First wiring hiccup with American Autowire kit.

[PoDuck]

Okay, I've been pretty impressed that I've had no real hiccups with my wiring until now. The only other issue I had after powering everything up was that the dash didn't illuminate, but once I grounded it, it worked great. It started right up, the idiot lights work perfectly, headlights and parking lights work great.

The only issue I have is now that I got a new turn signal switch. The right turn signal works as it should. No issues at all. The left signal, however, is flashing both rear lights, and neither of the front lights. The turn signal light on the dash doesn't flash either for the left signal. I have double checked my wiring, and I see nothing wrong, but I can't figure out what might be causing this issue.

Attached are some pictures of the wiring of the turn signal switch, and the part of the AAW instructions page that shows how it is supposed to be wired. I'm not sure what would cause both rear lights to flash simultaneously. I was assuming that I got this wired wrong, but it appears correct to me.

Does anyone have any ideas what would do this?

[doobiebro]

PoDuck I installed the same harness on my 60 and no complaints... Although I had the same problem or similar to yours..Check all grounds for good contact on the rear taillights (grounds off the tail light housing). Install a jumper wire and ground one end to a good ground and the other wire end make contact on the tail light housing. If it starts flashing...Bingo thats your problem.. On my stepside I removed the 2 mounting bolts on the tail light brackets and grind the medal clean on the bed side (bolt hole) and on the bracket side and install new mounting hardware on both rear lights. This corrected the problem and the indicators on my dash started to flash also.. All the light sockets are grounded off the lamp housings..

[PoDuck]

Originally Posted by doobiebro

Check all grounds for good contact on the rear taillights...

Well, I just barely got done trying something I thought might help me narrow things down. I disconnected the rear light harness, and I still have the same issues with the other lights. No lights on the front, and the turn signal indicator on the dash doesn't light up for the left turn signal either.

I'm next going to disconnect the front harness and reconnect the rear and see if things work then. If they don't, I'm going to assume it has something to do with my instrument cluster wiring or my switch.

The wiring for the front harness is much less involved than the one for the rear, so I'm having a hard time believing that I wired that wrong. I'm more inclined to believe it is something else.

[PoDuck]

Okay, I just disconnected the front harness and reconnected the rear. Both rear lights still flashing, and turn signal indicator still not coming on for left turn.

It has to either be my switch/switch connections or my gauge harness.

**GRUMBLES**

[tincan1966]

Did you try re-grounding the tailights? You may also want to make sure the hood is grounded good to the cowl. These trucks are notoriuous for grounding issues in regards to the lights.
Do you have front and rear park lights working?
Try leaving the park lights on, then activate the turn signals, what's it do then?

Just trying to help narrow down the concern.

[Realnoisy]

Originally Posted by tincan1966

Did you try re-grounding the tailights? You may also want to make sure the hood is grounded good to the cowl. These trucks are notoriuous for grounding issues in regards to the lights.
Do you have front and rear park lights working?
Try leaving the park lights on, then activate the turn signals, what's it do then?

Just trying to help narrow down the concern.

Amen to that Tincan1966! Because of rust, my bed had no ground. Took me awhile to figure it out. I just cleaned a spot on the frame and ran a jumper wire.

[brokenspoke]

You have a bad ground..........

[ABX131]

Before you drop $50 on a new turn signal unit, try what is being mentioned about adding a ground wire off of each light casing to the frame. I did all turn signals and the headlight buckets. I used a dremel tool to scuff the casing and a spot close by on the frame and hood and added a wire to each and it solved my problems. Use self tapping screws and you will have it done in no time. Most GM electrical issues stem from poor or incomplete ground issues.

[travz500]

Originally Posted by brokenspoke

You have a bad ground..........

I agree add grounds even though your disconnecting things it still not grounded properly for those circuits grounding or lack there of can cause so very odd things to work when shouldnt and vise versa been there and experieced things like that before

[harpo1313]

on your wiring diagram it looks like terminal k is blank and on the other side it goes to the brown wire which is i believe the parking lights.when both are flashing back there ,are they brake light bright or running light bight?

[pcsparts]

Originally Posted by PoDuck

Okay, I've been pretty impressed that I've had no real hiccups with my wiring until now. The only other issue I had after powering everything up was that the dash didn't illuminate, but once I grounded it, it worked great. It started right up, the idiot lights work perfectly, headlights and parking lights work great.

The only issue I have is now that I got a new turn signal switch. The right turn signal works as it should. No issues at all. The left signal, however, is flashing both rear lights, and neither of the front lights. The turn signal light on the dash doesn't flash either for the left signal. I have double checked my wiring, and I see nothing wrong, but I can't figure out what might be causing this issue.

Attached are some pictures of the wiring of the turn signal switch, and the part of the AAW instructions page that shows how it is supposed to be wired. I'm not sure what would cause both rear lights to flash simultaneously. I was assuming that I got this wired wrong, but it appears correct to me.

Does anyone have any ideas what would do this?

The brown wire that someone mentioned should not be hooked up if you are using a stock column. That is the input for a hazard flasher switch (not a tail lamp feed as someone suggested) which these early truck columns did not support. Hazard flashers were an add-on item.

