hazard lights and turn signals failed. wiring guru in the house?

[zed]

I need a wiring guru. I've always stunk at wiring.

When I got my truck the turn signals were intermittent. Meaning sometimes they would work.. sometimes they wouldn't. But when they worked they would blink (albeit slowly)
Now they are still intermittent but don't blink.
I've a spare blinker, it doesn't change the situation.

I removed a switch and indicator light I THOUGht was aftermarket related.
It was sitting in the panel with the hazard lights... did that remove a secondary voltage or ground needed to actuate the switch?

[pickuprover]

Clean ALL grounds..... clean the positive side of the battery..... always first step. It seems like you are not getting enough power (flasher unit appears to be working.... but may not have enough power to flash.) Test your battery. Cure the simple things first. Then work up from there.

I have added a ground wire from the ground plate at each of the tail lights (where all the grounds come together and is bolted to the body) as aluminum is not a great conductor. Run a wire from there, down to the frame. Since you mentioned in another thread that the starter seems slow, make sure you do the 2 ground straps in the engine bay (one from the starter/engine, and one to the body.).

[zed]

Yea.. my neighbor was a repair technician on various systems for a couple dozen years.... told me to check grounds and replace some of the old wiring. Said the flasher circuit needed "3 wires somewhere in the circuit". i can't remember the term he used.

Fixed my four ways. For some reason they were re-wired and would only work with the old wiring.. but I found the original wiring and it worked fine

The turn signals are a different matter. They are currently working. Well the right ones are flashing incredibly slowly .. wrong flasher or bulb. My left rear is corroded (i mean badly, cracked lens cemented the bulb in there.. ) and the left front just comes on and stays on. Possibly not enough load to get it to flash.

BUT.. I didn't do anything to make it work..
Intermittent failures are the worst.
I believe there to be a bad ground somewhere.. but I can't figure out where.
At one point my turn signal power was reading 2 volts.. and my reverse light switch reading 8.
But now i'm getting 12 at the turn signals..

[pickuprover]

Find each and every ground on each circuit. (there should be one on each side of the rear tub, and then one in the middle of the breakfast plate above your hood latch) Wire brush the inside of the connectors, if you can, remove the bracket they go in and clean between the bracket and the body. This would also be a good time to add a ground wire from the bracket to the frame (although the one on the breakfast plate is not as critical as it is steel there and not aluminum). Your flasher is working, there is just something preventing it from working properly (read not enough draw on the circuit..) Therefore there is two possibilities. First being that the grounds are not grounding properly, causing the low draw. Or your wiring is corroded to the point that it will not carry a current. Now that you stated that you have 12 volts at the signals, I would guess the grounds (essentially you added the ground wire to the frame with the meter).
If this does not work, then take your test light (not the multimeter) and start at the flasher, disconnecting every connection on the way to the lights and see where it stops flashing. If you make it to the ground point then it definately is a ground issue.
The last and final option is to find a bottle of Lucas Smoke and inject it into the wiring.... (mind you if you can find the elusive smoke let me know.... lol)
Happy hunting.

[antichrist]

Do you have a meter or test light? Start at the source, the battery, and check the voltage. Proceed to the next junction point, make sure you have voltage in and voltage out. Repeat until you find the fault, or have checked each light. Always keep the ground on the battery. If you find you're getting the correct voltage to the lights with the ground clip on the battery, disconnect the positive battery cable, set your meter for continuity checking and start checking every ground connection.

[zed]

I found that there's a short somewhere at "the purple wire" It connects to the panel/interior light switch. Actually at the bottom post, very bottom. When Switched to any of the on positions, the turns and flashers don't work. Which explains the intermittence.. I would have the switch randomly placed just from bumping it or moving the panel around.

The diagram only shows one purple wire "headlight flash and dip"
But those still work. there's a heavy gauge.. maybe 12 or so and a 16/18 gauge wire.. its the 18 that's giving me grief.. Connects to the same terminal on the fuse block. Maybe its for the "dome" light I don't have left as a short somewhere.
My panel lights work... and those are the only lights in the entire vehicle.. so i'm good.

It got even more strange to diagnose because there was enough corrosion on that fuse so it was also powering the purple wire intermittently.

I diagnosed it eventually by pulling each spade off the fuse block one at a time till something changed.

I need a better ground.., the battery is grounded to the frame and I don't see a strap to the engine, but right now its working.

[zed]

FOr those unfamiliar with proper tools for refilling your wire loom.. see this page..

It turns out that I pulled a spade off of one of the 4 way (always hot) wires.. then it contacted the chassis and released a bunch of smoke before I could get to it. Melted about 2cm of wire insulation before I contained the smoke. I tried to replace it with freshly smoked wire, but I'm not sure I will get proper flow through my cheap end connectors.

I've got some proper british wire loom connectors ordered.