GT6 Hazard Flasher woes

Hazard Flasher Switch Woes

I recently had a Hazard switch failure on my GT6, basically the switch internals were worn and locked up, this was a big problem as although I rarely use the hazard flashers it ended up shorting out the flasher relay so my indicators also failed.

A new switch was ordered along with both a new flasher relay and hazard flasher relay. Changing the Hazard switch on a MK2 or Mk3 GT6 is pretty fiddly, I removed the tacho for access but couldn’t get the switch to release in situ and also it was a struggle to see the connections. So I relented and removed the Speedo, disconnected the Choke Cable, removed the eyeball vent and pipe and de-installed the whole dash panel in front of the driver, in fact the centre dash panel had to be released too. I did leave the wipe switch in place as I didn’t have to completely remove the dash panel from the car.

Photos and notes were taken of the hazard flasher wiring and the faulty switch was then released.

I then installed the new switch and connected it up and also replaced both the hazard flasher and turn flasher. That’s when the problems really started! Although I had put the wires back in the same order it didn’t work. In fact I had the hazard flasher dash indicator light coming on constantly if the ignition was on and the indicators wouldn’t work at all!

My immediate thoughts were that I must have a faulty hazard flasher switch. So it was time to investigate. The factory workshop manual wasn’t great in that it had the connections on the wiring diagram but not the switch internal connectivity, so I worked out how it would connect and drew it up on an extract of the factory diagram.

Hazard Switch Connectivity Logic

Then I got my multimeter out and buzzed out the contacts. What then became apparent is that the front of the switch was upside down compared with the original. As the terminal numbers were a bit small for my eyesight I’d just connected it in the same way as the original switch rather than by terminal number. Armed with this knowledge I got the switch working when connected up. However the logo on the rocker is upside down with the point of the triangle facing downwards to get it to work properly with the on position being with the bottom of the rocker depressed.

Hazard switch contacts and rocker front new vs old

I did contact my supplier, James Paddocks and it turns out that all of their stock is the same! The brand on the box is SNG Barrett group who are Stag specialists, the same type of switch is also fitted to some Stags, TR6s, early Dolomites etc. The chances are that most of the recent stock at all the Triumph specialists is probably the same as they [probably all come from the same factory somewhere in the far east!  Yet another part to look out for a NOS item at autojumbles if you need decent quality I think!