[Trips4me]

This is sort of odd.. the turn signal indicator lamp works fine when I turn on the right turn signal but does not work when I turn on the left turn signal.. all the external signal lamps work, left and right, front and rear... I've been under the dash and checked most everything. I have voltage to the lamp.. voltage to the steering column connector but the lamp only lights if I turn it to right turn.. any ideas???

[Trips4me]

This is sort of odd.. the turn signal indicator lamp works fine when I turn on the right turn signal but does not work when I turn on the left turn signal.. all the external signal lamps work, left and right, front and rear... I've been under the dash and checked most everything. I have voltage to the lamp.. voltage to the steering column connector but the lamp only lights if I turn it to right turn.. any ideas???

[WallyB]

Is the lamp for the left been checked? Is the ground OK? Is the +12V contact in the lamp socket making contact wiith the lamp? Simple basics to check first.

[Trips4me]

Wally... there is only one indicator lamp on the dash on '65's..... it blinks for either turn signal. As I mentioned I have voltage at the lamp that goes to 11.5-12v each time the flasher clicks wether it's left or right. However, the bulb does not light when the left turn signal is on.... It is a single contact bulb so it makes no sense that it does not light. The only thing I can think of is that the indicator SWITCH grounds this lamp and it is not doeing so...???? Does that sond right?

[engineer]

turn signal switch is not working correctly. Should be replaced.

[Zimtok]

Mine does the same thing from time to time.
You can hear the flasher working and the lights are flashing but the indicator on the dash is not working.
After some fidling around I traced it to the turn signal switch in the column. something in the switch is not making contact. I cleaned my switch with some electronic spray cleaner from radioshack and it seems to be working again. I will eventually replace it when I rebuild my steering column.

[Trips4me]

Engineer/Zimtok... thanks.. that is what I thought but with the old wiring diagrams it's hard to tell exactly how the turn signal indicator lamp works.. I felt it had to be something like that since everything else seemed to be OK. Appreciate the help. Jim

[tallrandyb]

Originally Posted by Trips4me

Engineer/Zimtok... thanks.. that is what I thought but with the old wiring diagrams it's hard to tell exactly how the turn signal indicator lamp works.. I felt it had to be something like that since everything else seemed to be OK. Appreciate the help. Jim

I know this is an old thread, but I'd appreciate any turn signal/steering column experts input since now my turn signals are acting strange (were working perfectly when I started this project):

Basis:

65 GTO, I removed the stock steering wheel while re-doing the instrument cluster/bulbs/switches/fixing/adding stuff. It's all back in the dash and everything is lighting/switching/etc as it should, except the turn signal.

I bumped into the turn signal switch on the column while working on things, but didn't seem like that was enough to cause a problem.

Current situation:

I turn on right turn signal: lights flash, you can hear flasher flashing, but the turn signal indicator on dash stays off.

I turn on left turn signal: lights do nothing, no flasher clicking, and the turn signal indicator just comes on and stays on.

I know that the turn signal indicator light has the light blue and dark blue wires running to it for left and right, and clearly its getting power/working but just not the right combo of power. The column harness all seems fine and I wiggled the wires in the "crescent" connector and nothing happens/changes.

Reading back through this thread and looking at a couple others, it seemed like there were somewhat similar issues.

My turn signal switch white plastic pieces are all there, they click up and down as they should, they kick back off when the wheel is rotated past the "bumps" to turn off signals, and all the wiring in the steering column still all looks fine.

Questions:

Is there a potential grounding issue here (ground of indicator bulb, ground in the steering column, etc?)

What does the spring-loaded pin do in the steering column that gets pressed back down when you tighten the steering wheel nut back down on the splined shaft? Is that only for horn operation (horn works fine, so I believe I have all of that aligned correctly for reassembly)?

Best way/plan to multimeter the wiring contacts in the steering column while in turn signal mode?

Any other experiences or best practices here? I'm bummed because I've spent the last month or so removing and correcting/improving everything in the dash, and now that it is all back together and working perfectly I've screwed up my turn signals.

Thanks!

[Lemans64]

Do you have your front turn signal/ park light lamps hooked up and grounded to the body? I found out the hard way, if the front system is not hooked up the bulb in dash for turn signal indicator will not work. Also could be bad turn signal switch. appears it uses the opposite side to ground the bulb thru the turn signal switch.

[tallrandyb]

Yes, nothing changed with the lamps or their grounds. This is what it seems like, a grounding problem. Could it be as simple as the indicator bulb housing is not grounding well enough to the cluster? Since the light blue and dark blue wires both run to the indicator, it seems like both have to provide power to the dash indicator bulb since they also split and run to the actual lamps. Or does one send a ground when the other sends power?

