No not a flasher from back in the 80's, a turn signal flasher relay.

My '94 Corvette's OEM flasher (Wagner 323) died. When I went to the auto parts store they sold me a Novita EL12, round and two terminals just like the Wagner unit. Installed it and it worked. Buttoned everything back together and went for a 'test' drive (any excuse right?)

Well, the turn signals work fine unless I step on the brakes. Then the turn signal lights in the dash go really dim. Is this Novita flasher at fault and I just need to find another Wagner unit or did I pull something apart when I was replacing the flasher relay?

Lee

 

Do the brake lites or turn signals dim? Does the flash rate change? Check the grounds.

 

Did a little more investigation with my wife in the drivers seat.

Front turn signals appear to work OK at all times.
Rear turn signals: all tail lights are on, both sides. Both filaments glow but very dimly. They so blink.
Rear brake lights: same as turn signals, all filaments glow but very dim.

Seems to me it must be a ground problem.
Checked the ground that is behind the trim panel under the shoulder harness mounting point on the passenger side. Everything is tight. Is there another ground closer to the tail lights?

I tried using a test cord to putting a ground on the metal rims edge of one of the tail light bulbs, but that did not help.


BTW, rear hatch lock works just fine - does it use the same ground as the tail lights?

 

One of the aftermarket Corvette suppliers like Corvette Central or Wilcox sells a wiring diagram. Or you can get a Factory Service Manual from Helm.

 

I hate it when I searching the forum message and there is a questions and a number of responses but then the OP never posts what finally fixed his problem. So to avoid that I'm updating my question.

After a number of months with the car sitting under the car covers, I finally found some time to work on this problem. I quickly discovered that there was no ground on the case of the tail light bulbs. Found the wiring diagram that should a large splice ganging all of the tail lights into one black lead. That lead goes forward to the C426 connector and then to the ground on the halo on the passenger side of the car.

Ground mounting was good and solid.

Remove more trim pieces and found the C426 connector. Opened the connector and found that it was very dirty inside?!?!?!? How did that happen?!?!?!

Cleaned the connector and check continuity to the ground bolt - Good.

Plugged it back together and check continuity to ground from the brass edge of one of the tail lights and found that it now goes to ground.

Put everything back together and took a happy drive in the car. Everything working correctly - well except for the SRC on the left rear shock

So Sherman is back in service!

Lee

 

Thanks for reporting back. Helps others.

Hope you get your shock fixed.