Hazard Light Problem

[TeKdo]

Hello Everyone,
Looking for some advice regarding the hazard lights on my '86. They work just fine...except for when you're on the brakes. Whenever you're on the brakes the lights just stay solid on the dash, and it's only the hazards that do this. The turn signals work just fine when you're on the brakes. I've cleaned all of the grounds that I know of (At the tail light, the battery ones, and the one underneath the airbox), I've changed all of the bulbs (NAPA 2057s in the back for all 4 and Sylvania 2057NA for the front) and cleaned out all of the old crusty bulb grease that was in there, I added a new engine ground (from the dipstick stud to the firewall), and I've swapped in new relays and swapped the flashers with each other (Novita 552s and Tridon EL12s). I do have the flasher's mismatched right now because I only had one old Tridon EL12 kicking around and got a bad Novita 552 from Carquest and haven't gotten the chance to see if matching flashers would fix the problem...but looking at the wiring I think that they're on separate circuits. I've also pulled apart the long flat connector at the bottom of the column for a quick clean to see if any of the contacts were too dirty or corroded.

 

I'm really tempted to replace either the turn signal module because sometimes the hazard switch doesn't like to stay pushed in and I know that one of the arms for the self canceling either needs a spring or is completely broken. I'm also tempted to add grounds at each turn signal bulb because every forum post I've run across so far says to just clean the grounds...but all of my grounds are clean and I even brought them down to bare metal to ensure they're grounded well.

[Ωhm]

22 minutes ago, TeKdo said:

They work just fine...except for when you're on the brakes. Whenever you're on the brakes the lights just stay solid on the dash, and it's only the hazards that do this. The turn signals work just fine when you're on the brakes.

 

I think this condition is normal for HAZARD circuit. Also, both L/R fronts should also stay solid ON with brake depressed.

[TeKdo]

Sweet, that's actually great to hear. The fronts do stay on when the hazards are on and brakes applied. I just thought I was going crazy since the turn signals flashed while on the brakes.

[schardein]

As Ohm said, that's how they are supposed to work.

 

The dash indicator lights are showing the what the actual lights (rear brake/turn/hazard) are doing.

Think about it like this:  If you were traveling down the highway, and encountered a dangerous situation (hazard), you turn on your hazards.  Then you decide it is unsafe to continue, so you stop (brake lights on steady).  If the hazards continue to flash, someone coming up behind you might not realize you are stopped.  

 

I'm sure you know the brake lights, rear turn signals, and hazard lights use the same bulb.  They can't flash and remain steady on at the same time.  It's part of the reason a 3rd brake light was added.  When stopped with a turn signal on, you really only have one brake light (without a CHMSL- Center High-Mounted Stop Lamp).