Turn Signal Assembly - Ground Wire

[Jamison]

My left blinker works 90% of time
Right blinker only works if I jiggle and press against stalk
Hazards work all the time

I replaced flasher relay
I’ve tried two other stalks
Same result

I just noticed I do not have a ground wire going from my turn signal assembly. I have a “stub” - no wire

Perhaps this is the problem?

Where does ground wire from assembly connect ? Pics would be helpful. Assume I can just drill small hole on body and use eyelet and screw to ground?

This turn signal mystery has become a real time sink.

Your Truly - Perplexed In New Jersey

 

[Arde]

The ground goes directly from chassis to the bulbs, if the hazard function works fine then the ground is fine.
The turn stalk routes positive voltage from the flasher relay to the bulbs. One failure mode is a bad hazard switch that fails to route the positive voltage to the flasher, if it works while jiggling the hazard, then bingo. But you suggest it works when jiggling the stalk... I would ensure you have the positive output of the flasher at pin 54 of the turn stalk.
Does left turn signal work?

 

[Jamison]

Yes the left turn signal works

 

[Arde]

Left signal that works, with all four hazard lights working can only be two things:
- Bad stalk (but you tried that)
- Bad cable (partially broken) coming out of the R pin of the stalk (or bad connector pin).

There is a long shot possibility that it is resistance related as the flasher circuit cares about the resistance of the bulb path. But solving this requires exorcism skills.

 

[Jamison]

First - thanks for your help. This issue is keeping me up at night and preventing completion of the restoration .

What would be lovely is if I obtained a stalk that I knew worked properly. I’ve now tried two other used stalks, one that didn’t work either blinker , and not knowing their working condition doesn’t help.

The current stalk sheathing (black covering) remains intact and condition looks decent upon external inspection. It works mechanically and operates left blinker properly.

What can / should I do next to diagnose? Should I proactively replace the hazard switch? Buy a second flasher relay and hope for best?

Baffling

 

[Breiti]

Route an extra outside wire from the relay to the bulb to figure out if you got a kabel brake.

I aspect, you check the ground on the not prper working side?

Also you can run a extra wire from positive to the relay to pass by the column switch to check if there is any fault.

Good luck

Breiti

 

[Arde]

Exactly as Breiti suggests.
If you run an external wire you will confirm that the entire circuitry, including the cable harness, are working. It could still be the stalk to cable connector being the problem and you will have to examine that visually.

There is another thing you could do to get a stalk to work for you. The stalk has two identical switches, one between pin 54 and either L or R. If you measure resistance it should have no continuity normally, should have continuity to L or R depending on the stalk position.
The other switch involves pins P, PL, and PR, and it is used for parking lights on one side when the ignition is off. You could rewire the stalk to use the P, PL, PR switch for signaling turns and forget about the parking light function that can drain your battery is you leave it on by mistake...

 

[Jamison]

Great info. Will try those techniques next weekend.

One member of this forum suggested replacing the hazard switch since the positive runs through that switch? Thoughts on ordering a new hazard switch and potential suppliers?

May not hurt to order a new flasher relay as well?

I’ve discovered that just because a part is new doesn’t mean it works well.

 

[Jamison]

If I’m creating a bypass after unplugging relay to test turn signals , what is the spade connector bypass combo?

For example, 49a to C, 49 to 31, etc?

Shouldn’t this result in constant turn signal light if downstream wiring is working properly?

 

[Arde]

If the left side works no need to get a new hazard switch. If you do, there are two variants with different number of contacts, so check before ordering.