Oliver wrote,
>The hazard lights didn't work when I bought the car 7 months ago, so I have no
>hints as to the cause. I bought a new switch (the one that's coming out of
>the dashboard) and plugged it in, but still no hazard lights. The regular
>left--right indicators work fine. Only additional clue: when one indicator is
>on and I pull the hazard light switch, then the indicator stops flashing.
Oliver,
I would check the hazard flasher unit just to be sure, but it sure sounds
like you have a short somewhere. I had a similar problem on my 74 Spitfire.
My indicators and reverse lights are basically connected behind the
firewall. For the longest time my reverse lights never worked, and I noticed
that if I had an indicator on and reversed the indicators stopped. I never
though much about it for about a year (too lazy and too many other things to
fix), but one day I worked on it and found that I had a short right at one
of the reverse lamps. Basically, when I flipped into reverse the lights
wanted to work, but because of the short the power couldn't get to the light
plus everything else in that circuit went there, hence the indicators
stopping. I also noticed that the reverse light wire was really hot (good
thing I never drove in reverse for long periods of time). Your problem
sounds like the same sort of thing is happening. I would look for the short
at the each of four bulbs, the switch, or the flasher unit, hopefully you
can find it there. If you don't have any diagnostic equipment now it the
time to invest, at least in one of the little test lights jobs.
Hope this helps,
Jim Cullen
1974 Spitfire, British Racing Green aka "Jade"
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