first off, I love this forum, I've learned a crap ton about my old chevy from you guys. anywho, another random question. the turn signal indicators on my dash are all out of sorts. problem 1: when the ignition is on, the left signal light is illuminated. problem 2: the right signal flashes the left one on the dash and vice versa. the outside lights work correctly however. any ideas of where to start?
If the lights in the dash are switched, just take them out and put them back in where they go. Problem 1, not sure exactly what is going on there...what happens when you move the switch, either a little bit or all the way? and does it change when your foot is on the brake pedal. or when the parking lights are turned on?
switching them was my first thought, but the wires arent long enough, so I'm pretty sure they're in the right spot? the brake light switch is currently disconnected, as there is no master in the car right now (going to a firewall mounted one, just not installed yet) but there is no change whether the parks are on or not. the light will shut off to flash if the right turn signal is turned on
what colors are the wires to the indicator lights in the dash, left and right? and what color are the wires to the front lights, under the hood, left and right? Did you look at the wiring connector for the switch, which should be close to the column, under the dash, to see if all the wire colors match correctly? As for the glowing light with the ignition on, usually we blame strange turn signal issues on bad grounds...if the dash cluster is not grounded properly, and the power to the gas gauge is getting back fed into the turn indicator light that way, it might cause this problem?
There's 2 junction blocks under the hood holding the wiring for the parking & turn signal lamps. Sort them out there ...
okay, took a closer look... the sockets do appear to be switched (the colors for which socket were blinking match the colors under the hood) I was able to get them switched, but I had to move the entire wiring harness and everythings pulled pretty tight. so even though everything seems, well, wrong, from a fit standpoint, I'm going to consider that solved. I still have the glow. you mention the gas gauge.. mine is not connected as the tank is out of it (looked like swiss cheese, and smells like old stain) do you think that's what's going on there?
It could be that the turn signal switch is making part contact when it's "off". That's why I suggested wiggling the switch. Otherwise, the gas gauge is the only thing near the turn indicator lights that gets power when you turn on the ignition switch. and a bad ground can cause interesting things like that to happen. Electricity takes the path of least resistance...if ground resistance is high, it finds a light bulb to light up on it's way back to the other side of the battery.
This link will help a bunch down the line. Maybe the wiring diagram will help also. http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1949_53/index.htm
thanks guys, I did try wiggling the switch, (although I forgot to mention that) nothing changed. I'll start looking for a grounding issue in the next couple days.
Get a ClassicWiring.Com 11x17 laminated schematic of your car. The wiring is in the color of the original wires with every option. About $20 you will never be sorry.
Notice there aren't any turn signals on that 1949 wiring diagram..there aren't any on the 1954 diagram, either.... Turn signals were were optional or accessory equipment.
I did know that. do you know if there were different park light housings for the front on non-turn signal optioned cars? I've got to replace at least one of mine, (I can get the rust out of one, but the other has damaged pins)
I had similar issues on my 53' a few years back. I was able to sort most of it out by rearanging the wires where they plug in between the steering columb and the wire harness, and how they were connected at the junction blocks under the hood. It was tricky as it ended up being several overlapping misswire issues. The one that took the longest was that the pigtails comming out of the turn signal lamps are not interchangable. Theres one leg for the turn signal filament and one leg for the park lamp filament and they can't be switched for whatever reason. Now to be honest, there is one last issue I havn't yet resolved: the dash turn signal lamps are on when there is no turn signal going, but flash off when the outside lights flash on. I think it's some kind of polarity issue, but I havn't sorted yet.
Chevy sold accessory turn signal kits that included the switch, wiring, and front sockets with dual filament bulbs. The original sockets had a single wire. So yes, there were different housings.
This looks like an old message thread and I'm hoping that I'm not missing something somewhere else on this subject but I have a 1954 Chevy Truck 3100 that is giving me heck with the turn signals and running lights. Truck has been changed to a 12 volt system. Previous owner seemed to rewire the truck with an aftermarket harness, but all seems to work well until i noticed one night that with the running lights on, when the turn signals are turned on, the running lights flash opposite. I removed all bulbs from the front and rear of the truck, and noticed that the dash lights dim opposite of the flashing turn signal? Pulling my hair out but i believe by removing all of the bulbs I have helped narrow the troubleshooting some?
check grounds at every bulb. Very first thing to do when you experience weird problems with turn signals and running lights. The sockets might not be grounding through the light housings....rust or paint in the way?
