Anyone ever repair a car signal flasher?

[Tiberian Fiend]

I can't just buy a generic one for my '89 Taurus, unfortunately. It comes in a special case soldered to a board with a sound device. I'd have to buy one from the dealer for $35-50. I opened up a (standard) flasher I pulled from a '90 Taurus, and it's almost identical to the flasher board, save for one resistor, which has different colored banding. Would that make a difference? Should I try soldering it to the internal board of the '89 flasher unit?

 

[Lutiana]

I'd just replace the '89 unit with the '90 unit and see what happens.

 

[mikerm]

If that's the only difference, you probably could just try it. I would assume that the resister would have more to do with the flashing rate than anything.

 

[FishFinger]

Chances are they're the same, and the different resistor is just a minor variation from one batch to another. Car electrics are rarely very sensitive to small changes like that so I imagine it would work fine.

 

[Tiberian Fiend]

One of the sound device's solder joints was cracked, so I've soldered it up and the flasher has worked well so far *knocks on wood*. The circuit board is browned as though it has been getting too hot, so that's probably the issue.

 

[luckybob]

older flashers work by heating up a strip of metal. Its actually 2 different types of metal bonded together. When it gets hot it will bend and break the connection and make a little "snap" noise. once it gets cold, it will close the connection and start the process all over again. The bands on the resistor, determine its value. Change this and how much power flows to that metal strip gets and in turn defines how often it will cycle.

yours is a little more advanced, using capacitors and a relay, but the principle is the same.