The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Yet another turnsignal question

I am trying to hook up turnsignals on my 52 Chevy. The truck has new taillight assemblies that were installed by a previous owner. It was also wired for turnsignals, but they did not work when I purchased truck, and using a meter, I determined that the switch was bad. I just installed a new United Pacific 5007R switch. I am now almost there, but I have the following conditions:

Both front turn signals work.
All parklamps and taillamps work.
Right-side turn signals work front and rear.
Four-way flashers work.
Brake lamps work.

But:
Left-rear turn signal does not work.
With right-turn signal on and brake depressed, the right signal flashes, and the left brake lamp lights (normal, I think).
With left-turn signal on and brake depressed, the left signal does not flash, and the right brake lamp does not light.

All the bulbs are good.

Please help. I am almost there...so close!

Thanks,
daveboy

Before trying to figure all this out I would suggest checking for good grounds on both rear assemblies.

Grounds are good because the bulbs work when the 4-way flashers or brakes are on. BTW, there are two bulbs in each light, one works as the taillight, and the other works as brakelight/turnsignal. When the brake is depressed, that light lights up. But, when turnsignal is turned on it does not. It is a 7-wire switch.

Just finished wiring my 51 Burb, added the turnsignal/4-way flasher. All I can say is "double" check all connections. Just to test it out, switch the rear left/right turnsignal wires and see if the flasher is the problem? The thing about most electrical problems, is that it really is simple! For sure I didn't get it right on the first try!!

Well, the plot thickens. I did some more checking/troubleshooting/cussing.

I have zero brakelights on either side.
I have zero taillights on either side.
The right-rear turn signal works, left-rear does not.
The right-rear emergency flasher works, right-rear does not.
The left-rear taillight assembly does nothing.
Both the front signals/parklamps work fine.

I have checked all taillight connections from the firewall back to the lights.
I have swapped bulbs.
I have checked the taillight housing ground with a meter...good ground.
I have checked both taillight fuses with a meter.
With ignition off, there is no power on either fuse on the taillight fuse box. With ignition on, there is power on the driver's side, but not passenger side. (normal?)
There is no power on any of the terminals on the brake switch. I know this can't be right.

I am so tired of looking at wiring harnesses, diagrams, and meters. I am done for the day. Can anyone shed any light?

Thanks,
daveboy

Add a ground wire from each tail housing. Use one bolt to the housing and bolt the wire to the frame. You are experiencing a ground fault and the lights tend to work in strange ways with bad grounds. Just the wires for now and see if that helps. Then look at the stop switch. Power on one side and lights on the other. Pull the brake pedal down and see if you get brake lights. Then try the running/park lights. Then try the turn signals. One step at a time. A beer or two might help if you are so inclined. If it all works, then hide the ground wires you put on and consider what rust can do to a simple electric light system. Let us know what you find.

As stated in other posts, check those grounds out! I found on my project that the "turnsignal" assembly also needs to be grounded to the steering column.

Well, I found out at least part of my problem. I have flashing voltage coming out of the signal switch to both rear bulbs. Problem is that it is not getting there. It was getting to the right, but then that stopped. Obviously, during my troubleshooting and checking 61 year old wires, I wiggled a wire that was already to break a connection. There is a connection directly under the cab and I noticed that the wires did not look really good there. This weekend I will get back under there and replace those connectors. I was checking the brake switch power in the wrong place!!!! I was checking the dimmer switch. Duh! Still learning:)

Thanks for all your replies, I will keep you posted.

daveboy

I had a similar problem with weird lighting sequences. My problem was my flasher selection.

Originally I had an "electronic" flasher. When I switched to a Novita EL13, electo-mechanical flasher, all worked great.

Good to know, Howard. Thanks

John

The best thing I ever did was put a new wiring harness in my 54. It took out all the guess work if a wire is broken or if someone else wired it wrong . I got it from classic parts of america. It was labeled very well and was pretty simple. That might not be a option for you right now but it will save some heartache in the long run. Just my 2 cents

My problem is under acceleration the engine cuts in and out when the blinker blinks. Could an electronic blinker cause this?

Only if the ignition is tied to it

Willy, where are you getting power for the flasher? I think the only way it could affect the engine is if it's hooked to the ignition circuit instead of an accessory power point

Bill

I Agree with "Red". another possibility would be the flasher and the coil sharing a "bad" ground connection. I had that happen on a "Nopower",(Mopar) 1-ton.

I just installed a turn signal switch yesterday,so I will share with you my expierience.
My switch came from one of the vendors,( I don't remember witch one ,it was purchased 12 yrs ago). It had 7 wires Plus a fused power for the 3 terminal blinker can.
The instructions were rather vague,(that's why it sat for 12yrs). After staring at the instructions and straching my head for a while I determined that the best course of action was to just use my common sense and do it my way.
Look at your wires and seperate the front two from the rear to, then you will be left with 3 wires that connect to the blinker can and one power wire. Let us deal with the four wires that go to the lights first.
Determine what color wires go where,(ex. yellow/right front, brown/ left front, green/right rear, orange/left rear)Your colors ma vary. Go to NAPA and get a roll of wire the same color as the leads on the switch, some male and female conectors.
Now lets have some fun.Run one wire of each color lead to each light (ex. Y/rght frt,Brwn /lft frt,and so on)when you have finished that, you have wired your turn/brake lights.Caution here, you must have dual terminal light sockets that use a 1157 light bulb,(but you already know that right).The wires get connected to the brighter side of the bulb.
Next connect the blinker can look at the intructions to determine the color for the connections.

Next will be what was confusing to me, the connection to the brake light switch, my instructions kept saying to cut and tape connections that were not there. So I used my common sense here Get your test light and look at your brake switch, it will have 2 wires ,one will be power you do not want that one. Cut the other one and connect that to the wire going to the blinker unit, this will supply power to the unit for the brake lights. Now go to the rear of you truck and find the same wire and cut it/ discounnect it. Now you should have a working system.
I have mine connected to battery power, so I have emergency flashers without the key being on.

It's not hard you just have to think a little, hpoe this helps.