Another Turn Signal Thread (and more questions!)

[ByStickel]

I've had my '71 for a couple of weeks now, and I put a battery in it for the first time in a long time, The car sat for at least 10 years. I wanted to go through and see what worked and what didn't.

I did open up and clean out the headlight combo switch. Parking and headlights, dash lights, brake lights, and hazards work. As does the starter, blower motor and horn. That's the good.

No wipers, but the relay does click. The windshield washer is also non-op, but I can hear it trying when I press the button. I'm less worried about these items, since I haven't started diagnosing them.

The brake lights turn themselves off, individually, when I use the turn signal, but the blinkers do not work.  

I can detect no power going to the turn signal switch at any time. I'm not even sure which wire/wires are supposed to bring 12V to the signals.Is it the White, via the flasher unit?

My wiring harness is also different from the diagrams I've seen. (Lots of threads link people to Xenon for diagrams, but that site seems to be down) Most diagrams have WR and WB going to the left and right lights, respectively. Mine has GR and GB, just like the front of the car. My harness had the GR and GB switched (left and right swapped). This made the outer two segments of each light come on, stacked, rather than having the top elements for running, with the outer lowers for turn signals. I swapped this wires and it fixed that. Still no signals. I also re-did a scary-looking additional ground at the end of the harness, using one of the female bullet connectors (black wire) to ground to the chassis. No change. I do not know what these were supposed to connect to. There are enough connectors to supply the marker light, power antenna, and also these two:

P1030944

I removed the original turn flasher unit (with noise-maker?) and tried another. Nothing. I checked continuity between the flasher and hazard switch and on to the fuses. Seems good, but I guess I need to make sure the white wire is good coming back to the combo switch. All fuses are powered when they're supposed to be. Here are the wires and flasher:

P1030946 

I checked continuity of the turn signal switch and it matches what diagrams say, BUT a couple of the circuits started off at 0 ohms, only for that to rise the longer I held the probes in place. Any ideas what that may be?

There are two orphan wires leading toward the switches at the wheel. One is a black wire with make spade, the other a red wire with female spade. The only things i did not reconnect are the two leads from the key buzzer. That's the red wire, but diagrams show a yellow, which I can't find. It looks like that might affect the washer wiper (?!) but anyway...

And one final question: there's a relay over on the passenger kick panel. Is that the Accessory Relay? What does it do, aside from click once when I turn the key? And, why can't I find it on the wiring diagram?

Thanks!

Edited April 9, 2017 by ByStickel

[SteveJ]

This link should get you going. https://fiddlingwithzcars.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/hazard-switch-brake-light-turn-signal-circuit-analysis/

Do you have the hazard switch plugged in? Is your hazard switch in good shape? It interrupts the turn signal power to the flasher.

[ByStickel]

I guess I don't know if my hazard switch is in good shape inside. The hazards work, and the switch feels good to use. The condition of the wiring and controls in the rest of the car are above average, I'd say; I think the car only has a little over 60K miles on it.

Thanks for that link! I'll go there now.

[SteveJ]

If the hazard switch does not re-establish the contacts for the turn signals, they won't work. You can test the contacts of the switch with a multimeter. 

Here's a breakdown on the hazard switch. https://fiddlingwithzcars.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/early-hazard-switch/

[ByStickel]

Edit: That fixed it. Took about an hour.   Thanks so much for the help!

Edited April 9, 2017 by ByStickel