Elecrical Gremlins driving me mad

[snailwagon]

For about the last 8 years, my 1969 FJ55 has had turn signal problems. It used to be that the 5A fuse would blow at random, sometimes every time I drove it, sometimes only once every few months.

Then it got to the point where whenever I had the fuse in, the stock ammeter would always get higher than normal. Now if I pop in a fuse, the ammeter goes way down with excessive draw. Go to switch the turn signal to either way and the right blinker stays on and solid (no blinking). Before this, it would only get stuck on the when switching to the right.

I'm going crazy trying to track down the issue. The turn signal indicator under the steering wheel has been replaced not to long ago (piece of brass got worn and broke inside), and the entire front half of the wiring loom is new (lit on fire at Pismo, hot ignition wire shorted inside cab and melted everything).

So where would you look? I'm so confused.

 

[bobm]

Check with LAMBCRUSHER.

Thanks Bob.

 

[npulver]

sounds to me the switch in your turn signal is shorted. (just a guess) (not sure if the issue was after you replaced the switch or before)

 

[xtiaan2000]

I had my blinkers stay on and it turned out to be the bolts that held in the light housing. They are the ground for the system. I cleaned out the threads of any rust or old paint and made sure that the bolts were clean as well. It seemed to work for me too. No more blinkers staying on. good luck

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

amp draw is going to indicate a load of some type- a resistor or a short. you say turn sig. indicator under the wheel- do you mean the turn sig switch? mine blew out a couple months ago... anyway. check the flasher. check the wiring from the turn signal switch thru the hazard switch and out to the actual singals for any bare copper or ground shorts. IIRC, the trun signals get routed thru the hazard switch and then to the signals. there is a flasher in the circuit and that may be what is causing you trouble. use an ohm meter and ohm from each terminal to ground. anything with less than an ohm is prolly a short- chase that wire to its terminations and look for copper to metal contact. the turn sigs require that the metal inside the buckets have a ggod ground. this had been done thru the body metal, but over time resistance builds up there and you'll loose your ground to you signal light. when this happens, usually the signal indicator will light when the signal is not in use. I think you may want to pull your dash and go over every inch of wire under the dash. if the front harness melted, it may have damaged the rest of it. Power from battery goes thru the ammeter in these rigs, so even tho the problem may have been physically isolated to the engine harness the current still passed thru the dash harness. start with you signal switch, flasher, hazard switch and then inspect the harness. HTH

 

[snailwagon]

Thanks Lambcrusher, I'll look a bit further. I didn't check the hazard side of the circuit, not even function test for some reason. The turn signal switch was recently replaced because the brass contact tab snapped. I have the most recent one on the bench and it seems all good with the multi meter.

Unfortunately, I was guessing I was going to have to remove the dash this weekend. Of note, when the harness lit on fire I just wired in enough to drive the 5-6 hour drive home. I was able to scrounge some wire and connectors at Pismo, but it was pretty rigged. The VR and coil also fried. When I got home, I replaced all of it and it worked well. The turn signals worked trouble free for about half a year after that. But that doesn't mean I somehow missed one that had enough material left to function for a while. Anything close to the culprit wire melted at the time.

How does one verify function of the flasher on the bench? Is the only flasher the one under the hood, next to the voltage regulator?

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

gosh I think theres one for just the hazards, and another for the signals, but I can't recall...

 

[snailwagon]

Well it didn't explain the previous problems, but the newer turn signal switch is forked up. The weird "W" shaped contact spring broke and bent, touching every lead at once. I didn't notice, but the alternator hasn't been getting to the battery either.

I don't know enough about it to know why a short in the switch messed with the alternator system, but without the switch it charges fine.

So on to a new thread.