The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay turn signal problem

My truck was rewired (not by me) with a Highway 15 wiring kit. A month or so ago the signals and the 4 ways stopped working. The brake lights work and the running lights work. I orded and installed a new turn signal module from the manufacturer but still nothing. Anyone have any ideas or some direction I should be going in?

Make sure the flasher is good.

I had what I thought was a similar problem. I was testing out my newly wired 56 and temporarily wired up my stop and tail lights to make sure my new harness worked. Tail and brake lights worked fine, but the turn signals would not. I changed out the flasher 3 times and it made no difference. I worked on this for hours and was getting frustrated. I was about to retrace all the wiring and create my own diagram so I could understand what was supposed to happen schematically. I am not sure why i thought of it, but I turned the key to power up the accessories and lo and behold - the turn signals worked fine. Short story: on my truck at least, the key must be "ON" for the turn signals to work. Brake lights and tail lights work whether or not the key is "ON"..

probably not your problem, but just in case....

Yeah, my problem is a little different since mine had been working just fine. Not sure what I'll do next. I probably should call the manufacturer and see if they have any suggestions.
Thanks guys.

Cletis, this unit doesn't have your typical flasher. It has a plug-in relay which is what I replaced already. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

My truck was rewired (not by me) with a Highway 15 wiring kit. After a year or so the signals and the 4 ways stopped working. The brake lights work and the running lights work. I orded and installed a new turn signal module from the manufacturer but still nothing. Anyone have any ideas or some direction I should be going in?

I had to rewire my 59 sigs. there is a wiring dia online for the generic turn sig box. with a meter you should be able to walk it thru. also try the flasher. dont know what year you have but the facy switch in colum was the same for years. in your picts it looks like you have a aftermkt switch. everything is in that box.

Hy sweet_willy, does your system use the same flasher for the signals and the four ways? Did you check your fuses? Did you try a new flasher? Do you have a wiring diagram for your system? If you do, look at it and see where the flasher gets its power from, and check to see if there is power there, hope that helps.

Double posting does not get better answers. And it is discouraged in these forums.

If all else fails, recheck all your ground connections. It's amazing what one bad ground can screw up.

Hey guys after trying everything you all suggested and after emailing the manufacturer and did everything he suggested nothing worked. However, this morning I tested to see if there was power at the location where the wires plug into the fuse box and found there's no power at the terminals for the 4-way or the turn signals. There is power at all the other terminals. So, I found the source of the problem but I don't have a solution just yet. The guy from the manufacturer of the Highway 15 wiring harness, included his phone number and invited me to call him to help resolve the problem. Blew me away for sure. I'll be calling him Monday morning. I'll let you know the outcome of that.

If everything else has power, it sure sounds like a bad fuse. I would check them again. Make sure the connections on the fuse holder are good on both sides of the fuse.

I'm not sure how to check that out but I'll give it a look on Monday. I won't be around tomorrow. Thanks.

Problem solved! I called Don Bock from American Wire today. He's the technical R&D manager there. We checked a few things while we were on the phone and the last thing we tried was to put a jumper in the two receptacles where the flasher plugs in and finally I had power. Based on that, went out and bought another flasher (third one) plugged it in... nothing. Frankly, I wasn't surprised. I had checked and rechecked fuses, wiring, and had bought a new relay and two new flashers already. But the jumper working was the big clue. I took a very small screwdriver and bent the two clips that the flasher plugs into to tighten them up and everyting worked! That was a strange problem and hard to figure because it's a brand new fuse block and I never changed the flasher before so I can't imagine how or why that happened. I did email Don and explained what it was and suggested that it might be a Quality Control issue. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I learned a lot.

This should be a simple job but its turned in to a hair puller.
All the lights are working except the blinkers. The 4 way flashers do work as well. However the left and right blinkers will not work. At first I was blowing a 14 amp fuse. I found the problem and fixed a short in the wire of the left front blinker.

I replaced the buss metal flasher unit, but with the new flasher, my pilot light inside the blinker switch does not work. I put the old flahser back on and the pilot light in the blinker swith on the steering will now works. But once I turn on the left or right blinker, the only indication is the left or right blinker bulb only has a faint glow and does not blink. I haven't been able to figure this problem out yet. The light assemblies are also grounded good and again work on the 4 way flasher position. I also disassembled the blinker switch and cleand all of the contacts and ohmed out the 7 wires on the Blinker Control Switch itself. I have also ohmed out the flasher and the two side prongs give a good ohm result.
But I am going to replace the flasher with a second new one. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

I have replaced the flasher unit and now it works.
Here is my problem. Break lights and tail lights and front blinkers work. But, when I hook the left blinker wire to the break light wire. It does not blink., the rear lights are a two bulb system. One bulb for the lights and the second bulb for the breaks. Tieing into the break light with the blinker wire should make the break link blink. IS THIS NOT TRUE? Does anyone know?

to use the brake bulb for signals, the line from the brake light switch needs to go to the turn signal unit first, then to the bulb, not both wires to the bulb .... see the tech tip here

Bill

I see! Good gosh! I was even using the tech tip. but I was having a major brain infarction and having the blinker and brake light going to the bulb. I will try it tomorrow. Good thing it wasn't something nuclear I was hooking up. wowwweeeeee!!!
Tks!

Well Squeeze, it worked. That fixed my blinker problem. Some time ago there was a single light bulb with 2 elements but those lights were removed as well with some of the rust.
But I do see that the Blinker Switch Unit gets its source from the BREAK LIGHT SWITCH itself an provides the STOP & SIGNALING through the blinker switch including the break light. I just removed the existing wire that was already at the rear of the pickup and went with the orange and brown wire running from the blinker unit to the left and right rear for the break and blinker on one bulb.
Works Great! I appreciate that short bit if info you gave me.