Blinkers dont work when steering wheel is lowered

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I'm glad i found this board, it has provided me tons of great reading... on to my problem..



My blinkers will not work when I lower my steering wheel. In order for them to work, I have to tilt it up on the highest setting. Even if I turn my blinker on and then lower it, it stops working. It will not make the blinking/clicking noise, and the blinkers wont blink. Any suggestions?



Thanks,

Matt
 
Awesome, thanks for the quick reply! I'll have to check it out after work. I'll report back later.



Hope you all are ready for a bunch of questions. I have a few other ideas and problems that need to be worked out. I have been doing a bunch of searching and reading already. Thanks for your help!
 
m_court15,

Les is correct. This is a very common problem with the early Sport Trac. It appears that they did not put enough slack in the wiring harness going up the steering column and when the steering wheel is moved up and down it pulls on the wiring harness and can cause broken wires or connections at the multiswitch connector.



The Multiswitch connector contains the wiring for everything passing through the steering column and can cause some very strange erratic operations of the equipment controlled by the switches in the steering column. These include the ignition/starting switch, horn, wipers, cruise control, headlights and dimmer controls, turn signals and even your taillights (taillights and turnsignals share the same wiring and pass through the steering column). People have reported intermittent starting problems, or the horn blowing when the wipers are turned on and various other odd lighting failures, etc...really crazy stuff..:grin:



It fairly easy to pull up a little extra slack in the steering column wiring and you won't have anymore problems.



...Rich:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Rich!



Ok, I got to the trouble spot and it turns out the wire wasn't loose, but the whole connector wasn't connected very well. The clip that is suppose to hold it close and tight was completely busted, so I tried to zip tie it to hold it tightly. We'll see how long that will work for. Maybe that will fix some problems I have been having.



Some of the other problems I have been having are: The blinkers as described above, the dome lights always want to stay on, they work properly once in a while, and every once in a while my truck won't want to start, it will crank and turn over, but not fire up. We'll see what all this fixes.



thanks,

Matt
 
m_court15,

Les is correct. This is a very common problem with the early Sport Trac. It appears that they did not put enough slack in the wiring harness going up the steering column and when the steering wheel is moved up and down it pulls on the wiring harness and can cause broken wires or connections at the multiswitch connector.



The Multiswitch connector contains the wiring for everything passing through the steering column and can cause some very strange erratic operations of the equipment controlled by the switches in the steering column. These include the ignition/starting switch, horn, wipers, cruise control, headlights and dimmer controls, turn signals and even your taillights (taillights and turnsignals share the same wiring and pass through the steering column). People have reported intermittent starting problems, or the horn blowing when the wipers are turned on and various other odd lighting failures, etc...really crazy stuff..:grin:



It fairly easy to pull up a little extra slack in the steering column wiring and you won't have anymore problems.



...Rich:
How does one do this ?
 

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