blinker malfunction

[crm318]

lastnight i noticed that the left blinker light came on and stayed on in side the truck. i assumed that one of my lights was out. both lights are good, but the inside light stays on and the blinker doesnt work on that side. what could cause this?

[68 Stepside]

I believe that's a common problem when there's a bad ground, hopefully someone can back me up on this.

[68gmsee]

Ground problems do cause a lot of weird problems.. I can attest to it cause it's happened to me...

In your case though, we may need some more info. Did the problem come up all of a sudden? Like, did it work one minute and then failed without you removing or doing any work on the truck?

If it just all of a sudden stopped working right and if your blinker works on the other side, I'd still supect the light bulbs or sockets. Make sure they're clean and have no rust. Do some swapping to make sure.

[68 Stepside]

Oh, also wiggle the turn signal switch around a bit perhaps? My 67 panel truck would have a turn signal light stay on when the headlights were on, when you wiggled the switch around, it'd go off. Just another idea.

[crm318]

ill have to give it a look over. something weird i noticed, when i have the lights off, the blinker works but the lights inside the gauges and speedo on that side of the gauge cluster flash with the blinker. its weird.

[El Jay]

Check your grounds.
Bad grounds can do weird sh............, uhhhhhhh, stuff.

Back in the day I had a fiberglass buggy on a VW pan, so everything had to be grounded to the chassis,via a wire, one way or the other.
The tail lights were grounded to the fan housing with 2 sheet metal screws, 1 right side, 1 left.
The right side screw would back out a bit, and when it did; I'd hit the brakes and the right front turn light would come on. After I finally tracked the problem down, it was easy to fix.
This is just an example of how crazy these grounding issues can be.

[crm318]

i pride myself on being a good mechanic, but im lost when it comes to non-engine related electronics. ill give it a ganders peek tomorrow and ill let yall know.

[Dougt269]

I was doing some dash work the other day and noticed after I was done I had the same problem with both turn signals. Havent had time to get back to it yet.

[john]

Check the ground and the bulb socket ground to the housing. Had it happen on front lights.

[68gmsee]

Hey, crm, not sure if this will help you or if this is your problem, but this post talks about what happened to me a few months ago.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=284861

[Longhorn Man]

Double check the bulbs. That is supposed to be a feature telling you that a bulb is out.
Hit the 4 way flashers and walk around the truck seeing if one of them isn't lighting up... both front and rear, side markers don't matter.

[DavesRide]

Check that correct bulbs are in proper socket. Check clocking of retaining pins.
Most rear lamps will take 1156 or 1157 (dual element round socket) bulbs. If another bulb installed it will back feed all over the place making other bulbs light and some not to. It is all about the ground also.

[Longhorn Man]

1156 is back up, 1157 is tail lights, and front parking lights

[crm318]

well i looked at the front driverside blinker and the socket has cracked and broken free from the housing. do they make repo ones?