As usual, Dick is brilliant and well-spoken on the matter.
I'd love to add a few finer points to his post:
What Dick refers to as "turn illumination bulbs" are perhaps better known as
cornering lights, and on the '67s they light up steady (not flashing) whenever
the turn signal and either the parking lights or headlamps are switched on.
(In fact, if you have the key off but the parking lights on, you can make the
cornering light come on even though the turn signals will not.)
To clarify David's question, the fender-mounted indicators have their own
bulbs on all trim levels. They do use something of a "fiber-optic" effect as
he describes, being big solid hunks of orange plastic, but the light does
indeed come from a dedicated bulb inside each fender. The white cornering
light is contained within its own housing and should not be able to bleed
light upward through the fender.
And as for the load on the relay, the '67s not only use 3 rear lamps but they
also use both filaments (dim and bright) of the bulbs in the front bumper. I
don't know why, but the '67 front turn signals use dual-filament bulbs whose
wiring is jumpered together right behind each lamp. Since the parking lamp is
exclusively in the big beautiful white lamp in the fender, I can only imagine
why the bumper-mounted lamps got dual-filament bulbs. But it's something to
keep in mind if one of your front turn signals seems dimmer than the other...
that would indicate that the bright filament is burned-out and the bulb needs
replacing.
For the record, my car seems to have its original flasher, and it does not
appear to be a heavy-duty type.
OK, enough on this subject for me. Hope it helped someone diagnose their car!
Chris in LA
67 Crown
78 NYB Salon
On Wed, 24 Jul 2002 21:22:37 -0700 Dick Benjamin <DickB@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
All 67s and all 68s are identical in this respect.
The fender top mounted indicators (amber in color) are wired to flash in
time with the front bumper mounted turn signals, which are also amber.
The large white lenses contain the turn illumination bulbs, which light up
brightly during the time that BOTH the turn signals and the headlights (or
parking lights?) are turned on, but they do not flash.
In the case of the 68s, there are louvered chrome grilles over the large
white lenses, but the function is the same.
The rear turn signals use the stop light filaments (not the "tail lamps"),
and if the turn signal switch is functioning correctly, the rear turn signal
lamps will flash in time with the fronts on the appropriate side, while the
other side of the rear lights continue to function as brake lights.
On our boxcars with the "wall to wall" rear lights, and when everything is
working right, the flasher has to operate 4 - 32 CP bulbs plus 2 smaller
bulbs (this is on a 67; while on a 68, there are only 3 - 32 CP plus the two
smaller ones) on the circuit.
The normal load sensitive el-cheapo flasher would be overloaded, thus the
car really should have a heavy duty flasher installed. The heavy duty
flasher is insensitive to load, and will flash whether or not all the bulbs
are working. I suppose it is possible to have a load sensitive flasher so
hair triggered that it will flash with 4 32 CP bulbs plus the two smaller
ones, and somehow know to stop when one of the filaments burns out, but I
rather doubt it. Those who have lesser Mopars with a smaller number of
large bulbs running off the turn signals probably do have light duty
flashers; this will cause the flasher to stop sequencing if one burns out.
Anyone who has followed a 67 around a few corners at night will know what
"wall to wall" taillights means!
Dick Benjamin
----- Original Message -----
From: David A. Barker <d_barker@xxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 1:55 PM
Subject: Re: IML: Fender Mounted Turn Signal
> Is this a difference between a Crown and my standard sedan? The only turn
> signal indicators I have are on my front fenders and all there is in a
> chrome housing is a piece amber plastic that light from the cornering
> light shines into and lets you see it when it gets dark enough outside.
>
>
> Dave
> 67 haze green sedan
> Covington, Wa.
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