Turn indicator on - SOLVED
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 859
Likes: 53
From: Magnolia Texas
Turn indicator on - SOLVED
A while back, I was driving my '67 at night and noticed the left turn indicator was on. The turn signals operated normally but after canceling, the left indicator would come back on. I suspected the switch but decided to dig into it to find the problem.
Turns out the indicator ONLY stayed on when the headlights or parking lights were on. I have done the parking brake mod so they are on with the headlights. I also noticed the left flash rate was SLIGHTLY slower than the right. All good clues.
After checking all the obvious grounds, I noticed that the left front lamp wasn't flashing the bright filament, but was flashing the parking (dimmer) filament. I pulled the lens and TOUCHED the bulb, which turned on the correct filament. AH-HA, bad ground at the bulb! It turned out to be inside the bulb socket itself. One of the contacts at the base of the bulb was not making contact with the socket and the current was going through the wrong filament and feeding back to the turn indicator.
Cleaning the socket and reinstalling the bulb with a little Lubriplate on it fixed the problem.
Hope this helps someone else with the same problem.
Steve
Turns out the indicator ONLY stayed on when the headlights or parking lights were on. I have done the parking brake mod so they are on with the headlights. I also noticed the left flash rate was SLIGHTLY slower than the right. All good clues.
After checking all the obvious grounds, I noticed that the left front lamp wasn't flashing the bright filament, but was flashing the parking (dimmer) filament. I pulled the lens and TOUCHED the bulb, which turned on the correct filament. AH-HA, bad ground at the bulb! It turned out to be inside the bulb socket itself. One of the contacts at the base of the bulb was not making contact with the socket and the current was going through the wrong filament and feeding back to the turn indicator.
Cleaning the socket and reinstalling the bulb with a little Lubriplate on it fixed the problem.
Hope this helps someone else with the same problem.
Steve
Drifting
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,665
Likes: 60
From: Buffalo New York
My left front turn signal lamp would get lazy once in awhile and flash slowly or not at all. Cleaned up the ground connection and it has been fine ever since. Recently I have replaced my dash harness and I am waiting for the cluster and clock to come back from restoration. I will be floored if everything works the first time I plug everything back in. Good job on your fix
.
Dennis
.Dennis
