Turn signals issue

[TCapelle]

Trying to troubleshoot a turn signal issue on a series 11a.

None of the turn signals work

What happens is when I use the the turn signal switch I will get the switch indicator light to light up for about 5 seconds and then it goes dark and no of the lights blink. After that intial 5 second indicator light up a second or third try of the switch results in nothing- no indicator light , no blinking lights...

I did replace the blinker but getting the same symptom.

I did hook up 12 volts to each turn signal and it lights up so each socket and bulb seems to work.

Does anyone have any pointers or a wiring diagram ?

I did some reading that if the bulbs are not the right wattage that the blinker will not operate. What is the correct wattage

I am assuming the problem is either the turn signal switch, the bulb wattage or???

Any help would be appreciated,
Thx,
Tim

[navydevildoc]

Not sure if your flasher unit is a 2 or 3 prong... but on a 3 prong you can "jumper" the flasher by connecting the input (usually labeled by an X on the flasher) and the lights (labeled by an L) and then seeing if that gets your lights to come on steady when you move the blinker lever in each direction. By connecting a wire between these two connectors, you basically hard wire the lights to be on steady instead of blink.

If the lights come on steady when you do that, then the wiring is basically sound and your problem is with the flasher not working well with the electrical load of the lights.

If they don't, then you need to start tracing out where the voltage stops after the selector switch. Do you have a voltmeter?

[SafeAirOne]

Does anyone have any pointers or a wiring diagram ?

Links to the wiring diagrams are available in .PDF format in our host's online catalog. Just look at the top of each page in the electrical section. Example:

http://www.roversnorth.com/store/c-102-front-lights.aspx

[Cosmic88]

I believe the flasher bulbs are supposed to be 21 watts. Do the same symptoms occur when the engine / alt is running? I know this might sound like a silly question but is the battery fully charged? A low supply voltage when run through the flasher unit (behind instrument panel) will cause it to blink very slowly (also when one bulb is out) or remain steady. This can also happen when there is a low curent draw (also when one bulb is out) which could be caused by a poor connection at either the bulb socket or the flasher unit. The bulbs will still light when "jumping" but the flasher relay is is pretty sensitive to voltage input and current draw.

Pos or neg ground?

[Tim Smith]

Not very scientific but I get the same exact thing on my left indicator when the wiring comes a little undone. I'm lazy and haven't fixed it yet but the quick fix in my case is to wiggle the socket wiring around until it makes a connection again. Then I'm good until I hit the next bump just right.

My guess is you have a faulty connection to your indicator bulbs. Could be the socket or it could be the connection to the socket.

If you have hazzards, then you can figure out the offending light by doing a walk around. Unless of course you are missing more than one light. Then your hazzards may not work either

[LaneRover]

I would say to double check your grounds and make sure all the ground contacts are cleaned up and thus have a good ground. Short of a completely corroded light socket my lighting and blinker issues have nearly always been ground related.

Brent

[vkjar]

I fixed a similar issue this past week on my IIa although only the right side was faulty, I had power to everything but the fault was with a corroded bulb socket if I moved the bulb around it would work off and on. Pryed out the bulb due to the corrosion, cleaned it up put in a new bulb and everything worked fine.

[TCapelle]

Trying to troubleshoot a turn signal issue on a series 11a.

None of the turn signals work

What happens is when I use the the turn signal switch I will get the switch indicator light to light up for about 5 seconds and then it goes dark and no of the lights blink. After that intial 5 second indicator light up a second or third try of the switch results in nothing- no indicator light , no blinking lights...

I did replace the blinker but getting the same symptom.

I did hook up 12 volts to each turn signal and it lights up so each socket and bulb seems to work.

Does anyone have any pointers or a wiring diagram ?

I did some reading that if the bulbs are not the right wattage that the blinker will not operate. What is the correct wattage

I am assuming the problem is either the turn signal switch, the bulb wattage or???

Any help would be appreciated,
Thx,
Tim

Thanks for the tips and things to check. I went ahead and took apart the turn signal switch and wired up battery charger to test if the turn light circuits were working- They were -all lights would turn on and stay on when bypassing the flasher.
I then narrowed it down with the voltmeter to find out I was not getting power to the flasher. I rewired in the 12 volt power to the flasher and wamo all lights the are a blinking...

The wiring diagram was key- Thanks Rovers north!
-Tim