Turn signal issues

[Snuffy74]

Recently, I noted a problem with the signal on my 1009. The right turn indicator is on, and the passenger front signal won't flash. This only occurs when the headlights are on, and the bulb is lit but will not flash. I have replaced the bulb socket and chased and cleaned every ground I could find, but this hasn't fixed the problem. The issue only occurs when the headlights are on, and it doesn't do so immediately... they have to be on for a couple minutes before it acts up. Any chance something in the circuit is getting warm and failing? The headlight switch is new, and I'm about to replace the turn signal switch out of frustration. Anything else I should be looking into?

 

[WARWAG]

Clean every single connector in the turn signal housing. BUT this sound more like a bleed off from the head light power. Something must be touching somewhere after it heats up and expands.

 

[mistaken1]

The headlight fuse holders have been known to melt the surrounding fuse box plastic from poor connections at those terminals......

 

[corelokt]

The headlight fuse holders have been known to melt the surrounding fuse box plastic from poor connections at those terminals......

That is why a hi / low beam circuit powered by relays is a good idea. It removes a lot of current dray on the fuse circuit and the headlight switch.

I had a long list of issues recently w/ mine. I cleaned the fuse box and junction box behind it. I also had to swap out some bulbs that looked good, but were not. Try new bulbs first, it's easiest.

 

[my86m1009]

My fuse block is melted for the main fuse powering the lights... Check the fuse block and clean the connections

 

[Warthog]

Check the ground wire on the radiator support. There is one above each headlight.

 

[Speddmon]

Was there ever a resolution to this issue?? I would love to know as I am having a VERY similar issue with my 1028/1031.

The turn signals work OK by themselves. I say OK because I do have to wiggle the turn signal lever every now and again to get them to blink. BUT

As soon as I turn on the headlights (Immediately), the turn signals stop working. Either direction, both indicators in the cab come on and all the lights on the truck come on, but nothing blinks. ONLY when the headlights are on. Since I have to wiggle the lever occasionally, I'm thinking maybe the turn signal switch is bad???? What do you all think.

And I have cleaned, sanded, and applied a coating of De-Ox compound to every ground, the 12 volt bus and both the positive and negative 24 volt bus. Any thoughts?

 

[dependable]

At this point, I would replace flasher (2 pronged at bottom of fuse box) with a commercial grade. ($15 instead of $3) Or just swap the emergency flasher from above to test. When they are tired they can be current sensitive. Could be the switch if you say it seems loose. Other than that is sounds like a grounding issue, but I know you said you checked that.

 

[my86m1009]

Speddmon, I did fix the issue. First I had to get a new flashed unit then had to replace the turn signal socket. Everything is perfect now

 

[Speddmon]

I was working on mine today. I replaced the flasher switch in the column. What a pain!

After the switch was changed, the lights started acting like the problem the OP was having...they would blink for a bit and then stop. When they were blinking they were really slow. I swapped the flashers with each other, and it helped some but not a cure.

I took the connectors off of the high beam switch and the headlight switch and cleaned the terminals and coated them with a film of de-ox. I also noticed that my connector up behind the dash at the instrument cluster is loose on one side, almost like a locking tab broke off of it or something. And I pulled the fuse and cleaned it good and wiggled it around in the socket to clean the socket some. None of this fully cured the problem though. So I decided to call it a day, because I had a few other things to do to it.

After I got my tach hooked up I wanted to test it out, so I started the truck. The tach works great. While I had it running I decided to try the turn signals once more. With the truck running they work PERFECTLY!!!! With or without the headlights, they work great and blink normally. Shut the truck off and they act up again????

I did notice that the battery jumper between the front and rear battery is very loose like the connector is not crimped good enough or some of the strands are broken. I will be replacing that tomorrow or Tuesday. But even with that, there should be plenty of current capacity for the lighting circuits to operate properly (My 12 volt bus is fed from the negative post of the rear battery, so theoretically, a bad jumper could cause some voltage drop)

 

[dependable]

If swapping flashers changed anything, I would go ahead and get new ones. I always use a commercial flasher as they will last the lifetime of the truck, make a solid clicking sound and support any trailer or plow lights you might add to turn signal circuit.

 

[doghead]

Ditto.

 

[Speddmon]

Well, I found the root cause of my turn signal problems. The Switch was working but not very good, so replacing it was a good thing. The new one works much smoother. On the advice of "The Great One" (Thanks again Warthog), I checked the actual front turn signal sockets. It turns out where the ground pin on the side of the socket bends back down into the socket to contact the side of the bulb, on both front sockets the pin was cracked and almost broken in half at the bend. This explains the odd functioning of the lights, a very high resistance ground will look for the path of least resistance back to ground, and going through the other lights was that path. I replaced both front sockets and everything works as it should now.

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Bingo. And when you had the truck running, you had a bit more voltage so there was enough current to make the signals work properly.

So, check the condition of your batteries!

 

[Speddmon]

Batteries are good, already load tested days ago.

 

[Warthog]

Hey Speddmon, glad you found the issue. I do get it right every once in awhile.............