rixter

ok, the turn signals suddenly stopped working yesterday, figured it has to be the relay, swapped it out twice, still no luck
I kinda doubt all 4 fuses died at once
other than swapping the stalk is there something else I can check easily
I'm not the electrical system type, kinda need these to avoid a ticket

jpitman2

The flasher canister......?? DOnt know where it is, but it ought to be somewhere...
jp 83 Euro S AT 48k

rixter

I'm stumped, everything appears ok, fuses are good, relay V is good
the only thing I've touched in the panel recently was relays III & IV I removed and replaced to check
a couple spares to see if they're good, the headlamps work and they're tight so I left them in
no problems... if I turn the stalk with key out pass side lamp comes on, but when I put stalk to drivers side I get nothing...

Marc Schwager

You may need a test light or a voltmeter to really sort it out. I have the USA wiring diagrams not the Euro ones so I may be a bit off, but here are a few things to check:

Do your hazards work?
The hazards will tell you if the turn signal bulbs, fuses, and wiring, are ok.

If they don't, all of that stuff goes through connector "E". Find that and pull it off and hit it with some contact cleaner (DeOxit works well) and see if that doesn't clear it up.

Another thing to check is whether you are getting power to the flasher relay. The E flashers seem to use the same relay, but they supply power from a different spot. Pull the relay and with the ignition on use your test light to see if you are getting power at Pin 31 (stick one of the test light leads into the pin 31 slot and touch the other to a ground bolt above the fuse panel. Clean that contact and see if that helps.

rixter

the e flashers work fine, kinda where I got stumped then started thinking the problem is in the stalk

scirocco

i'm pretty sure "the stalk" is all one unit, a single switch that controls turn signals, high beams, washers etc...

It's allegedly not hard to change, as long as you can take your steering wheel off. (and i KNOW you've done that before!)

Marc Schwager

You may be right on the stalk. One easy and cheap thing to try - IIRC you can reach under the dash and reach the plug. Check tp make sure it is plugged in correctly and the contacts are clean. If that doesn't fix stuff, the black wire with white and green stripes should be the one with 12V on it. If that checks out you may be in for a new stalk. I don't know what the failure mode is for those things - whether on signal usually fails or whether the whole thing crashes.

rixter

I have power to the stalk, when I turn the signal I get the turn "signal on" light in the pod, but it doesn't flash.... now charging another battery so I can get back in there later and see if anything is loose
I know that each piece of the stalk (signals/hbeams, etc) has it's own independant mechanisms, and I've heard of turn signal malfunctions of this sort... really didn't need electrical gremlins 3 days before going to Frenzy

Marc Schwager

When you get the turn "Signal on" light, are the signals lights actually going on outside the car?

rixter

ok, now all of a sudden they are working... gonna have to get a can of gremlin be gone tomorrow then dive into that stalk to see what's wrong
Thanks Marc!

Marc Schwager

Most of the intermittant stuff I have seen turned out to be a flaky connection either at a connector or at the fuse panel. I bet your stalk is fine.

Sacrifice a chicken to the gremlins and have fun at Frenzy

rixter

I'll clean all connections good tomorrow and double check nothing is loose in the stalk, otherwise she only needs to got me thru Frenzy and she comes in for the winter for the 2nd part of the resto...
thanks again

scirocco

the turn-light-goes-on-and-doesn't-flash thing is usually caused by a bad flasher... a little relay-looking canister that cycles the power to the turn signals on and off. Older (traditional..) style flashers actually are little relays... sort of.

They use a bitmetal strip, the kind that bends when they heat up. When you turn the power on, current flows through the strip, and across both (front and rear) turn signal lights. This causes the strip to heat up and bend, snapping away from the contact. Then the strip cools, bends back and turns the lights on again.... repeat until canceled (or never, if you're 85 and driving an Oldsmobile...)

This is what causes the tick-tick-tick-tick sound, the strip snapping back and forth. It's also when when one bulb (front/rear) is out the lights flash twice as fast..... essentially twice the current is being absorbed by the bimetal flasher strip, so it heat cycles (and flashes) twice as fast.

Obviously, with all of this more-or-less violent stuff going on, these are "wear" items.... And for that reason, DOT rules say that the 4-way flasher has to be separate (besides, it will have a different resistance value.... with 4 lights instead of 2, a regular flasher would flash twice as SLOW... same principle applies)


So.... one of the very common failure modes for flashers is to "stick on"..... (or stick off, which is the other failure mode ;-)

The also have a tendency to "fix" themselves if rapped/knocked/moved... all it takes sometimes is to touch them to free the bimetal strip up again, and it "magically works"..


they're cheap, replace it if you can find it, just in case.