So ... in the fine tradition of talking to myself (looking at you, Dazz) I couldn’t remove the last screw on the driver’s crash pad without removing the dash end panel, so I settled for popping the press studs on the black and white felt upholstery and removing the floppy useless crap anyway.
That gave me enough room to sit upside down in the reclined driver’s seat and set eyes on the flasher unit. At this point I was ready to tap each of its 3 pins and locate a steady 12V when activated.
But then (cue the dramatic music) it dawned on me why the flasher fuse was always live!
The reason the left, right and hazard circuits all work off the same flasher is because it is activated by a switched load, not supply.
Essentially, there is no steady voltage for a flashing state anywhere in the car.
So, with the felt lining removed from the pedal area, changing to an electronic flasher later is a bit easier without having to remove the crash pad, and I’ll go back to thinking up how to get daytime amber flashing.
There was mention on an auto electrician’s website of the effect I’m experiencing and the solution is to replace the 6 ohm loads with 3 ohm loads ‘to drain stray voltage more quickly’ but that would double blinking ballast current from 2 amps to 4, when what I prefer is to eliminate ballast altogether.
The adventure (on paper) continues while I have my DRLs back to blinking white in the daytime.
