Heck of a time figuring out my blinkers and brake lights need HELP. (1 Viewer)

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May 19, 2008
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Greenbank, WA
OK, so I have a 1971 FJ40 that I got a couple of months ago. It sat in a yard for 16 years and I have brought it back to life.

I replaced all the light bulbs including the two small ones in the dash. I get no blinkers nor do I have brake lights.

I have taken out the brake switch and not sure what all the wires go to. It "appears" to work, but I do not know what the two red wires are there for? Any clues?

I also replaced the blinker relay. Actually got the last one of four that Toyota had in stock in the US. Installed that and nothing. I read here on MUD about the hazard switch. Took that out and found a loose wire. Cleane dit up and re-soldered the wire. Now the relay "clicks" when I turn on the hazards, but that is it. it did not "click" prior to the repair of the switch.

I tracked the wires down and did not see any breaks or grounds, so I am lost. the fuse is good, and all the lights do work when the lights are on.

What have I missed and tell me more about the brake switch.

thanking you in advance for all your help, I do appreciate it.

Mahalo,
moe
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Check your grounds...The lights ground to the body, so if your fixtures are gucked up, or rusted, you may have ground problems. I would clean them up, and see if anything improves...
 
Check your grounds...The lights ground to the body, so if your fixtures are gucked up, or rusted, you may have ground problems. I would clean them up, and see if anything improves...

I have cleaned all the grounds and made sure they work. All the lights work great, just no brake or blinkers? I read that if you clean the fuse box, that works great. I am going to do just that tomorrow.

WIll let you know, but any other hints will help me out so much. I want to take her back on the road while it is still nice and I have the top off.

thank you!
 
is your parking brake switch working ?

they are all tied into one circuit
 
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Here is a page from the FSM that shows the double wiring on the brake switch. Tip#1: Check the "STOP" fuse.
For more info about how this works see my posting #10 in https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/511958-electrical-problems-99-solved.html because the diagram and the position of the switch are a bit confusing which is explained in #14.

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Tip#2: Check the "TURN" fuse and it's prongs. Both fuses (STOP and TURN) are feeding the Hazard switch and Blinker circuit.

Good luck

Rudi
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Brake lights and turn signals share the same element in the dual element bulb in the back up until 74. So everything goes thru the turnal switch. Not sure if 71 was a plug or not but in 68 it's just a bunch of loose wires at the switch. The PO had screwed everything up on mine. The two head lights were the only thing working. In the end I just pulled all the wires and started over at the turn signal switch. Didn't have a wiring diagram with color codes. If you understand how it's suppose to work it's pretty simple. It basically two separate circuits one for the front and one for the rear. The rear circuit has the power for the brakes lights going thru it so when the turn signal is on it opens the brakes circuit on the side the turn signal is working. The last thing I figured out was the safety flashers. But in 74 I was much younger and didn't have the money to pay what the dealer qouted me it was going to cost to replace the fuse in the wiring harness. Later I found the fuse right under the vent in the center of the cowl. Took about five minutes to get to. The dealer quoted me two hours labor. You don't think their were trying to take advantage of a young kid:rolleyes:
 
Sounds stupid, but I had the same issues and went through the entire system trying to figure it out. Finally I used a simple bulb style tester and tested the fuse box directly. Turned out that the new fuse was not making a good connection, cleaned it real nice and slightly bent the connectors and all works well now.
 
Sounds stupid, but I had the same issues and went through the entire system trying to figure it out. Finally I used a simple bulb style tester and tested the fuse box directly. Turned out that the new fuse was not making a good connection, cleaned it real nice and slightly bent the connectors and all works well now.

Yes, I had heard that and will clean the fuse box out tonight. Have not had time this week to mess with it. Got my top back on instead. It is gonna rain this weekend so that had to happen first.

I will let you know and thank you so much for the tips!
 
