Electrical poop...

[REZARF]

Howdy Folks,

Thanks for your help in keeping my cruiser on the road. Here is the scoop:

My turn signals are not working. I have removed the turn signal housings and cleaned up all the grounds. They worked fine for about a month.

Now niether signal blinks. They come on, but they do not blink. Also, last night the right turn signal (on the cluster) come on and dimmed erratically for nearly a minute and then went off. I wasnt using it at the time.

Could it be there is something going on in the steering column? I feel some resistance when I put the turn signal on, and my steering wheel is turned a bit to the left when driving straight.

I know that sounds like a long shot but it feels like the turn signal lever on the column is binding when I am trying to use the signals.

Please advise, I dont have many more nice weekends to work on the Cruiser before the winter settles in.

Thanks in advance.

REZARF... formerly know as Drew <><
76 fj40

 

[Romer]

I takes about 5 minutes to take the cover off and look at it. There are screws that come yp through the plastic cover around the steering column. Take those off and the cover comes off in two pieces. You can get a pretty good look at the switch and contacts.

 

[Pin_Head]

Howdy Folks,

Now niether signal blinks. They come on, but they do not blink. Also, last night the right turn signal (on the cluster) come on and dimmed erratically for nearly a minute and then went off. I wasnt using it at the time.


REZARF... formerly know as Drew <><
76 fj40

Rule out the easy stuff first.

Lighting but not blinking is an indication that the circuit isn't sinking enough curent to trip the flasher. This is usually bacause 1 or more bulb is burned out in the circuit or there is a bad/corroded wire connection somewhere in the circuit. A dim bulb would be consistent with the latter.

Clean and check all connections and remember that the ground not only includes where the lamp housing connects to the sheet metal, but also where the sheet metal connects to the frame.

 

[REZARF]

I will check both the lights and the column switches tomorrow. thanks for your time.

Drew <><

 

[Pin_Head]

Don't forget to start at the fuse block when you are looking for bad connections.

 

[Pighead]

If your steering wheel isn't pointing straight ahead when you're driving straight ahead, you will have trouble using the turn signals. You will feel a binding and even see them turn themselves on, just as you describe. I remmber buying a new tie rod end set from the dealer and being really pleased that they came with new rods, but one of those new rods was just a tad too long, and I could never get my steering wheel adjusted right...
Back in the day before I put in a high-output alternator and dual Optimas, I could tell when my battery was getting weak by how slow my turn signals blinked, especially at night.
So maybe check that too.

 

[desertdude]

you would be amazed at what a bad bulb will do

 

[xumFJ40]

Also,

I had similar troubles and it turned out that I just didn't give the turn signal housing's "the business" good enough. They would behave for a while and then "act-up".

I finally just sat there and applied pressure to the places that I suspected to confirm that they were causing the problems. After confirming it, I did an "overkill" job of cleaning them and then applied silicon/di-electirc grease to minimize the corrosion in the future.

Also, can't re-iterate the fuse block thing enough.

Good Luck.

 

[dd113]

All of the above but buy a new flasher relay. $12 at NAPA for a generic HD one.