I've been avoiding fixing this one for a while, but I figured now would be the time to ask for some advice on it, since once the cold weather comes I know i'll never fix it. Here we go...on my 84 Z28, whenever I turn on the parking lights or the headlights, both of the turn signal indicators light up, but dimly. When I click the signal lever in either direction, the indicator gets much brighter, but doesn't blink...so when officers of the law are behind me, I have to use my hand and blink the signal on and off, which gets annoying. At the exact same time this started happening, the driver's side headlight got very dim, but I replaced both sides at the same time and they were both fine for months. All the lights out back seem fine, but I could be wrong. I have a decent amount of electrical knowledge, but that doesn't mean I like doing electrical work, that's why I figured I'd see what a few other people here thought before I started taking things apart. I have a feeling it's either the flasher, a bad ground, or maybe both, any advice before I spend money on flashers I might not need would be greatly appreciated.

 

Almost definitely a bad ground connection. The lights are finding their own ground through the filaments of the other bulbs, causing them to partially light up. Because this is happening, it means the common ground connection (where the ground wire from each socket comes together) for the lights is intact, but the wire from that connection/splice is broken before it hits the chassis. There are usually two locations for a ground connection to the chassis, one on either side of the radiator, just under the rad support.

Pete

 

Thanks for the info, I took a quick look under the hood today though and I didn't see the ground for the signals. Is there any other place it could be? I also didn't mention that the same thing is happening on both sides of the car, and the signals also do not flash even when the headlights are off.