47-55.1 1950 3100 painless wiring hazards

[sgmacaulay]

I am getting close to done on my 1950 3100 but the hazards and turn signals are giving me trouble. This is a 28 circuit painless kit, it has separate hazard and flashers. The trouble is when I turn on the left turn signal the rear turn signal comes on and the left does too but dimmer. And the gauge lights come flash as if the hazards were on. The right turn signal works just fine. Also when the lights are on so the tail lights are on and I turn on the left turn signal it comes on but does not blink.

The hazards work just fine via the hazards switch.

Using a Gm column from speedway.

The tail lights are LED and I have the painless LED flasher in both sockets.

Any help on were to trouble shoot this issue?

[leegreen]

I'd use jumper wires with alligator clips to make sure there was good ground at all 4 sockets as the first troubleshooting step.

this could be a bad ground, LF turn is actually grounding via LF running light
over to RF running light and the back voltage on RF signal hitting the dash light is enough to light it (LED dash light?). I may not have described well but I have had such things a couple times

[mr48chev]

Dimmer - bad connection, poor contact or bad ground.

4 ways work, Nice and bright and flash right? If that is a yes, you have:

Eliminated bad grounds at the lights.
Eliminated bad connections between the switch and the lights.

Right side turn lights work good:
Flasher is working as advertised. Right turn circuit is OK.

Left turn lights are wonky:
Something on the left turn side is wonky.

If you have ever had an in the column GM turn signal switch 69 or later apart you see a lot of contacts that current flows across when the lever is moved so they make contact or the hazard button is pushed or pulled.

From what you wrote I am saying bad switch in the S word column that probably has a joe cheap switch in it rather than a good quality oem caliber switch.

Speedway brand Items that are not dirt track racing items are very often knock offs of another vendor or manufactures top quality product that Speedway sells for a lot lower price and with that lower price you get lower quality.

[dsraven]

if you could post up what happens with each function that would really help. otherwise it is a test light and alligator clips to check for power at each light bulb connection and alligator clips to ground the bulb socket to a good ground.
check for a good ground from battery to frame to engine to body (wherever the bulbs sockets ground because some builds have the socket grounding to a body part that isn't really grounded but using panel contact points as a ground and that sometimes doesn't work well. especially with painted panels).
LG has a pretty good description of what happens when a bulb socket isn't grounded. power backfeeds through other circuits that aren't turned on. what happens if you try the signals with the tail lights turned on? the 4 ways?

[sgmacaulay]

Thanks for your replies, it seems like the consensus and most logical points to a ground. I will check. It still seems like there is a cross up between the left turn signal and the hazards.

[vics stuff]

I learned from a old mechanic friend of mine to always use a star washer under all grounds. With that , I have successfully resolved many electrical issues with just a simple ground washer.
Vic

[dsraven]

for ground wires I like to bare the metal on the surface where the wire will be attached and also on the connector on the wire-after ensuring the connector is properly crimped to clean wire strands and has shrink tube on the end of the connector to eliminate corrosion getting into the connector from either end. then clean any existing fastener threads in the hole to bare clean metal, if it is a screw then ensure it is a tight fitting screw in the hole and the screw is clean to bare metal, not a used slightly dirty svrew. then install the wire, with a star washer under it and with coppercoat or antisieze on the fastener threads. just a little of that so the threads don't start to rust but not so much it is oozing out everywhere. then assemble the whole thing and torque the fastener. tug on the wire to ensure it is holding well on the connector and also doesn't move under the fastener. when all is good I spray the spot with some paint or zinc based primer-cold galvanizing.

[sgmacaulay]

Update, after looking some more. And re grounding the tail lights. It looks like turning on the left turn signal activates the left turn signal and causes the tail lights to flash and the gauge light flashes as if the hazards are on. If I remove the left turn signal wires from the connection between the harness and the column. And then turn on the left turn signal the tails lights flash and the gauge lights flash as if the hazards are on.

Not sure how turning on the left turn signal can cause the tails lights to flash?

[leegreen]

as mr48chev has suggested that sound like a switch problem. brake, turn and hazard functions all go through the column

[mr48chev]

This time if the 4 way flashers work right it shouldn't be a ground issue as that light would be dim with the 4 ways on. Still it isn't a waste of time to make sure that you have a good clean bare metal ground connection.

I'm still voting on the switch it's self being defective though. The 4 ways working as they should, right turn working as it should. Stop lights should work as designed That leaves the contacts for left turn inside the switch.

[dsraven]

unplug the steering column to eliminate the switch, then use a jumper wire from a fused power source to power up each circuit, one at a time, to see if each circuit works all by ityself. then power up the tail/marker lights and see if they work properly all by themselves, then, while the tail/markers are still on, power up a signal circuit one at a time and see if they work properly, then add brake lights, etc etc. that will soon show if each light circuit works independently and if they can all play well together