VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Electrical - 6 volt 1953 turn signals

I don't believe they grounded that way originally, they had isolated sockets and were wired as shown in the diagram ruscar posted. I believe most if not all of them were that way from the factory, as it keeps coming up both on this forum and the AACA.


Well, I only made the comment about the flasher not being able to make one side different because you said:


The flasher cannot make one side behave differently because it comes before the switch. There has to be something else going on with your car because one side behaves differently. It can't only be the flasher.

The common issue with a modern flasher is behavior like your right signal, flashing both indicators. The difference is both right and left do it.

So to clear things up a little if I can, let's forget about the weird 53 dash indicator wiring for a moment. The old flasher's have 3 terminals. One terminal is connected to power, and one to the signal switch.

The third flasher terminal exists only to flash a dash indicator on a car with only a single dash indicator. The third terminal connects to one bulb, and the socket is grounded. Since there is only one dash indicator light, it needs it's own flasher terminal because there is no place to connect the bulb that would work for both right and left. Slightly older Chevys that had the "Guide 6004" switch worked this way.

Here is how the signals work. The flasher always has power (at least with the key on). When you turn on a signal, left in this example, the switch does 2 things. 1) it connects the left front bulb to the flasher and 2) it disconnects the left rear bulb from the brake lights and connects it to the flasher.

On a normal car with 2 dash indicators, the dash indicators are just connected to the front signals, and the sockets are grounded. The dash indicators are connected to the front because they would come on with the brake lights if they were connected to the rear.

Now back to the 53 wiring. Instead of grounding the dash indicator sockets to the dash as you would expect, they isolated the dash indicator socket grounds, connected them together, and connected them to the third pin of the flasher, that same third pin that was meant as the hot terminal for a single dash indicator.

Why did they do it? I don't know. The flasher has the same Chevrolet part number as the flasher in earlier Chevrolets. I looked it up one of the other times I encountered this. And, apparently things work just fine with the original flasher.

With a new production flasher, like the one from NAPA for instance, both dash indicators blink with either signal on. To fix it, you have to disconnect the wire from the third pin of the flasher and ground the wire. The flasher third terminal is left disconnected.

If you do it you also have to swap the indicator sockets in the dash. Why? Because the way Chevy wired it one dash indicator is connected from a hot to a hot when the signal is on, and the OTHER indicator finds its own ground through the front bulb on the side that is not blinking.

Yes, that is really confusing. The dash indicator that is blinking is really the one connected to the side that is not turned on. If you make the change to use a modern flasher, the dash indicator blinking will now be the one connected to the side that is on, and you will find you need to reverse their positions in the dash.

Now switching back to the problem at hand: Like some of the others in this thread, I think you will find a problem with a bulb or socket ground somewhere. Maybe the switch. There has to be something different about one side of the car.

As for the flasher, your original one is probably ok, and if so you can ignore most of what I typed above. Good luck, and I hope you get it sorted out soon.

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Now my head really hurts. I'm going to put the wiring diagram from the shop manual on my scanner and blow up that part of the diagram so that I can actually read it. Back to your post, if I'm understanding you correctly, I can cut the P terminal wire and ground it (isolating it from the flasher). Then both indicators will flash independently but I'll have to reverse the bulbs. Is that correct? If I'm reading that correctly, that's probably the quickest and easiest fix. FWIW both flashers are the same part number and both work although the old one shows less resistance when checking continuity. I put the old one back in the car. Also, we've R&Rd all of the instrument cluster light sockets, including the turn signal indicator bulbs, to hopefully insure a good ground but it didn't change anything.

Edit: As a side thought, if I do isolate the P terminal wire, in the future a two terminal flasher would work since the P terminal is no longer functional. Wouldn't it? Just kind of thinking out loud.

Yes. That makes the dash indicators work right when you are using a recent production flasher rather than the old original from 53.


If thats just a 3 digit number like "535" or something then it doesn't tell you much. Someone in one of the AACA threads explained what was different inside the newer cans, but I just don't remember and I'm not sure I completely understood in the first place. I do remember that the new mechanism is less likely to break if you drop it.

If you still have right doing something different from left, I would have a real serious look out at all four corners of the car for a bad or shorted bulb, bulb in upside down (bright and dim reversed), wrong bulb, single contact bulb where dual contact should be, bad ground, and so on.

The p-wire fix forces the dash indicators to do the right thing, but it affects both sides equally.


