Posted by Sherman in Idaho [108.162.246.87] on Saturday, December 03, 2016 at 12:24:44 :
Looking for feedback here on something I'm thinking about building and selling. M-series trucks have a standard flasher unit which is a potted (permanently molded in plastic) electronic circuit with a 3-pin circular military connector. I've had a lot of trouble with them, despite being "solid state". The easy and obvious fix is to cut off the military connector, crimp some spade terminals on the wires and plug in a commercial flasher (a bit hard to find 24V, though). The downside of this is you've ruined your irreplaceable military wiring harness and now you have a flasher dangling there in the engine compartment exposed to all the water, dirt, and gunk.
My idea is to make a housing about the size of the military flasher, to mount in the same place, with the same mil-spec connector on it, but with a removable gasketed cover. Inside would be a connector for a standard flasher. I think I could build and sell this for $50, with either a 12V or 24V flasher included. All external screws would be stainless steel. Mounting would not use the same holes as the military ones (which don't seem to have been standardized anyway), but it would fit in the same space.
The advantages would be easy conversion between 12V and 24V and the ability to use a standard commercial flasher unit and replace just the flasher ($10 at most) when it fails, while retaining the stock wiring harness and water-resistant qualities of the military system.
What do you think? Is this a viable product? I already built one and put it on one of my M35s and it works fine.
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