Guys, had a small problem with my Rebel wiring/fuse box flashers. This is not a bitch session as I am pleased overall with their kit and support. My wiring has been in the car for a year or more now and it started having a problem with one tail light not coming on or flashing at all when using the turn signals or 4 way flashers. I tried the old trick of twisting the tabs a little to force a better connection as suggested by Rebel a year ago. After doing some switching around of the 4 way flasher with the turn signal flasher I thought I had a bad flasher as the turn signals started working when I did this so I bought a new flasher and put it into the fuse box. When I did that I noticed that the new flasher (just a 2 prong simple one) sat lower in the socket in the fuse box than the original did by about a 1/4". When I checked the 2 tabs on the bottom of the new flasher I noticed it was a straight tab with no step or shoulder on the sides of them. The originals had steps on the sides of the tabs. Well after doing some experimenting I figured out the steps were preventing the original flashers from seating all the way in the socket and after driving the car for a while it must have loosened up and lost a good connection. Because I had already bought the new flashers I figured what the heck and cut the steps off the original flashers supplied by Rebel. I then put them back into the socket in the fuse box and voila! Turn signals work fine, 4 ways work fine, and all is right again. Except I now have a couple new flashers as spares, but thats not a bad thing. Anyway I thought this might help someone trouble shoot some of their issues in the same area. The pics below show the flashers with and without the step which I removed with a pair of right and left tin snips. They then show how much better it sits in the fuse box looking at it from on top of the fusebox. Will have to road test it for a while to determine if it is now more vibration resistant than before.
I'd tell the manufacturer of the wire harness, I doubt they know the problem exists. Thanks for posting what you found.
I wonder what the purpose of the step is. I imagine its a stop but the part that engages doesn't look overly long. Very odd. Faulty manufacturing? Chris
Probably to stand off the flasher to prevent a short circuit to the can. Maybe a better solution would be to reduce, not remove the step so that there is far less stand off.
A bit more to add to this story. Everything was working as it was supposed to until I went to move all the wiring and the fuse box back up under the cowl of my A. When I moved the plug at the base of the steering column the turn signal lights were again screwed up and my horn stopped working. After checking everything to see what was going on I determined the problem was inside the 2 plugs, the one from the Rebel harness and the one from the Speedway column. Wiggling the plugs I could make the lights work or fail, the horn work or fail, the four ways work or fail, or all of them fail! I can't tell if it is bad terminals on each wire, the connectors themselves, or what exactly, but the solution was to remove both plugs and use individual connectors for the 8 wires that were run into the plugs previously. Everything is back in place and working properly again. Hopefully permanently this time. Just a note. The flasher bottoms are a circuit board material so I suspect sitting deeper in the socket doesn't present any increase in the probability of a short as the wires are directly under it near the circuit board bottom. Also one of the new flashers has a plastic non metallic can on it which should also alleviate that worry.
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