help...any electrical gurus out there who can help me? I've got a 55 f-100 w/ 73 for column & painless wiring. turn signals have gone bad. first, neither will work unless park/headlights are on. then only left will work. if you turn on the right, the brake light comes on, but no juice to the front turn signal. also, when headlights are on, the left turn signal dash indicator light comes on steady. I'm thinking perhaps the turn signal switch in the column. any ideas out there?
If things went goofy all at once and worked fine before, the turn signal switch may have gone bad. If somebody just replaced bulbs, make sure a dual filament bulb wasn't swapped for a single.
bulbs ok...not getting current out of switch connector on column like I should. that's why I suspect the switch. thanks, man!
did that first...can't figure out why the right signal turns on the right brake light, tho...that's wierd!
belair...from one born-again Christian to another - thanks! I suspect the same thing. I know we're both right about Jesus, I just hope we're right about the switch!
I think the switch is the likely culprit, but before you change it, check ground connections--battery negative to engine block, engine block to frame, and engine block to body. I had some bizarre electrical issues on my '38 Ford pickup that went away when I tightened the bolt attaching the negative battery cable to the block.
Can you unplug the switch wiring going to the column and check the output from the switch there? It would isolate any kind of ground or feed back problems from the rest of the wiring.
think I'm gonna take the coward way out & just bypass the column switch & install a good old universal switch like I did on my 53 Plymouth wagon. Just don't have the time or energy to play with it any more.
It does sound like you have some grounding issues, so bypassing the switch is unlikely to clear everything up.... You might want to read this before deciding the turn switch is bad: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=869492
sounds to me like the switch is functioning, but the wires somewhere are wrong, touching or not getting a good ground. all my turn signals are individually grounded to the body with a pigtail , and the body is grounded to the frame with a pigtail, and it fixed the problem, which was very similar to what you are describing. Fifty years of paint and rust can obscure a ground path quite well.
thanks for your help, guys. I did take the coward way out and eliminated the original switch & added an aftermarket one. everything works fine now, so I guess the wiring & grounds must have been ok. I still think it was the switch. thanks again.
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