I have an early 1981 car that is a bit of an oddball. It seems
to have many of the traits of both the early and the late
W123s. Unfortunately, it has the flasher driver in the console
switch from the early series.
Last winter when the car was cold the turn signals would flash
fast but would return to a normal rate as the flasher warmed
up. By spring it would flash so fast when cold it was more of
a buzz and the light would appear dim 'cause it was too fast
for the lamps to turn on and off.
Well, it got worse. As of a few weeks ago, in the summer
heat, it never slowed down. And I'm too cheap to pay
even Rusty's prices. Last I checked it was about $90.
I figure it was just an aging capacitor - but I had to get to
it. Don't try this unless you are comfortable with small
parts and a very fiddly re-assemble!
Taking it out of the car was easy. I also have a broken
"spare". It is internally different, but interchangeable.
On both, the case is two parts snapped together. Bending 30
year old plastic to unsnap the case is aways an iffy
situation. Both of mine survived. Inside, the upper half
contains the toggle mechanism, loose return springs, and the
moving contacts part of the emergency switch. The lower half
has the fix contacts part of the emergency switch and the
circuit board - mounted solder side up.
On both, the board is mounted by solder to metal pieces that
are bonded to the plastic case usually at the external contact
pins. But which of the many solder pads need to be
de-soldered? On the one it was four, all along the edges.
The other it was two, one on the edge and one by the pilot
light hole in the middle. I'm guessing there are more
variations...
With the board out, the way was clear. One variation has one
capacitor, clearly labeled as "100 uf 10 V". The other
variation has two capacitors, one clearly labeled as "1 uf 63
V" and the other had text printed on top. "47|16" I took
that to mean 47 uf and 16 V.
NOTE: Only one of the three I saw had the polarity marked
on the circuit board - so make note of the polarity
makings on the capacitor as you remove it!!
I found suitable replacements in my junk box and replaced them
all. Most likely, the small one on variation two was not the
problem - but I didn't want to have to go though this process
again. Both variations were single-sided boards without
conformal coating so removing the old and installing the new was
about as easy as through-hole component replacement gets.
After re-soldering the hold-the-board-in-place joints it was
time to put the two halves of the case back together. This is
the fiddly part. The switch contacts extend beyond the case -
on opposite sides. The coil springs like to fall out. The
toggle catch arms try to fall out of place. With the case
pieces together - but _just_ before actually snapping them
together, I made sure the button would push. A number of
times it didn't, and I was glad I didn't have to flex the
plastic again to unsnap it. Once I got it snapped together, I
put the pilot light back in and took it out to the car.
Success!! Flasher speed of a usable rate! And my spare
works too - but it still is missing the red lens.
-- Philip
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
