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Indicator Arms before the "winkies"

D

Dyan

master brummie
Okay so how many of you remember the old indicator arms on cars - they usually got stuck and you had to bang the pillar to get them in, my Morrie had them and I had a piece of string attached inside to pull them in. The good old MOT would not like that nowadays. Also hand signals for I am turning left, please pass, I am stopping etc........the only hand signals you get here now are the "finger salute". Also the sticker you used to have on the back of the car "Running In please pass" lord I am showing my age.:shocked:

Dyan in NZ
 
I was an external telephone eng for PO Telephones (much later to become BT) from 1956 and my first van was a 3 speed morris Z type with the old type indicator followed by the earlier morris minor van which I think also had the mechanical indicator and yes they frequently stuck, both down and up. Later minors had the "new" flashing light Eric
 
Dyan our dads first car was a Ford Popular i can still remember the reg is was BPX 467 with them indicators,and as you say he used to bang on the pillars to get them back in,then us kids used to do it for him


Mossy
 
My first car a Standard 8.. FBR 340,had them,they didn't work either,used hand signals...exept when it was raining,then I didn't bother.:shocked:
 
I found my post in the Thread 'Cars in the Postwar Period' where I put the pic of my dad's first car which someone else on the forum told me it was an slightly unusual model. Unfortunately the attached pics have gone and it's its a bit strange looking at the posts discussing the car pics which aren't there !:)
 
The trouble was you could never really check they had activated as wing mirrors when fitted didnt always give the correct view. My first car, a 1949 Hillman had the semaphor indicators, you only knew if they had worked after cancelling them as there was a loud thud on their return. Until recently I owned a 1952 Ford Popular sit up and beg model with the same signalling although they didnt work. I used to enjoy the arms waving out of the car to warn others...added to the classic car experience.
 
I remember the old indicators, I passed my test at Burton in1958, the very first time I went out on my own in Z type Morris, I signaled to come in the yard and although
I cancelled it the arm stayed out and as I parked it it caught
on a pillar and snapped off. I went to report in the Workshop and the Foreman went bonkers!! Bloody careless Postman Drivers, I am a good mind to make you pay for
it, Clear off!! Oh happy days Much later I passed my HGV class 1 at Leicester in 1970 Bernard
 
Dyan said:
Okay so how many of you remember the old indicator arms on cars - they usually got stuck and you had to bang the pillar to get them in, my Morrie had them and I had a piece of string attached inside to pull them in. The good old MOT would not like that nowadays. Also hand signals for I am turning left, please pass, I am stopping etc........the only hand signals you get here now are the "finger salute". Also the sticker you used to have on the back of the car "Running In please pass" lord I am showing my age.:shocked:

Dyan in NZ
Click to expand...

Had to do hand signals on my test, mustve been one of the last to do it I should think, it was January 1970 by the way.
If you did it now, especially the left turn one, people would wonder whats wrong wth you, and certainly wouldnt understand what it meant.

I actually turned right with my arm still out of the window on my test, but still passed.

Is it still legal to use the old semaphore trafficator arms ? I remember em from when I had a pushbike as a kid, and to be honest never used to see em half the time.
 
Had them on my first car a Triumph Vanguard Mk 11 (the one with the boot and column gear change)then on an A35 van (i spent a whole weekend fitting indicators) if i remember right the was a switch on the dash which you turned L / R depending which you wanted to turn. Dek
 
dek carr said:
Had them on my first car a Triumph Vanguard Mk 11 (the one with the boot and column gear change)then on an A35 van (i spent a whole weekend fitting indicators) if i remember right the was a switch on the dash which you turned L / R depending which you wanted to turn. Dek[/QUOTE
Had a few A35s, all with factory fitted flashers, I thought they were standard kit.. Sure it wasnt an A30 ?
Click to expand...
 
Fatfingers sorry mate i,ve just read my own post properly i,m losing it, got both the cars wrong. correct cars were a Standard Vanguard MK11 and of course an A30 . Dek
 
I had a 1952 Moggie Minor that originally had "trafficators", but someone along the way had replaced them with winking indicators. Went on holiday one time, and when I came back there was a wasps' nest in one of the empty trafficator cavities. My dad went out and fetched a tin of industrial-strength insecticide which rendered my Moggie undriveable for about a week.

Big Gee
 
My first car was a A30 with "Traficators" as they were called. I remember my brother and me fitting the new fangled flashers, what a poser eh!
 
Along with a number of other OBE,s Old Bus Enthusiasts, to the uninitiated, with the "old" bit refering to the bus, we are working on an ex West Bromwich Daimler CVG6 with a Weymann Body.

The last few weeks we have been working around the front bulkhead area of the Bus and amongst other things re-fitting the Box that housed the nearside "Trafficator" I believe the intention is to get it working but to have it fittted with a flashing mechanism but the arm is in proportion to the size of the Bus and several of us have visions of the arm clouting a few prospective passengers when we eventually get it working at the Black Country Museum !!

So I suggest if you see it coming then "Duck"...........It has been placed were we think it went originally and no doubt it will not be doing any one a "misschief" the bus should , we hope, be in running order for 2012.
 
Bill that made me laugh just what I needed tonight. I can just imagine visitors ducking as the traficators swung into action! I remember my Dad's Morris Cowley when he drove fast we would have to bang on the door jam to try and get the traficator to swing out and do its job....so funny now!
 
Wendy we all had a good "titter":Dabout it as we were debating exactly where on the bulkhead we should stick it and should it be flush with the side or slightly inward, we decided on the latter as someone thought thats the correct position and it looked quite asthetically pleasing there:).

Im glad it mad you laugh because thats was the same reaction I made when the subject of it hitting someone came up. The box is were it was originally and I dont ever remember reading about anyone getting clipped behing the "lugole" from onelol

Best wishes Bill
 
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