Since i have removed the bulbs from the front turn signal and the rear turn signals, are you suggesting that the grounds to the dash lights might be an issue? I thought that by removing the lamps from the front and rear signals, i might be eliminating them as the source of the issue??
With the front and the rear signal bulbs removed, its the dash lights that are alternately dimming opposite of the turn signal!! Definitely strange.....
dash bulbs will do weird things if the grounds on the outside lights are not good. The power will feed from the turn signal wire, through the filament to the bulb ground terminal, through the other filament to the light circuit, lighting up other bulbs. And similar things happen if the dash assembly is not grounded.
about 50% of lights don't work right are ground issues for the bulbs themselves. On a rewire job 30% comes down to errors by the person who did the wiring and the other 20% are actual wiring issues. No good bare metal ground is what I have seen a lot of especially on recently painted rigs. I've made more than one guy cry when I pulled my knife out and scraped enough paint away to let something get a good solid ground contact. EXCELLENT point there! what is on the truck in the way of a turn signal switch and light switch?
Wired my whole car when I built it, and had to remove my passenger side headlight bucket and turnsignal recently to fix a dent in the fender and repaint. Reassembled it all and tested the headlights and turnsignals, and had all sorts of weird issues from lights or indicators not working, and indicators coming on when I pulled the park lights on or headlights on. I knew immediately something was wrong, and likely something common to all of it! Checked all the wiring, and finally discovered I'd missed my ground wire that bolted to one of the 1/4" bolts holding the headlight bucket on. Bolted it on and everything worked great. As others mentioned grounds cause more weird electrical issues than anything else in car wiring.
My truck has the original steering column but did not come with the "built in" turn signal system. It has a turn signal assembly that clamps to the steering column. Are there some basic things to look for when it comes to the grounding of lights? When it's mentioned that a headlight has a grounding wire (that i don't recall seeing on my truck) I cant help but wonder what else I don't know!
A number of car makers back when sockets were metal didn't use a ground wire. They depended on body ground straps to ground the body, and mechanical connections of sockets crimped into light housings to make the ground. In some occasions over years of use body ground straps to the frame have rotted away, or been eliminated during later builds. When that happens the cars begin to have weird electrical issues. In those cases when I'm troubleshooting the lights I've taken a small hose clamp and clamped a ground wire to the socket, and then ran it to the battery negative, or a good known ground to test. Often grounding one tail light or park light will get a ground to others at the front or rear and it all begins to work. As in the case of my '39 Chev I put a ground wire to each front park light socket as I didn't want to depend on all the fenders, housings, and radiator supports to be the ground for both front lighting.
I save every aftermarket turn signal wiring diagram I find in this album on my Photobucket page https://photobucket.com/u/mr48chev/a/9f12e8d6-2ec8-45af-89f6-c3c4d37a1b04 Some are the same basic switch but the wiring diagrams may be easier for someone to follow than the other one is. Some of them came from previous Hamb turn signal threads as a lot of our cars have aftermarket switches on them. 54 was the first year that built in turn signals were an option and normally you didn't find them on trucks with manual shifts and did find them on trucks with Hydromatics. The image from the Filling station in Oregon shows that 54/55.1 park lights could be had with or without the double element turn signal bulb. Standard lighting equipment were two head lights, two park lights and one stop/tail light. The right side stop/tail light was an extra cost option often added at the dealer. Factory turn signals in 54 were part of the 430 Deluxe cab package. I learned to drive in a 54 pickup with Hydromatic and the Deluxe cab package. First step on the front is check your park light sockets to see if they have one or two element bulbs or are set up for one or two elements. You may have to modify the park lights and install dual element sockets. Then you need to make sure that you have a separate wire running from the turn signal switch to each front park/turn light for turn signals and the turn signals aren't wired to the park lights themselves.
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