blinker problems

[mjtjnj]

I know this has been gone over a billion times here, let me add my weird example to the database.

 

I just had the bed off, got a clean bed of an 86 that had all the taillight wires, including the large harness connector at the back of the truck, then the wires were cut. I spliced this harness up to my existing wiring.

 

I grounded it to the screw behind the L taillight. I believe it to be a good ground.

 

Left blinker works fine.

Right blinker does not - the right green arrow just stays on when I push the stalk, and the parking/taillight lights up, but doesn't blink. Right blinker works when the head/taillights are off, but then the left blinker blinks dimly as well.

 

When I put on the hazards, everything works!

 

Besides the ground behind the left taillight that I'm going to clean up, any other pertinent grounds I need to check? Guess I might need to check the harness itself. And what's that yellow "goo" that always gets into the sockets? LOL

[Wildman]

I'm not an expert on '86's, others are, and there are some differences on the '86 model.

 

And one of the problems your experiencing could be one of them differences, like a change in the steering column's mulit-function switch :dunno:

 

If the right blinker is staying on, that's a sign that you have a grounding issue, it could be the front marker/turn light, most likely the socket ground. There is also a body ground behind the left headlight, on the inner fender that grounds the front lights.

 

That 'yellow goo' is Die-electric grease :D

[kro10000]

Sounds like you need to top off your blinker fluid :brows:

[mjtjnj]

haha yeah, fluid's low. I'll clean up that ground a little bit, and check the front socket. My truck is an 87, but the bed and harness are from an 86. Truck was sitting for 2-3 months while I swapped the bed and gas tank, so maybe the socket got corroded up front. I've seen that one before!

[mjtjnj]

OK, did a little playing around. Checked the front sockets, all good. Checked the rear ground, really stripped it down to the bare metal. Still, the right blinker freezes when the parking or headlights are on. Weirder still, when the car is off and I hit the brake pedal, the parking lights, dash lights, and taillights come on! Weird

 

The most useful thing I did was unplug the rear harness pigtail, right behind the L taillight. Then I tried the blinkers with the lights on and off, and the blinkers worked fine, no dash problems, nothing weird. So the short is in the rear harness somewhere. Can the rear sockets themselves short out? What should I do? Inspect every square inch of wire? Clean all the sockets? At least I'm getting somewhere!

 

thanks

Tom

[Wildman]

Yes, your making progress :D

 

You did a smart thing to disconnect the rear lights to narrow it down :thumbsup:

 

The rear harness, between the rear apron and bumper has OEM crimps in the line, where the plate lites tied in, and the right side markers were tapped from the left side, the best thing is to pull the harness right off the truck, and sit down in front of your work bench, and pull the tape off and inspect, and replace all the crimp connector on the harness, and what ever corroded wires you find.

 

I've used butt connectors with die-electric grease, but to do it again, I would use them new connectors with the self shrink wrap on them for a permanent fix.

 

Also, inspect the light sockets, there plastic back there, and don't go bad that often, but it can happen.

 

I'm thinking that Cherokee found some sockets that were close to the originals, but I'm not sure what he used........maybe he'll chime in here on that ;)

 

Also........make sure the bulbs are orientated in the sockets correctly. And that you have 1157 bulbs in there........and 1156 for the back up lights.

[mjtjnj]

I think I have some 2057's in there too. Maybe that's the problem! I know my backup lights are the 1156s.

 

Worst case scenario, I have my old harness from the truck that I could use. I'd just have to cut off that grommet that goes through the apron -- I told you about that. Could using 2057's screw things up? Hmmm...

[Wildman]

No, 2057's are the same bulb.

 

In fact, I just checked the book, and it calls for 2057.

 

I'm just stuck with the old number of 1157 :nuts:

 

Yea, I know we "talked" about that harness you have ;)

 

Like I said, it could be the crimps in the harness that's causing your problems. I would still check the other harness before you put it in thought.