Turn Signals Not Flashing

[Mark_M]

Not sure what else to try out here, so thought one of the experts on the forum could help. I have the Russ Thompson wiring harness from Factory Five. I am making sure all the lights are working before I put the body back on. Everything works EXCEPT the turn signals. I have replaced the fuse and the flasher to no avail. So I turn the car key to the on position and turn the turn signal switch to right/left and put my test light on the flasher wire in the fuse box and I get no light (as can be seen in the picture). Same result with the fuse. So it doesn't seem like i am getting power but if that is the case I am not sure what to try next. Appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Mark


70987

[jlfernan]

First, sorry, it should be Ron Francis wiring harness. On know on some cars the turn signals will not work unless the bulbs are wired in to create a load on the circuit. On my first car i did the same thing and once the bulbs were connected, everything worked. Now, I have a question for you. My harness has a female plug which has all the turn signal and horn wires. Then I have the dash harness which has the same wires and also the feeds for the indicator lights. Which of the two sets of wires do you use?

[Abgar]

First question: they ever did it before you tested everything?
All wires are connected? also the plus wire and the minus? Because you are saying both sides are not working. If you use a relais is that one okay? Just a few ideas.
Good luck

[RickP]

As previously stated, if the turn signal lights are not physically connected, your signals won't work. Been there before.

[j.miller]

Yep, yep, You need a load. If you hold your test light long enough (like 30-45 seconds it might flash once. Flasher is like a circuit breaker. It gets hot, trips, resets.

[Mark_M]

Thanks everyone for the quick response. Was reading so many threads I used Russ Thompson instead of Ron Francis, thanks for fixing that mistake! If I am thinking about it correctly Jorge I think I have the first of the two you described.

So the fact that my front and rear lights are laying on a box in front and behind the car as I make sure they all light up means they aren't going to flash. I appreciate the description on how the flasher works, that helps me understand why my test light isn't lighting. This seems crazy to ask, but then they won't flash until I hook them up to the fiberglass body? How does that help create a load? And is there a way to test it without the body on? As you can see my electronics understanding is evolving. If that is all it is I can breathe a sigh of relief and move on to the next issue!

Thanks much,
Mark

lights up front and the rear lights, although all connected, but just laying on a box on the front and the back of the car isn't going to

[AC Bill]

They meant that you need to have the bulbs in the sockets, it's nothing to do with the sockets being installed on the body. Your mention of using test light, may have thrown them off, thinking that was all you were using. So thus the mention of resistance being required for them to function. The t/signal bulbs, both front and rear, need only to be installed in the sockets, to create enough resistance to make the t/signal relay function properly. There is no need to install them in the body for them to work.

Lets narrow it down a bit more, as that might reveal something.

-With the ignition in the on position, will all the signal bulbs light up when you turn the headlight switch to the running light position?
-Have you checked the t/signal fuse to see if it's good?
-Are the signal lights also wired to a hazard switch? (4 way flasher)
-Have you checked the t/signal switch for continuity using a multi-meter?
-Have you wired your relay correctly?

[CraigS]

Your TS/parking light housings also have a ground wire going to them. This is needed specifically because of the fiberglass body.

[Mark_M]

They meant that you need to have the bulbs in the sockets, it's nothing to do with the sockets being installed on the body. Your mention of using test light, may have thrown them off, thinking that was all you were using. So thus the mention of resistance being required for them to function. The t/signal bulbs, both front and rear, need only to be installed in the sockets, to create enough resistance to make the t/signal relay function properly. There is no need to install them in the body for them to work.

Lets narrow it down a bit more, as that might reveal something.

-With the ignition in the on position, will all the signal bulbs light up when you turn the headlight switch to the running light position?
-Have you checked the t/signal fuse to see if it's good?
-Are the signal lights also wired to a hazard switch? (4 way flasher)
-Have you checked the t/signal switch for continuity using a multi-meter?
-Have you wired your relay correctly?


Thanks Bill for ideas, let me go through each....

1. With the ignition switch in the on position all signal bulbs including the rear light up.
2. Turn signal fuse is good, just to be sure i tried a different one too.
3. The signal lights don't appear to be wired into the hazard switch.
4. Haven't used a multi-meter. Would need to find one! Do you use that on the wires in the back of fuse panel?
5. So I bought this roadster mostly completed so to be honest the wiring was done and I was just making sure i didn't mess anything up when i was cleaning up wires. So my guess is it was done right, and I am probably just messing something simple up.

I did notice one thing when I looked again. The drivers side turn signal light ground got disconnected. Not sure if that would throw off the turn signals working for all four corners but will reconnect that and try again tonight, once I get my battery hooked back up (was moving it around).

[Mark_M]

Your TS/parking light housings also have a ground wire going to them. This is needed specifically because of the fiberglass body.

Thanks Craig, maybe the loose ground I referred to in my post to Bill is causing part of the issue....will try tonight to see if that helps.

[Mark_M]

Ok, so I got my battery hooked back up and retesting things again. I fixed that ground on the one passenger light that wasn't working and it didn't help my situation. I did find something else though that may help the diagnosis. I have included a video too which hopefully will help. So the hazards work normally when that is the only thing I turn on. But when I pull the headlight switch out half way to get the running lights on and then flip the hazard switch the two front running lights alternate lighting up as you will see in the video. On the dash the two green flasher indicators work when the hazards on. And of course they don't work when the flashers are on. Seems odd that the hazards kind of flash when I have the headlight switch half way out. Does that jog anyone's thoughts?

Ok, just went out to try one more time and now the hazards no longer flash at all. My ground wire came loose again so i taped it back up and no more hazard flashing, they are just constant on.


https://vimeo.com/226844159

[edwardb]

The turn signals/hazards, brake lights, and the running lights (first position on the headlight switch) are completely separate circuits. The fact that you're getting interaction between the hazards and running lights sounds like something isn't wired right. Likely at the wire fixtures themselves. The 1157 bulbs in the 2 front and 4 rear fixtures each have two filaments. One high intensity, one low. All the lows are used for the running lights. The highs are used for turn signals/hazards and brake lights in the rear. Again, all separate circuits.

Possible error conditions: Fixtures connected incorrectly, fixtures themselves are wired incorrectly from the factory (I've had this happen and has been reported by others), or even the bulb is forced into place 180 degrees out.

Note another thread just in the last couple weeks reported the same error condition and the problem was the fixtures were connected to the harness with a couple wires backwards.

[Mark_M]

Thanks Edward. I didn't get a chance to get out there and mess with it tonight. I will definitely take a look at what you stated and see if I can make sense of it and see where to go from there. I am sure I will have more questions. Thanks!

[Mark_M]

Just wanted to post the resolution to this in case anyone looks at it in the future, although i think the solution is probably something others wouldn't make the mistake on in the first place, but you never know. The car is set up with the FAST EFI 2.0 system along with the FAST E6 Ignition box and coil. The FAST system controls a lot of stuff. The previous owner cut the orange wire out of the ignition and wired it to the E6 ignition box. They probably assumed they didn't need the choke and other stuff in the fuse box bank and didn't realize that is also where the turn signal is, hence why I never had any power to the turn signals. Once we fixed this issue the turn signals worked like a charm.

Thanks for all the help. Working on getting things weather packed now and then just need to figure out why the instrument lights aren't lighting up and I think i will have the wiring handled.

Thanks,
Mark

[CraigS]

Congrats on finding and fixing the problem.

[Mark_M]

Thanks Craig! It took my brother to track it down, but nice when you can make it a family project and get some other brains involved.