Identify these flasher units please

[Evante]

I am in the process of rewiring my dash with a new wiring harness. My car is a 72 Federal Sprint and, of course, the wiring harness is for an S4. As many of you know, there is no wiring diagram for a Federal Sprint. I have been trying to make sense of the flasher and hazard circuits and have come across three different flasher units. Could someone please lend a hand and identify which each of these flasher units are and what they control?

Many thanks,

Jay S.

[1owner69Elan]

According to Robinshaw:

The middle one (35048A) is the indicator flasher.

Of the other 2, I think one should not be used (headlight flasher relay) for a Federal car. The other would be the hazard flasher.

I had a vestigial flasher in my car as well (S4 Federal). Factory didn't bother to remove it from Federal cars, I believe.

[Evante]

Do you know which one is the headlight flasher and which is the hazard flasher?

Jay S.

[1owner69Elan]

I converted to LED compatible flashers on my S4. Don't entirely remember which original relays were used where. On my S4 only the metal can matches what you have. The other square ones must be Sprint specific.

An old post denoted the metal can as for the hazards. I see that it was wired up in your photo, with leads (if the color coding was kept) to the indicators. Was your car as originally wired?

If it has been modified, it's possible even the headlight flasher function was activated even though not a Federal standard.


Maybe someone with a Federal Sprint can shed further light (no pun intended) on this.

[p.faurie]

If I remember correctly, 8fl is a hazard lamp unit, the round one is the indicator unit on my uk spec +2 hope this helps

[Bigbaldybloke]

My Plus 2 has the round one as indicator flasher, doesn?t have hazard flasher so cant help with that.

[Evante]

Thank you all. This is helpful.

The can was wired but there were many problems with the wiring. The PO made a number of modifications and there were melted wires, so I decided to rewire with a new loom. Unfortunately, I find myself having to make modifications to the new loom as it seems to be for an S4 not a Federal Sprint.

I am learning more about wiring than I thought I would ever need to.

Best,

Jay S.

[Bigbaldybloke]

It helps to make yourself a crib sheet of all the wire colour combinations and what they are used for, remember brown/white is not the same as white/Brown, and they do use both. You?ll get to learn them quite quickly!

[denicholls2]

Maybe someone with a Federal Sprint can shed further light (no pun intended) on this.[/quote]

Not a Federal Sprint, but Federal Europas (1969 Federal Type 54 S2) have all flashers including headlight operational, don't know why Elans would be different. 1969 Spitfires had operational headlamp flashers too, unlike lens colors and side indicators, I don't believe there was any law against flashing headlamps.

[1owner69Elan]

I don?t remember what the Federal laws were back in 69 when I bought my Elan, but the functionality on my car was (and is) certainly not there. In fact Lotus inserted a block of wood in the switch to remove the flasher movement. Not a DPO but the factory! Whether this was retained on other years I don?t know, but other threads have also noted this high-tech ?Lotus wood? in the switch before.

As far as current US regulations regarding headlight flashing it varies by state, not an overall Federal law: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlig ... hards_10-2

Not always legal.

[types26/36]

In fact Lotus inserted a block of wood in the switch to remove the flasher movement..

The early cars had a piece of wood inserted into the dip/hi beam switch but this was to block off one function and make it into a two position switch (its original function was a three position switch) as it was originally an indicator switch but Lotus used it as a dip switch.
I have not seen an Elan with a flasher switch as the function was taken care of with the "flashing headlight system" but it would be pointless to have a flasher function in the switch as the headlights would have to be raised first and the h/lights would then be flashing anyway.
I still have one of those switches with the wood in it, they worked ok but eventually the wood would fall out and there was a spare position on the dip switch which did nothing.