Take a look at the wiring diagram for a '71 that is here in the tech links section. The brake and turn wiring is complex because the brake lamps do double duty as turn signals.
The power flows through the hazard switch from either from the stop fuse (key on) or from one of the always hot fuses (don't remember which one) and is selected by the hazard switch. From there it goes to the flasher and then to the turn signal switch and then to the lamps.

The first thing to do is to apply 12V power directly to the flasher using a jumper wire and then see if the turn signals work. If not, your problem is down stream from the flasher, like the turn signal switch or the lamps and their wires. Try both poles of the flasher: one one side it will be constant and on the other it should blink.

Also check for power at the brake switch. (It is best to use a test light rather than a volt meter as the light consumes more power and you can tell if it is weak that there is not enough power at the switch. Power is volts times amps and you have to have current flowing to measure power).

Report back the results.
 
Hello Pin Head,
I have power to the brake switch and it works fine. Took it out and cleaned it up. I also took out the hazard switch and found a loose wire. Re-soldered it back on and now the relay clicks when I turn on the hazards. that is it.
I put a jumper on the relay on both sides and get nothing? no click no nothing. I checked the wires to the rear lights and they look ok. I totally replaced the rear lights sockets, bulbs, the whole deal. I get lights to the rear, but still no brakes and no blinkers at all.

I am wondering if it is the blinker switch, but how to you take that out and/or replace it?

I am stumped and now the master blew out and I need to replace that. Nothing to do with my "other" issues.
Ideas, thoughts, comments?
 
If you apply power directly to the flasher and the turn signals don't work when you turn the switch L&R, then the problem is downstream from the flasher. If the lights work when you apply power, then chances are the switch itself is bad. You have to remove the steering wheel to dig in to it. Try shining up the contacts before you replace the switch.
 
the blinker switch is not difficult to service on a '71 - you can either remove it from the column by loosening that screw on the side (odd sized screw, BTW, difficult to find a replacement even at a good hardware store), or you can take the steering wheel off - cleaning it up and filling with fresh grease will do wonders for the operation of the switch

you also have to adjust the rod on the side of the column, both how it sits on the notch at the steering wheel and at what angle - if it doesn't make contact just right, the blinkers will not work - also, that rod tends to wiggle loose with time . . .
 
If you apply power directly to the flasher and the turn signals don't work when you turn the switch L&R, then the problem is downstream from the flasher. If the lights work when you apply power, then chances are the switch itself is bad. You have to remove the steering wheel to dig in to it. Try shining up the contacts before you replace the switch.

I tried this and still nothing. Now my master went out, unrelated. So i gotta fix that and then move onto the lights.

Still no blinking and no brake lights??? Very frustrated now:crybaby::crybaby:
 
turn light tune up

sounds like you are getting the right advice, I like using jumpers to rule out what is good as well.

I would just say it can be finicky so I cleaned everything and took apart the turn signal and hazard switches and did the fusebox and ran seperate ground wires from the light frame to a terminal attached to bare metal then sealed over with RTV

Still mine wont flash unless the engine is running it seems to need that little extra bit, also had the wonky turn signal switch issue but now have a new column, if the column is aftermarket and you are still running the old hazard switch wiring but are running a new TS switch that came with the column then check the position of the column mounted hazard switch ---TS will work in one pos of the new hazard switch but not the other


with the TS flasher clicking and not flashing it sounds like high resistance or a problem with one of the circuits not pulling enough----you have to get enough amperage through the switch to make it work so run bypass wires and run ground wires and check the resistance of the bulbs too, makes sure the sockets are clean as well

if you just want to see if it just needs a little more pull you could parallel in another light for it to run and see if the extra amps required make the flasher work

good luck:)
 
I am going to replace the hazard switch, not sure what is wrong with it since it all goes through there. I am also going to replace the turn signal switch. I will let you know how that goes. I got new old ones from Cruiserparts.net. They should be here this week. I will report back, but still no brake lights of turn signal lights.
Frustrating, very frustrating.
 

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