89 Fifth Ave: Right Turn signals illuminate but don’t flash

Camtron

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On the drive home tonight, I noticed my right turn signal was just staying lit up and not flashing. Left side works fine as a turn signal should. Is it just the flasher relay under the dash that controls the turn signals flashing or is there also a relay/flasher in the turn signal assembly itself that could be faulty? All turn signal bulbs are good and both sides were working like normal earlier today. Any ideas?
 
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Camtron

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Flasher was the answer

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Aspen500

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That's weird. Usually a bad flasher won't flash either direction. I'd guess the left side lights and circuit have more resistance in the ckt which was enough to make the bimetal spring in the flasher heat up enough to operate where the right side didn't QUITE have enough to get a marginal flasher to operate. Just a guess though.
 

Camtron

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That's weird. Usually a bad flasher won't flash either direction. I'd guess the left side lights and circuit have more resistance in the ckt which was enough to make the bimetal spring in the flasher heat up enough to operate where the right side didn't QUITE have enough to get a marginal flasher to operate. Just a guess though.
You’re 100% spot on in your guess
 

Aspen500

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That's one of many things about "our cars" vs the new ones. If the signals don't work, it's fairly easy to diagnose. On new cars,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,it could be the switch, the BCM, a wiring problem, a fault in the module communications network, one bulb with too much or too little resistance so the module has a hissy fit, etc, etc on and on. Don't even get me started on it if the car has LED lights...………………..I love my job, I love my job, I love my job......LOL
 

78VOLAREWAG

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That's weird. Usually a bad flasher won't flash either direction. I'd guess the left side lights and circuit have more resistance in the ckt which was enough to make the bimetal spring in the flasher heat up enough to operate where the right side didn't QUITE have enough to get a marginal flasher to operate. Just a guess though.
Don't know the reason, but my 67 Rambler Rebel did the same thing.
 

Aspen500

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A conventional flasher is just a bimetal spring that heats up and bends, then cools and unbends to make and break contact. They require a certain amount of resistance in the circuit to heat up. The resistance is basically a controlled short to ground and think of the flasher as a circuit breaker. With too little resistance, the "short" isn't enough to cause the bimetal spring to get hot enough to open the contacts. That's why they flash fast when a bulb goes out. It doesn't heat up as much, so it doesn't have to cool off as long to close. The same type of thing is the circuit breaker in the headlight switch. If you ever saw a car where the headlights were going on and off, that was the cause. In that case, there really was a short circuit.
 
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