockets on the fuse panel. Flashers are the 2-prong type. The turn signal switch is the old Signal-Stat type add on. I have no documentation on the panel: it was in the car when I got it. The signals work fine, but I couldn't hear the flasher clicking so I'd end up driving around with them on all the time. I got a little 12V buzzer (2-wires: red and black) at Radio Shack and wired it in the power feed line between the flasher and the signal switch. The signals still worked, but no noise from the buzzer. So I kept the red power wire to the buzzer tapped in between the flasher and the signal awitch, and put the black wire from the buzzer to ground. Now the buzzer pulses on and off as it should, and the signals still work, but the buzzer doesn't turn off when you aren't using the signals. Constant buzz. WTF! BTW I plugged in a different flasher and got the same result... Seems to me there should be no voltage between the flasher and the switch except when the signals are on, but there it is, and everything otherwise seems right. I know it'll turn out to be something stupid, but I'm stumped.
Does the current flow through the flasher then to the signal switch, that would make the flasher power always hot.
Yeah, but I'm tapped in between the flasher and the switch, so I woulda thought at that point it would pulse. It is as if the power is going through the switch first, then on to the flasher, but that doesn't make sense to me.
Flasher is always hot, just waiting for a ground. That is where the switch comes in. Tap it into the wiring after the switch. That way it turns off with the signals.
All right then. But I'm still missing something. You usually don't use a separate flasher for each side. It seems to me the way I did it first { QUOTE: I got a little 12V buzzer (2-wires: red and black) at Radio Shack and wired it in the power feed line between the flasher and the signal switch. The signals still worked, but no noise from the buzzer. [/QUOTE]} should have worked. Is it because it is a 2-prong flasher? Would a 3-prong with a separate ground have worked?
Doh- I don't need a flasher for each side, I need a buzzer for each side, but I know I've done this with 1 flasher and 1 buzzer before, and it seems like the flasher was a 3 pronger...
Yes : we have no bananas !! You need a 3 wire flasher , hook the buzzer to the "P" pilot terminal . Will only be hot when turn signals are flashing.
I can't answer your question without seeing it but I'd use a voltmeter or test light if thats all you got to findout whats going on.Electrical stuff is hard to work on if your guessing.
One side of your flasher unit is connected to the ignition terminal of your ignition switch, the other side goes to the turn signal switch. You have the PIEZO buzzer attached to the turn signal switch side of the flasher. The flasher is simply a bi-metal strip that when hot disconnects the hot terminal of the flasher from the turn signal side terminal. So when the turn signal is in the off position there is still 12V at the turn signal switch side of the flasher, therefore your buzzer will make noise. Try hooking the buzzer up this way: Red wire to hot side of flasher, black wire to turn signal switch side of flasher. This should do what you want.
You are right. The third terminal on the flasher is intended for use with a single dash indicator light (same light comes on for both left and right turn). The buzzer would function, instead of a light, in this application.
DING DING DING! you are correct for this senario. On the three pronged flasher the P terimanl was for the lamp(single) in the dash that flashed opposite time the signals. Connecting the red wire from your buzzer to it and the black to ground would make it buzz just as the light would have flashed in the dash.
The three prong flasher was the winner. FWIW: Connecting the buzzer across the terminals of the 2-pronger did not work. Thanks for all the suggestions. Also, for the benefit of anybody who reads this whilst trying to solve their own flasher mystery: Don't ask me how I know, But you can cause yourself a lot of frustration and wasted time if you hook up the power feed (marked X) and load (marked L) prongs of the flasher backwards. I said don't ask me how I know...
If everything else fails, roll down the window and stick your arm out.....but nobody will probably know what your doing!!
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