The flasher is likely on a plate with other accessible components just under the dash access panel above the instrument panel.
But when something similar happened to us (inconsistent flashing), and I replaced it with no difference, BCS found it was a loose breaker connection in the electrical bay. The breaker also was the wrong size, a 5 amp where a 20 should be; that would give the same symptoms you are having - an overheating circuit breaker. There may be an unused 10 or 20 amp breaker on your buss you can use. In our case a 20 amp breaker was about $3, but the tech's time to find the problem - $65.
-Joel