JAVAG66's - How to Refurbish Your emergency flasher

Post by **jmartini** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 4:01 am

The following procedure was sent by JavaG66 - The procedure outlines step by step on how to refurbish your emergency flasher switch!

Preface

I was hooking up a new 9-pin flasher relay from Wolfsburg West and was checking it out to see if it worked as advertised. I had all the wires connected and then pulled out the red knob. The fuse immediately blew. My first thought was to blame the 9-pin black box(never my ability to follow instructions), but then I fiddled with the red knob and noticed that it didn’t pull out smoothly. I checked it with my VOM and found that when the knob is pulled out, the switch dead shorts to ground. Both terminals. Being the tinkerer that I am, I figured I couldn’t make it any worse off if I took it apart to see what was going on.

DISCLAIMERS & WARNINGS

If you have a switch like this one (picture 1) and want to resurrect it, you need lots of patience. The package may say 5 minute epoxy, but it still takes 24 hours to fully harden. You should be able to solder. A Dremel tool and all its accessories will be valuable as well as the skills of your most hated dentist. And you should know how to use some sort of continuity tester, such as a Volt-Ohm Meter. So here goes…

Of course, the first thing you must do is open the case up. Carefully drill the top of the two rivets away. Try not to remove any more metal than you have to in order to pull the brown bakelite part out of the metal part that the bezel threads into. Pictures 2 and 3 show what the case looked like after opening the switch up. Here’s what is wrong so far: In picture 2, the copper contact strip that remains on the stud should be secure in that slot directly across in picture 3. It shouldn’t be loose. As I was re-assembling this thing later on, that detail would be prove to be one of the more aggravating challenges of the whole adventure. For the switch to work, there must be electrical continuity between that copper contact strip and the pot metal case. This is the ground path for the “S” terminal, which tells the “-S” terminal on the 9-pin black box to flash everything.

In picture 4, you can see the part that actually slides in and out, completing the two circuits. That brass contact piece shouldn’t be pulled away from the bakelite. It is supposed to lay flat in that grove and be soldered to a round piece that is hidden under that smaller brass contact to the right, the one with the little pin poking through it. Fixing this part required careful re-bending, soldering, and glue.

Picture 5 is my attempt to annotate a picture. Even young eyes would have a hard time reading the type beyond those arrows. The top arrow points to a round insulator that separates the wide brass contact on the left from the narrow contact on the right, the one with the little pin poking through it. The bottom twin arrow points to the two contacts that must remain electrically isolated. It gets a bit tricky here. That left contact must be soldered to a round piece just under the insulator, and there can be no stray solder to bridge the gap between the two contacts. After I reshaped the bent contact, I glued it down with some epoxy and then soldered it. After the solder cooled, I dressed it up a bit with the Dremel tool. Check what you have done so far with the VOM. There should be continuity between the wide brass contact, the shaft of the switch, and one of the bulb contacts in the red knob. There should be continuity between the other bulb contact in the knob and the smaller switch contact with the little pin coming through it. If your tester sings with any other combination, check out your work to make sure solder doesn’t bridge the two contacts, or that something else has not gone wrong.Then I took a chance and filled the area between the two contacts with some epoxy putty. The kind I used was intended for woodworking applications, so I assume it did not have any metal in it. At any rate, it is easy to mix and work with. More Dremel tool work to square off the putty and polish the contacts.

A least a couple of days should have passed by since you first opened the switch up. Now you are ready to close it back up. Put it all back together and check it out with your VOM. If you are lucky, it will work as you expect and can move on to the next step. I wasn’t so lucky. I had a whole lot of trouble getting current to pass from the switch body contact to the grey metal part. I put a tiny washer on the stud that holds the contact. I squeezed really hard when holding the thing together to check it out. I reshaped the contact strips down in the bakelite body. Still there was no joy in VW land. After several attempts, I realized that even though the contact strips looked right, they were being pushed out of position when the shaft was pulled up. At this point I ran out of patience, put it back together and sealed it with some epoxy. The switch would work if when I pulled out on the knob, I eased it back in just a smidgeon from its outer most position. It doesn’t work with that satisfying snap, but it does work. It still has the same bulb in it as when I bought the car. I don’t know if this is a 6 or 12 volt bulb; it burns really bright, so it may have a short life. I ordered a 12v replacement from Wolfsburg West before I started tinkering with the switch and haven’t swapped them out to see the difference. I re-installed the switch in the dash and hooked up all the wires to the 9-pin box. It works! My 17 year old son is helping me work on the bug, and when he saw it flashing he said, “ Whoaaa! Dude! It looks like Christmas! Hopefully I will never actually need to use the hazard flasher, and now there is one less thing I need to do to bring this bug back into shape!

SeeBlauKafer · Post by **SeeBlauKafer** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:41 pm

Nice article! Thanks 'JavaGreen' and John for delving into that territory. It will be a while yet before I will get back around to that area of my car (I currently have no harness in it at all). And I've stocked up on the 'one year only' blue relay boxes so maybe I have at least one good one.

Regarding the bright bulb ... sounds like it's a 6-volt bulb if the car was converted to 12-volt and the bulb is burning brightly.

I have heard those bulbs are called 'wax bulbs' or similar? Not sure what that means exactly.

My 66's flashers have never worked. If you pulled the red knob it sounded like a sparrow was being electrocuted under the hood. Whenever I used to get my car inspected I would unscrew the red pull knob and place it in the ashtray. (Don't ask/Don't tell) Most inspection shops never knew 1966 was the first year for emergency flashers. hehehehe! Inspections are no longer required for any car older than 1970 in my state now.

Post by **jmartini** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 3:45 pm

Yep - a bad blue box will sound just like a sparrow getting electrocuted --I've heard that sound before

elkluvadore · Post by **elkluvadore** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:51 pm

How long will a 6 volt light in the flasher last in a 12 volt system

Post by **jmartini** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:50 am

I don't think it will - I think the 12 volts will blow the bulb.

elkluvadore · Post by **elkluvadore** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:48 pm

dang, another thing on the list for the 12volt wiring

bill hauck · Post by **bill hauck** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:23 pm

I also have a 66 converted to 12v with a "quite bright" flasher.

Is there some way to replace the bulb if and when it burns out????

Post by **jmartini** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:50 pm

12 volt replacements are available through Wolfsburgwest.com according to JavaG66

elkluvadore · Post by **elkluvadore** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:12 pm

How longs that lasted for you???