The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Jon Tilson wrote:Ok be systematic.

Put it all back as it was with bulbs at the front, old flasher units rear led bulbs etc - get it working.
Then change one thing at a time...indicator flasher unit first probably. The new flasher units SHOULD be load independent.
Then try the hazard flasher, which often suffers from a dirty switch contact as its hopefully seldom used.
Just pull it in and out a few times...

A duff feed from the hazard switch can take out the lot.

You have to do this sort of thing from a known working starting position and then change 1 thing at a time and confirm it works
as expected.

Jonners

Cheers Jonners. Good advice. I'll try that later this evening.
I noticed the original flasher unit was 2 lug and the electronic ones 3, with their own earth. I presume this won't be part of the problem?
Anyway, I will do as you suggest, thanks.

As Jonners suggested. I wired the original indicators back up and fitted the original flasher units. Result = everything working.
I then changed the original flasher unit for the new one. Nothing. No light on the dash, no indicators.
The units are marked CF13. I can't imagine they are faulty, maybe just the wrong type. I have just found that there is a CF14 too, which has the terminals in a different position.
Should I just pay another tenner to test the CF14's ?.....

The electronic flasher units have 3 connections. The coloured ones fit in place of the original connections and the black one needs a separate earth. My electronic flasher unit is wired this way and it works perfectly. I'm still on the original hazard warning flasher unit which I believe will still work with LED bulbs (4 LED bulbs should have enough resistance for it to work normally).

I have now tried replacing one flasher unit in turn.
I can't tell which unit is for the indicators, and which is for hazards as I don't actually have a hazard switch wired in.
So, with the original indicators;
I get nothing with both electronic units fitted.
If I change one of the units over, it works.
If I change the other it doesn't.
Later, I will remove the original indicators again and wire in the LED's with the one working electronic unit. Maybe it will all be okay with just the one electronic......

alolympic wrote:I have now tried replacing one flasher unit in turn.
I can't tell which unit is for the indicators, and which is for hazards as I don't actually have a hazard switch wired in.
.....

I see from your avatar the car is essentially a (very nice ) Toledo. Now I don't have the wiring diagram for the Toledo but I assume its the same as the <15,000 Dolomite.
If so, then if the Hazard light switch is missing the indicators won't work as the OFF position on the hazards provide the current path for the indicators via an extra set of contacts.
Of course the Toledo wiring may be different.

I looked at the CF13 and CF14 advert on E-Bay and the only difference is that the switched contacts are reversed.
These electronic flasher units do appear to be polarity sensitive on the load side.

It looks like the "L" terminal ( the one that is horizontal when viewing the writing on the side) goes to a good earth.
The terminal labelled " B | + " with the vertical tag looks like the positive side of the load. I think this should go to the Light green and slate-grey tracer wire for the indicators and to the Purple wire for the hazard flasher.
And the vertical tag one labelled " - |E " I reckon should go to light green and white tracer wire for the indicators .
Is this what their suppled wiring diagram says ?
Essentially these units are designed as after market plug-in flasher units for moderns. Hence the 2 different versions with the opposite polarity.
HTH,
Tony.

When a K plate Toledo was made originally it would not have had a hazard setup.
But I think you have a Sprint dash in yours? In which case it will have the wiring for it in the dash loom. The hazard flasher is the larger
of the two flasher units.

if you look up behind the dash or unscrew it and pull it forward you will find a bunch of black wires joined to an earth point. You can run a wire
from the flasher earth to this, or any other convenient screw point of the dash frame and it should then work.

Then you can try the different LED bulbs...one at a time of course.

Jonners

Sorry guys, I'm getting confused again.
Yes, I have a Dolly loom. Yes, I removed the indicator switch and have still had working indicators for the last 5 years. The 2 previous flasher units are identical in size and terminals. I do not know which is which.
The one electronic unit and original electromagnetic combo is now working with the original indicators. I have now just removed the original RH indicator again and run the wiring to the new LED to see if it works.
Nope. Neither the front or rear LED now lights up. The dashboard light comes on, but does not flash. The other indicators flashes fine.
The wires for the LED are so thin, it is difficult to guarantee a connection with the original loom. I am now wondering if the wiring is just too poor on the LED.....

This is sort of what I would expect. An LED has a much higher "resistance" than a bulb, so draws a lot less current which is what is needed
by your old style flasher unit to click on and off as it heats up. No current = cant heat up = wont flash.....staying on all the time and dash lights staying on?

The new style electronic flasher unit will pulse volts at a given frequency independent of current and so will light your bulbs or led's the same.

So get it working with the old flasher unit with bulbs...then wire up the new style electronic unit with bulbs and get it flashing - THEN swap the
bulbs for LED's and I suspect you will have a result.

An old style indicator unit is a rectangular box about 1cm deep. The old style hazard unit is about 1/2 inch deep. If you have a hazard flasher
instead of an indicator one it will flash far too fast on 2 bulbs.

Jonners

AlanH wrote:

I want to remove the front indicator units.

That would make room for fog lights.

There's plenty of room for front fog lights inboard of the front direction-indicator & side-light lamp unit. I fitted a pair of pendant-mounted, 180 mm (i.e. 7 inch) diameter Lucas 20/20 Homofocal "Rally" fog lamps, to a steel plates welded across the underside of the front-bumper brackets, of my 1974 Triumph Toledo 1300. They are supurb!