[Lemans64]

Yes one sends power and other one provides ground, but in the other direction the polarity reverses thru the turn signal switch. one could check power
and ground at dash bulb in both directions.

[tallrandyb]

I'm on it. I'll fire up the multimeter and start checking signals, thanks!

[tallrandyb]

Originally Posted by Lemans64

Yes one sends power and other one provides ground, but in the other direction the polarity reverses thru the turn signal switch. one could check power
and ground at dash bulb in both directions.

thanks Lemans64, I checked power a few places and even swapped the new LED bulb for the indicator with a regular bulb just in case that was making it weird.

But I found the issue: when I lowered/wedged the steering column down so that I could re-install the cluster with the new upper switches (speaker and power antenna, which made it VERY hard to get it lined up/in there without crunching anything), I must have pinched the column wiring harness to the turn signal switch. Three wires look rough, so I'll be repairing/soldering/shrinkwrapping them, I do NOT want to try to replace the whole switch/harness right now (switch is all working fine, just the wires are the problem).

Onward!

[Goatracer1]

The contact with the spring is for your horn .

[tallrandyb]

Originally Posted by Goatracer1

The contact with the spring is for your horn .

Thanks! I've got the wiring all with continuity now, but I still don't have the flasher+indicator working correctly like it did before I pulled the dash.

I just don't understand the "ground" that is provided to the dash indicator bulb, and where it comes from to be coming through the dark blue or light blue wiring.

It seems that for right turn now everything works fine except (I guess) the "ground" to the indicator lamp; signals flash fine front and rear and flasher is clicking, but no indicator.

For left turn, my left rear light comes on, the dash indicator comes on, but the flasher doesn't flash. So maybe it is so weak of a ground coming through the dash indicator that it doesn't pull enough current through the flasher to get it going? So for both of these, it seems like I'm not seeing the "ground" that I was seeing before.

Does the steering wheel have to be fully re-assembled so the turn signal switch is grounded to the steering column/etc to work correctly, or can it operate correctly just dangling in the air?

Thanks anyone!

[Lemans64]

Again the indicator gets power and ground thru the dark and light blue wires. with left turn on the indicator should have power on the light blue wire and the turn signal lever should supply ground to the dark blue and would reverse this condition for right turn. The ground side wire would travel back thru the front turn signal lamp and bulb, so if these are not hooked up or bulbs are not in this will not work. Make sure your front park lights work and have good ground.

[Lemans64]

Ok With out having ignition on you should be able to check for ground at the indicator bulb socket or wire, with turn signal switch turned on, IGNITION OFF, check for continuity to ground on both wires, then repeat which switch in other position. This will tell you if you have a ground problem thru switch or something else. Steering wheel shouldn't make any difference. but is screw for lever in place? Might not be pulled tight together for contacts to work?

[tallrandyb]

Correct, right now the switch is dangling off my steering column, no handle screwed into it. But it was performing the same fully installed but with the steering wheel still off. So no way for the switch to provide any ground since its not touching anything, but even when it was touching the steering column (installed) the signals were acting the same way.

Front bulbs, filaments, and grounds are all good and the same as before I removed the instrument cluster, and I'm seeing good parking lights so I know I've got grounds for them. Rear bulbs/filaments/grounds all good since I'm getting parking lights and brake lights operating all correctly.

I have continuity through all 7 wires of the steering column harness from each of the switch rivets to the corresponding crescent connector pins.

But if the steering column is providing a ground path for the dark blue or the light blue wires, then that is not sending ground. I'll switch the switch then just run a wire from the rivets to a good dash ground and see if that solves it.

Thanks!

[tallrandyb]

Resolved. When I disconnected the crescent connector, I went through and re-bent all the pins to insure solid contacts and once I reconnected it to test the switch, everything worked correctly. So it must have gotten tugged/shifted during dash work to break a contact somewhere but now is working great. I had confirmed good ground being supplied through the turn signal switch from the dark and light blue wires when signaling, so then I just connected everything back up solidly and it works.

So the pinched turn signal switch wires inside the steering column were a red herring, but I went ahead and cut/stripped/soldered/shrinkwrapped the ones that were bad then re-assembled; while re-assembling I saw how easily that wire loom can get pinched while tightening down the turn signal switch to the steering column housing, you definitely have to take your time and keep wiggling the wires down by the crescent to make sure they are not snagging/pinching.

Took for a test drive, whole dash is all good. Thanks for all the support!

[Lemans64]

Glad to help and glad it all worked out. bad connection can be hard to find and sometime fix themselves and you never get to find or
figure out what happened. But sounds as though you got it. Happy cruisin before bad weather hits, Maybe one last drive up here.
Bad weather already coming in.