Intermittent Turn Signal Problem

[Jim Johnson]

About 25% of the times that the left turn signal is used, it blinks at about twice its normal rate. When this happens, the left front light flashes and the left rear does not. The rest of the time, everything works normally. It doesn't seem to matter whether or not the steering wheel is turned, if it's raining or not, or anything else that I can tell.



Does anyone have any thoughts about what could cause this?

 

[Bob McDonald]

First, see if you can cause the light to work normally by tilting the steering wheel up towards windshield. If that causes it to work correctly, you have the infamous problem with the wires to the plug that goes into the emergency flasher switch assembly.

 

[MARVIN McINTYRE 2]

Yes Jim, that will more than likely find that is the problem with this truck. Search for a solution by typing in "turn signal" on this site's toolbar and you will find lots of help to correct the problem.

 

[Jim Johnson]

Thanks for the advice! I'd forgotten about tilting the steering wheel, but I'll check it out.

 

[Jim Johnson]

Well, that's it! When I put the steering wheel in the "city bus" position, the turn signal works normally most of the time; when I put it down even one stop, it acts up at least half the time. I guess I can't complain that this took over 130k miles to show up!

 

[Jim Johnson]

UPDATE: It's fixed! I found the link on this site, <a HREF="http://www.mysporttrac.com/MySportTrac/projects/Steering_Column_Wiring_Repair_Gen1.pdf">http://www.mysporttrac.com/MySportTrac/projects/Steering_Column_Wiring_Repair_Gen1.pdf</A>, for a PDF file describing the fix and followed those directions. Problem solved! :banana: