Everyone on this list has been super with suggestions on getting (and
keeping!) my LBC on the road, and I thought I'd pass on my experiences of the
past weekend.
As I waited for my parts to get Mrs. Peel's brakes fixed I decided to tackle
some of the electrical problems, one of which was the lack of operating
hazard flashers. (Not that I need them... Only when the clutch goes and I
can't shift, or when the brakes fail, or...) Anyways, after poking around the
wiring with an ohmeter / voltmeter I found that the flasher units seemed to
be just fine. AAR, no voltage was getting to where it should have been when I
flipped the switch. Ergo, the switch was bad. FWIW, this is the flip kind of
switch, not the pull type.
(As an aside, I noticed that Bentley's manual has two wiring diagrams for
1972-74 TR6's, one on the front of the book, possibly from the owner's
manual, and one in the Electrical section. Both are different... Back to the
story.)
I finally wrestled the hazard switch out of the dash and found that it's an
unbelievably simple switch! So simple that it's easy to take apart (and put
back together). It's plastic, and the top of the switch pops right off. It
turns out that all of the electrical parts of the switch are made of copper.
Copper tends to oxidize over time, and all of the contacts were heavily
oxidized. Probably because no-one had used the flashers in a long time. AAR,
I used a pencil-type typewriter eraser to clean off all of the oxidation on
the contacts and on the little copper dumbbell that actually shorts the
contacts, and lo and behold I have operating flashers! To be on the safe side
I applied a light coating of WD40 to try to help control future oxidation. By
rights the contacts should have been gold plated, but that would have made
too much sense (and cost too much) for Lucas to contemplate.
Bruce Krobusek
Rochester NY
tinyhost@aol.com
'83 R80RT
'72 TR6
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