Where to start turn signal diagnosis

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caz

caz

Keystone Cruisers
10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Threads
151
Messages
2,259
Location
Lancaster, PA
All,

My turn signals quit working on the way to work today. I assumed the flasher immediately, but the hazards still work.

They were working fine while sitting at an intersection and they just stopped. If I recall, when my flasher was bad before the lights would stay on. Now they do not come on.

Thanks for any tips!
CAZ
 
There are guys on here that know a lot (I mean A LOT) more than me, but it sure seems like on mine that it is most times a ground problem or I clean the contacts all the way from the steering column through the fuse box and out to each light

You may have already done this but one of the best pieces of advice I got from this site was to pull the fuse panel, unplug the wires from the back, take out the glass fuses and check each for continuity, then take a small round file and clean 30 years worth of corrosion off the blades that the fuses clip into. I think that solved a world of problems for me.

Just my .02.

Copenhagen1
 
If the flasher is the cuplprit and is the original oem type flasher you can open them up and clean them and/or an adjustment may be needed to get them to work. P.O. replaced mine with a newer version Toyota flasher which has a plastic casing and is not made to come apart. But the funny thing is they left the original "bad" one still attached. I now have the bad one working and the plastic casing in my junk box for emergencies. And yes cleaning will fix most problems on these Land Cruisers. I wish everything was made like this.
 
Besides cleaning the contacts in the fuse box, there are spots inside the lamps where the reflectors pass ground that can get dirty, and the nuts that hold the lamps to the fenders as well. Clean them all and hit them with a file, just to be sure.
 
Funny story here.
At a club meeting, my 78 FJ40 and the pres' 81 FJ40 both had no running lights and turn signals. Flashers and brake lights were good.
The fuses were the culprits. Not blown, just dirty connections. Cleaned `em up and still working :D
That is where I would be looking.
Reminds me of early British cars and Lucas fuses...
 
Hi all,

Have you changed the light bulbs in any of your front or rear indicator lights.

I found the following out. Your hazards ligts will work but your indicator lights won't?

When I did my rebuild I had new lights all round, hazards worked but no indicators, the problem was the light bulbs that came with lights.

If the wattage of the bulbs are to low the indicator unit won't work, if you read the info on the unit it requirers a certain amount of wattage to pass threw the unit.

In the front indicator lights there are 2 bulbs in each light and one bulb in each of the rears (3 bulbs per side). I increased the wattage on the rear bulb and bingo they worked. The new lights on the front had small wattage bulbs propably so they don't melt the cheap plastic housing they come with now.

So check that maybe you replaced a bulb of late with a lower wattage or one of the two bulbs in your front indicators has blown.
 
I was working on turn signals today aswell. Got the left one to work, replace a broken wire on the right but still nothing. There is one wierd thing though, if i have the working left turn signal on and then i turn the headlights on, the left turn signal stops working. WTF?
 
Thanks all!

I will check out the flasher and go from there. I just figured if the flasher were dead, the hazard lights would not work either.

While I am on this topic, how much does everyone else's ammeter move when the turn signals are on? Mine has always moved back and forth about 1/4".

CAZ
 
I have seen this before it was kinda funny how I discovered this. I was trying to get my inspection sticker here in the states and the left turn signal would not work but was working when turned in to the place. So I turned on the engine and it started working agian. Ended being the wrong wattage bulb installed by the P.O.
watrob said:
Hi all,

Have you changed the light bulbs in any of your front or rear indicator lights.

I found the following out. Your hazards ligts will work but your indicator lights won't?

When I did my rebuild I had new lights all round, hazards worked but no indicators, the problem was the light bulbs that came with lights.

If the wattage of the bulbs are to low the indicator unit won't work, if you read the info on the unit it requirers a certain amount of wattage to pass threw the unit.

In the front indicator lights there are 2 bulbs in each light and one bulb in each of the rears (3 bulbs per side). I increased the wattage on the rear bulb and bingo they worked. The new lights on the front had small wattage bulbs propably so they don't melt the cheap plastic housing they come with now.

So check that maybe you replaced a bulb of late with a lower wattage or one of the two bulbs in your front indicators has blown.
Click to expand...
 
Yes ground or you have two positives connected. I would think this is why lights work and then don't when others are turned on.
 
All my blinker issues on my 40 have been bad grounds in the rear light assemblies. When my headlights stopped working a few months ago it was the dirty fuse block thing. I removed all the fuses and did the file thing to bring back nice and shiny metal and everything works again. Start with the flasher since it is easy and work from there.
 
I'm working through the exact same issue with my '72 FJ40. All the lights now work except for the blinkers on the fenders. Hazards work but no blinkers. I've done all the suggestions except for checking the wattage of the bulbs. I'm off to the garage now to give it another look.

As suggested by Coolerman on his Web site, I added dedicated ground wires to the front turn signals since my fenders are rusty and now the lights and hazards both work. I'll wait until the Cruiser is running before I take the flasher unit apart. Maybe the alternator will generate the need power to make them work.
 
Last edited:
It was the flasher.

I cleaned it - nothing

I actually had to adjust it to get it to work. I bent the little "L" shaped stop on the one side to make the contact closer to the electro-magnet (after trying a few other things ;-).

I thought somewhere in this thread that someone mentioned that the flashers are more powerful than the turn signals - it must have been another thread. That is correct - the same flasher does turn signals and hazard - the hazard draws more power. My turn signals just didn't have the oomph to overcome the gap.

CAZ
 
what is a flasher?

I have this problem, what is a flasher?
 
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