Thread: indicator switch smokin'

Originally Posted by happydad59

Working my way slowly thru the things that don't need too much money in the great s2a rebulid so I tested the indicators today. Indicator switch is an aluminium box "Tex Magna Ltd". Done all the wires carefully so I'm confident there are no shorts, but when I connected power today both blinkers lit up in centre position - all positions actually, then the switch started to smoke. I pulled it apart and there were no crossed wires, but the switch unit is a dark plastic box that I couldn't get apart. Is it possible to get this apart and service it or do I need a new one and if so are they available.? Lamdrovers in Vic only has S3 switch assemblies.

With the headache I had with the wiring on my 2a restoration it sounds like you have something earthing the unit incorrectly. Has it been rained on recently perhaps?

Thanks, I gave up entirely on the spaghetti that was the highly modified original wiring and have done everything from scratch, new wires everywhere following wiring diagram in Haynes manual. The truck is still on blocks in the shed so no water problems either. Will recheck the wiring to make sure, but I think it is inside. There was a thread on a similar problem on one of the UK forums and there they concluded shorts from crumbling Bakelite inside the black box. The box isn't designed to come apart but will with a bit of persuasion, looks like that's next.

Good luck!

They are pretty expensive items to replace and getting parts for them isn't too easy, either.

I have been outbid a number of times on eBay and the prices have been really silly - one, for example, sold for 215 pounds!

There are some sites in Thailand and Cyprus who have bits (and I believe the Cyprus site has a complete unit for sale) - at a cost...

The main advantage to those units over the other ones that were commonplace is that they have a 'return' feature that turns them off when the steering centres after the turn.

If I have to replace mine anytime in the future, I will put one of the more common ones in - it has a flashing light on the end of the stalk that will help tell me that the lights are still flashing

Maybe you could dismantle the unit and wire it up and see if the switch smokes?

I have one here and just had a look inside it,, it has a black/red trace wire for the unit turn light thats pinched between a green/white and green/red wires. if that has rubbed thru on the green terminals you may get a short between the wires if either green is anything other than power to each indicator. will upload a photo of what i mean tomorrow at work as this computer is crap

cheers Ian