Morning Lads,

OK so left side indicator works fine. Throw on right side indicator and the voltage gauge on the dash goes ape-sh#t and I get a very low pulse of light front and rear. Hell, even the license plate lamps start to flash!
I have a major short there somewhere gents. Can anyone point me to something?
More stuff.
What is behind the center console vent that makes noises of death sometimes? LOL
If the courtesy lights on the doors are thron in the down position, they stay on dimly and the binger on the car starts binging in pain?
These questions are probably quite futile but I thought I might get a "Hey, I had exactly the same problem"!

Fingers Are Currently Crossed

Cheers

 

Hi Bernie--

If the turn signal is drawing enough current to dip the whole system as you describe, take a look at the fuse in there to see that you don't have one too big. Fuses are there to protect the wiring, and the little 16ga stuff used for this circuit is way too small to sink the healthy short-circuit you seem to be enjoying.

If the gauge wasn't going crazy, I'd be looking at ground issues at the tail lights. You can verify the voltage drop thing with a meter at the jump-start post while you run the flashers. Does the voltage really dip that much? You can verify the ground issue with that same voltmeter between the lamp housing grounds and the frame of the car-- at a known good ground point. If you show more than a fraction of a volt between the housing and true ground, your ground lead is high resistance or open. When the ground is open, current flows through the turn signal bulbs, then back through the running light bulbs to find a path to true ground. So the turn signal bulbs are dim, the running light bulbs are very dim (there are more of them in parallel...) and the flasher slows down because of the decreased current in the circuit.

If you have a meter with a large enough current capacity (bigger than the fuse...), you can measure the total current drain for this circuit by making a set of test leads with a fuse holder in the middle, and a place to connect the ammeter in series. Plug the whole mess into the fuse panel where the fuse used to be, with your lamp fuse in the holder, and you can easily see the amount of current being consumed.

HTH!

 

Thanx Dr. B

I will give your suggestions the work over and see where I come out on the other end.

Cheers

 

Bernie, I was working on my turn lamps last weekend and had similar symptoms that you described. Turns out I had reversed the wires on turn signal disconnect plug and was shorting to ground. I plugged them in correctly and my problems went away. I dont know how applicable that is to yours but reversing turn light wires is a big deal on my 81 Euro
- Eric

 

Hey Lads,

Well Dr. B, I checked out the fuse panel and you were right there! I found a 16AMP fuse in the front right position!

(BTW - This is not my car! Its an 84 that belongs to a friend (I had to say that LOL)

Anyway, I guess its the front right somewhere? If I pull that front right fuse, the indicator works on the rear but blinks rather quickly? Should I attribute this to there not being the extra load of the front bulb on the blinker?

Eric,
Do you mean by reversing the + and the - wires to the turn lamps, it caused an issue? Sorry, I don't get it?

cheers

 

Bernie, thats correct. None of the front lights except the headlights were working when I got the car. I had disconnected the plug to get a voltage reading and hooked it back up backwards. Turns out the problem was an alarm system a PO had installed. Anyway when I first tried it I had a bouncing voltage gauge and very low powered flashes. I didnt notice if the licence plate light was blinking.
Also - before I got the front lights working, the back ones would blink rather quickly as well. Once the load of the front turn lights (wired correctly) was added the blinking time was normal.
Good luck
Eric

 

Hey Eric,

Well, that sounds quite simple?
I will give it a shot this morning to see if it makes a difference....

BTW - Is the easiest way to the front lamp wiring through the wheelwell?

Thanx For the advice lads

Cheers

 

Hey Bernie, I removed the panel under the wheelwell and turned the wheels enough to let me have access to the plug. I probably would have removed the wheel if I was doing any other work besides fooling with the plug; it is a little tight in there but for accessing the plug you should be fine.
Good luck
- Eric

 

Well,
When you're right ----- you're right
And Eric my man ---------- you were right bloody on!!!

Just as you said, the wires to the indicator were reversed!
Swapped them around and we are back in business.

But wait!!!
You not only solved that problem, you also solved the courtesy light problem as well.
I was having issues with those as well. Popped both lamps out of the doorpanels and the passenger side had the hot and a ground reversed. The pissed off courtesy lights are pissed off no more.

Big thanx to both you and Dr. Bob for jumping in to help. You saved me a LOT of messing around......

Big Cheers