I've just replaced the blinker mechanism in the Byooik for the 3rd time. My original one finally went out a couple years back, and now I'm burnin thru new ones seemingly pretty quickly. The new ones are lasting 6 months, roughly. Doesn't matter if it's the "heavy duty" use or a plain (and very chintzy) metal one. They all do the same thing. They'll work for about 5 months, then I gotta start wiggling them around in the socket to get them to start clicking and blinking again. Then I have to take them out and clean the terminals on them before they'll work, and finally they just quit working period, no matter what I try. A visual inspection doesn't show anything burned out or missing. The Byooik is a 60 Buick LeSabre, original wiring (all in good shape), fresh bulbs front and rear. Nothing hacked up or modified. What the heck can I do to keep it from eating thru so many blinker clicky flashy doohickeymabobbers so quickly? Are there any really good 3-prong blinker cans still made/available?
If you live near any truckstops that work on big rigs ask the parts man for a heavy duty flasher.It will have a transparent case you can see its insides dont rember the part number but will cost close to 20.00 should get about 2 years or more out of it.You must turn a lot,maby use handsignals
Do you mean the terminals ie the terminals where it plugs in or the contacts? If the signals blink at the right rate and the blinker is failing at the switching contacts the signal bulbs may need to be sized down for wattage if possible. If you mean the plug in terminals are arcing up you might need to tease the wires out and "hard wire" the blinker relay, if the receptical offers poor contact to the relay.
What do think about hitting the junkyard and getting a genuine Made in the USA flasher from a 70's or so era car? I pulled one out of a Pinto in 87 or so. It's been working fine since 1993 when the car was first running.
I have a similar problem with the tail light fuse on my O/T driver. Have traced it to a failing crimp on the backside of the fusebox for one leg on this fuse. Causes the socket to heat, and eventually it somehow oxidizes the surface of the fuse prong. And the second I figure out how to resolder one wire in a loom of 100 with zero slack, gonna fix it right up. Put in a fresh fuse every 3 months, no problems. Let it go 5, and the taillights will get unreliable. But it's like you say, you can clean em and get it going again, but sometimes the 2nd or 3rd cleaning they just won't conduct reliably. Glad you wrote this thread actually, reminds me to change that fuse...... Maybe look a little harder at the condition of the connectors on your car. good luck!
Are you using 2057 bulbs? They are hotter brighter bulbs and could be the problem. Should take 1157 bulbs.
Sounds like the terminals in the fuse box are just too burnt to make a good connection. You might be able to pull the fuse box off of the firewall and pull the terminals out the back side to where you can do a decent job of sanding them. Then get some dielectric grease and put on the flasher terminals when you put it back in to prevent further oxidition.
If you wiggle it and it starts to work again for awhile, I'm gonna step out on a limb here and say its the socket the flasher plugs in to. You say the male spades on the flasher look good but what about the 40 year old female sockets inside that plug (that you can't see)? Probably loose or have some surface corrosion on them. Mark the wires going into that plug and make a little schematic so you know how it goes back together. Using a small pick depress the very small tangs on the connectors and pull the female sockets out of the plug (these tangs can be viewed down inside the plastic body of the plug, get a bright light and look in there, best viewed from the back of the plug if I remember right). Once you have the female connectors out clean them up, make sure they plug onto the male spade connector tightly, or better yet, go to an auto parts store and get some new ones and replace them. Or, bury your car in a leaky vault for 50 years
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