Signals work, indicator does not with aftermarket signals

[Mike Kayer]

Last night I wired my relocated turn signals (lucas style, single wire) and city lights. Everything works fine from outside of the car, but the indicator in the speedo does not blink when the turn signals are activated, only when the 4-ways are on. If I swap out the bulb with a dual filament signal bulb (the lucas style signals use a cylindrical bulb, so I'm just sitting the dual filament on the socket and holding it down with electrical tape), the indicator works fine (but only with one of the filaments... the other causes the same no indicator state). Do signal bulbs have a different resistance to make the indicator come on under load? Wondering if adding a resistor would solve my issues, and if so, what size resistor to buy. Any other thoughts?

Thanks,
Mike

[Marc]

Sounds like you're using a stock flasher with a KBL terminal for the indicator lamp. Those can be finicky, working intermittently dependent upon bulb load.
The pragmatic solution is to abandon the KBL terminal and piggy-back the indicator lamp lead to the flasher output (49a) - this is what the factory did starting in 1971:
http://www.vintagebus.com/wiring/1302_U ... r_1970.jpg

[Mike Kayer]

...sorry, should have mentioned this is a 1971, august I believe. I'll check that KBL terminal though.