86purpledragon

Ok so my 86 TA was working fine yesterday, but this afternoon my neighbor came to my house and told me that my turn signal was on. When i went and looked at it the dash right turn signal, front right turn signal and the right side marker light were both on solid. After pulling the bulbs the dash light stayed on. I pulled the flasher and they went off, but when I reinstalled it the lights now flash. The hazards work fine. When i move the turn signal switch to the right the rear lights come on and flash and all of the gauges momentarily come on as the lights come on. This is all with the ignition switch off. When i turn the car on, the left side works fine but the right side flashers in random patterns when i move the turn signal switch. Again, with the car off only the right front, right side, and dash turn signal lights flash by themselves with nothing else on and the turn signal switch in the center.

I am thinking there is a grounding issue but I am not sure where to start. Does anyone have any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Stallion

HI. You may be right about the grounding issue. Have you made any fixes in the past before this was happening? Check the grounding wires for the right hand side of the car. (I had a similar problem with my alarm. It would go off on it's own and found the problem to be the door jam switch. Once it was replaced, it solved the problem). Pretty much the contact was engaged and it never disengaged.

86purpledragon

I have not. Recently I pulled the fog light, hatch release, and defroster switches out to change the color of the lights but that is all. Today happened to be the warmest day of the year so far and the car was sitting in the sun all day when this problem arose.

Now by checking the grounds do you mean just making sure they're secure? I read that it may be the sockets shorting out, does that sound possible?

Stallion

The sockets from what I know may short out, if the contacts become corroded. The socket I had recently fixed had a tiny break in the plastic from the inside (which is supposed to hold down the tabs on the light bulb) which caused my bulb not to seat properly and cause my lights to work intermittently. Once I replaced it, it was fixed.
For the ground, trace the wire visually and check the connections at the ground. If any wire is exposed and contacting metal, that will cause the problem. You may use an ohm meter to find shorts, but I always forget how to use it.

BigBadLou

iTrader: (3)

Let's approach this one step at a time. I'd like to focus on the source of the power first. With the key off, you should have no power to the turn signals through the regular flasher. But the hazard flasher still can provide power.
Can you verify which flasher you pulled that made the lights turn off?
Could you try pulling one, the other one and both? What results do you get? (with ignition off)

Let us know what you find.
Lou

86purpledragon

Sounds good. With ignition off, if I pull the turn signal flasher there is no change. If I pull the hazard flasher it stops. And with both pulled it stops.

I also tried disconnecting both plugs to the steering column with no change to the flashing.

sonjaab

Its obvious that you screwed something up when you pulled those switches out..................

Broken wire, grounded a wire, crossed a wire etc............

BigBadLou

iTrader: (3)

The three switches (for lights, defogger, hatch release) are all on different circuits so I am not convinced that this is the cause of the problem.

If the hazard flasher stops the bad behavior, that is what I expected since it is the one that has power with the key off.
So, with the hazard flasher out (and the regular flasher in), do your turn signals function normally? That would get you by before you can replace the bad part (that we are trying to find).

The plugs on the steering column, did you mean the flat ones? The flat white plug definitely should stop all flashing since it would interrupt the turn signal circuit. Can you try again?

Lou

86purpledragon

No, with the hazard flasher out and the turn signal flasher in they do not work at all.

And yes, that plug and the other one that go into the steering column are currently unplugged and there is no change to the flashing.

BigBadLou

iTrader: (3)

You tested the turn signals with the ignition on and the connectors plugged in, right? (for the no-hazard-flasher scenario)
Please forgive this stupid question but I want to make sure we both are on the same page.

86purpledragon

No problem I had to double check, myself. Yes but upon further inspection I found a broken ground coming out of the column (may have broken when I pulled the connectors apart, oops). After fixing the ground the left side works but flashes a little faster than normal. The right side however flashes incredibly slow and only the rear lights flash (the front, side, and dash indicator do not come on at all).

86purpledragon

Ok so further into troubleshooting I tried disconnecting the lights body plug at the firewall. As soon as I installed the hazard flasher the right indicator on the dash came on steady. It is a little dim, but this makes me think something under the dash is the problem. Is that wrong to assume?

86purpledragon

Continuing on with troubleshooting, I decided the chase the wire for the front turn signals under the dash. After a little poking around the wire loom the flashing stopped. Now with the car off no lights come on by themselves (YAY!), but the front right, side, and dash indicator don't come on no matter what I do now. The left still flashes fast and the right rear still flashes slow when using the turn signal switch, and only the left side flashes when I push the hazard switch. Possible break inside the wire? Or is this a ground issue?

BigBadLou

iTrader: (3)

Good troubleshooting.
Now break out the test light (or voltmeter) and let's get to work.

Let's use this diagram for reference: http://www.austinthirdgen.org/mkport...ithout_T61.jpg

With key off, everything off, both flashers inserted, test for power on the steering column connector, wires: purple, brown, light blue, dark blue, yellow, dark green.
You should see power only on the brown wire (hazard flasher).

With the key off and hazards on, you should see 0V and 12V alternating (flashing) on the brown, light blue, dark blue, dark green and yellow wires.

With the key on, left turn signal on, you should see alternating voltage on the purple, light blue and yellow wires.

With the key on, right turn signal on, you should see alternating voltage on the purple, dark blue and dark green wires.

Let us know what you find.
It will get us closer to a diagnosis of either a bad turn signal switch or a bad wire under the dash.
Lou

86purpledragon

Found the problem (I think..)! I decided to chase the dark blue wires (the one for the right front turn signals) under the dash to make sure they weren't rubbing or melted, or etc.. After following one I came across a pair of old connectors coming from the brake light switch that were touching. When I tried to seperate them I noticed they were melted to each other. Apparently the hot wire for the brake light switch (which gets its power from the stop/haz fuse) had corroded and melted to look like this. It melted to the light blue/white wire going to the turn signal switch. Not sure how this worked, but once they were pulled apart things went back to normal. So I changed these connectors out, applied some heat shrink, and gave it a good ops check and all is well.

Thanks for all the help guys. This definitely had me scratching my head for a while.

BigBadLou

iTrader: (3)

Glad you found it. It isn't every day that a bad connection is found so easily.
Thanks for posting the resolution.

Stallion

Way to go. I am glad you found it. I knew you could do it. I love to trace wires too when i can because I discover things that aren't correct. I am happy for you. Your welcome