Yes, that's correct. The p terminal is not needed when you have 2 dash indicators. The 2-pin flashers I have seen are all 12 volt though, and the positions of the remaining 2 terminals in the socket are not the same.

Please let us know how it turns out.

Thank you again. Everything was working and working normally prior to the speedometer being removed. As of yesterday the turn signals were working but both indicator lights were flashing when I put the car to bed. This morning I had no turn signals again, none at all. I've not checked the fuse yet. It's a pretty major undertaking for me to get under the dash. I'm starting to think the switch is failing and just by chance failed at the time the speedometer was being removed. The bulbs in the dash are all new and those on all four corners of the car are the same bulbs that have been there for the two years I've owned the car with the exception of the LH brake light which I recently replaced because the bulb burnt out. When I bought the car I gave all light sockets a good inspection and cleaning if necessary. All external lights work and show no dimness or strange behavior. I ordered a new switch today. I drive the car most every day that it's not storming so if the signals start working again on their own I'm going to have an exorcism done.

It appears the saga has come to an end. While trying to separate the fuse holder to check the fuse, the hot wire from the fuse holder to the flasher came off. Once I got the fuse holder apart I discovered that indeed the fuse had blown again. That was the perfect excuse to reroute the wire, with an in-line fuse holder, to a more accessible spot. While doing that this morning it was discovered that the yellow wire connector on the load side of the flasher plug was out of place. I looked at that specifically before but didn't see anything out of line. Thinking that may have been the issue with the turn signals blowing fuses and the indicator lights not flashing correctly, we held off on cutting and grounding the P terminal wire until after rewiring the fuse wire and doing a test with the yellow connector firmly in place. It all works perfectly now so it seems the yellow load side terminal was the culprit all along. I'm happy it's all good now but I'm frustrated that I didn't see that before, especially since I looked specifically for that very problem. At least now I have a spare turn signal switch.

Nothing quite like success.

Glad to hear you got it sorted!

not sure what or how to ask a question to bloo i read a answer he help on turn signal flashers / but i have a 1953 210 chev i converted to 12 volts now flasher wont work i think u said to use a newer 12v 3 prong flasher i need to remove wire to third pin i think its pin p ? black wire that tee's off to turn indicator bulbs or if i find and use a 6 v it should work without change to wiring at connector ?

The easy way is to just put a 12v flasher in it.

hi tiny thanks for your help if i put a 12 volt 3 prong flasher 550 , will i need to disconnect black wire from flasher connector p wire to indicator and ground

and reverse indictor socket positions

If your turn signals were working normally on 6 volts all you need to do is plug in a 12 volt flasher. My problem above was caused by a displaced connector in the flasher plug causing a short. Once I rectified that I didn't need to change anything. I plugged in a 12v flasher and all was good. If you want to contact bloo directly click his name then click on Private Message.

The dash indicators on 1953-54 only work correctly on the original flashers. To make them work normally with a new 6v NAPA or similar flasher, you need to remove the wire that connects to the "p" terminal from the flasher connector and ground the wire. Then you need to swap the positions of the two dash indicators.

I don't know about just plugging in a 12v flasher. If it worked for Tiny, it must work, but it surprises me. It is certainly worth a try. Most 12v flashers I have seen only have 2 pins, and I didn't think the pinout was similar to 6 volt but maybe it is.

One wire comes from power to the flasher, the other wire goes from the flasher to the turn signal switch. There is no third wire anymore if it has been changed as described in the first paragraph above. It should be easy enough to figure out even if the pin positions turn out to be wrong.

hi bloo ? im robert my first time here cool site i converted to 12 v starts and cranks nice now replace all bulbs replace flasher wont work with 550 12 v installed 6 v original seems to blink fast but works do you know if indicators are on with head lights cause my stay on but do blink when turning and do advise 6 v napa or 550 12v and remove and ground black indicator wire to indicators ? thanks again for you bloo and tinys help

tiny may i ask what 12 v flasher you bought ?

I don't remember the number. I'll have to go look. I got it through O'Reilly. It's just a standard thermal three prong flasher.

thanks tiny how long have you owned your 1953 210 ? 2 or 4 dr ?

It's a four door. I've owned it a bit over three years now.

cool sounds like i have the same car but i bought mine in 1982 for college project it froze in 1990 , now 2020 resurrection begun , thanks for your time and help thought i new what i was doing until 53 54 turn indicator wiring thanks to bloo explanation its more understandable .