MY 86' HAS DONE THIS SINCE I'VE OWNED IT.WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE OFFTHE BLINKERS WORK FINE,BUT WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE ON,THEY WON'T FLASH.I HAVE TO WORK THE SWITCH UP-DOWN TO MAKE THEM FLASH.PITA.I'VE CHANGED THE FLASHER,THE ALTERNATER IS NEW AND CHARGING FINE,THE BULBS ARE ALL GOOD.WHAT GIVES?

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MT,

Okay! Okay! We hear you! (All caps indicates yelling in the posts.)

Typically this sort of problem can be traced to poor grounding at a lamp socket, or a bulb that was installed incorrectly. Make sure you are using 1157 or 2057 lamps, that they are oriented correctly in the sockets, and the sockets all have a good ground connection. It's also possible the ground wires are connected at the socket but have poor grounds at the other end of the wire, where the ground conductors are connected to the chassis.

Some of the dielectric grease used to prevent corrosion in the sockets can get contaminated and very hard over time, preventing good contact of the bulb base to the socket. You might try cleaning and re-greasing the sockets while you're there.

What happens when the ground is not adequate is that the brighter filaments use the resistance of all the other dimmer filaments in the circuit as a path to ground. The dim filament actually lights very dimly when the turn signals are on, but will not operate when the parking/running lights are on because of the voltage present on the dim filament.

A good clue is to find a turn signal lamp that does not illuminate as brightly as it should, then start tracing the ground paths from there. A "cheater" can be used to connect the suspect lamp socket to a known good grounding point. If the lamps operate normally when the cheater ground is connected, you've found the problem.

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Later,
Vader
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"I'm'a do Things My Way - It's My way or the Highway."
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Thanks for your time Vader.This sounds like good advice,the car is stored all winter ,so i could see how the bulb grounds might not be so good .I'll check it out.