Your connections pictured are all wired correctly. It does sound like you have a bad ground and are getting some feedback. However, try this first: Using a test light, disconnect the rear body and front light portions of the kit. With the key on, apply the LH turn signal, using your grounded test light, stick the probe into the back of the turn sign connections where the wires enter the connector (Do not pierce the wire) and touch the yellow and the light blue wires. The test light should flash. Next, apply the RH turn signal and probe the dark blue and dark green wires. Again, the test light should flash. If it does not, the switch is your problem. If it is one of the repros, there are known issue with them not bussing properly internally. If, when the connections are all the probed, they do work properly, you have a grounding issue. The fact that it did the same thing with the rear disconnected points to either a bad ground in the hood lamps, or the switch being bad. By chance, have the lamps been painted or powder coated? If so, you will not transfer ground thru the housing. When you figure things out and if you need more help, send an email directly to me as I do not search this board as often as I should. I can be reached at don.bock@americanautowire.com

Good luck, Donny

[PoDuck]

Thanks pcsparts,

Although pcsparts says he doesn't check here often, I'm going to answer his questions for other people that may find this in the future.

As for whether my housings have been painted or powder coated, they have not. As for the problem being in the front harness, I also disconnected the front harness, and the rear lights still both flashed and no turn signal indicator.

It is now day time, so I'm going to go out and do some more testing. I will try the test light and see if it is the switch. It is a repop I got from Tuckers, so that could be the problem.

I'll post back here what my results were, but I'll be calling AAW today if Don's suggestions don't help and see what they say.

[PoDuck]

Originally Posted by tincan1966

Did you try re-grounding the tailights? You may also want to make sure the hood is grounded good to the cowl. These trucks are notoriuous for grounding issues in regards to the lights.
Do you have front and rear park lights working?
Try leaving the park lights on, then activate the turn signals, what's it do then?

Just trying to help narrow down the concern.

Thanks tincan.

I have very little rust. Just the normal spots that don't seem to care about whether they have seen salt or not. The truck was born in Kansas, and almost immediately brought to be sold in Southern Utah. just like me, other than the selling part. The desert, while hot in the summer, is great in the winter for not rusting out old vehicles.

When I turn the parking lights on and activate the turn signals, it works as it should. Parking lights stay lit and the lights get brighter when they flash. That is the same for both left (both rear lamps) and right signals.

I'll be trying to ground things more, but I really don't think that is the problem, since they worked fine prior to replacing the wiring. The problem I had was the engine and dash harnesses. Plus I wanted to add upgrades and the old harness sucked for that.

[tincan1966]

I've seen this numerous times, once you disturb a light fixture(remove it to replace wiring) sometimes they don't make good contact again. A simple check with a wire connected to the frame and touching the light housing will let you know or eliminate that possibility.
IF the only thing you changed was the harness, then look there,at the connections you made.. Not much reason for the t/s switch to have gone bad sitting there. You can test it by using an ohm meter and connecting one lead on the switch where the purple wire connects and the other to where the yellow wire goes. Move t/s lever to the left turn position,verify the yellow wire and the dk blue wire is making connection. Without changing the lever position, check the terminal for the green wire. If it too has continuity, then the switch is not functioning correctly.Move t/s lever the the right turn position and re test. The only wires that should have continuity would be the light blue and the green. Do this test with the harness disconnected from the switch.

Another question comes to mind- since yours is a '60-'62 model- do you have one turn indicator in the dash or two? There's a VERY remote possibility that the two circuits(left and right) are crossed up if you only have one indicator. This is purely a guess. I am leaning more towards grounds than anything else.
I've been installing American Autowire and Painless harnesses for years and never had an issue that was the fault of the harness, usually something just gets overlooked.

[PoDuck]

Okay, we can lay to rest any of the ground suggestions. I have found the culprit.

I purchased a turn signal switch from Tuckers, and it appears to be bad from the factory. I disconnected both front and rear harnesses, and ran a test light to the switch. For the right signal, the yellow and light blue wires light up, and the only other wire that lights is the one to the flasher. For the left switch, the dark blue and green wires are supposed to light up, and the only other wire that should be hot is the purple one to the flasher. Instead, the yellow, green and purple wires are hot, neither of the blue wires are hot. It should be green, dark blue and purple. This is exactly what I see on my lights, so the issue seems to be most definitely the switch.

Apparently the light on the instrument panel is attached to the front harness wiring, and since no signal was being sent to the front harness, the turn signal light wouldn't light up.

I tried to call Don (pcsparts) at American Autowire, but was told he was at lunch, so I talked to someone else. They confirmed that my issue is with the switch based on my explanation.

I called Tuckers, where I bought the switch, and they said they are going to send me a new switch. No questions asked, no hassle.

All around, I have no complaints whatsoever about American Autowire or Tuckers. Both of those companies have been very helpful and professional. Along with you guys here.

Thanks!!

None of this means I'm not going to fiddle with this and try to get it working.

[PoDuck]

Originally Posted by tincan1966

Another question comes to mind- since yours is a '60-'62 model- do you have one turn indicator in the dash or two? There's a VERY remote possibility that the two circuits(left and right) are crossed up if you only have one indicator. This is purely a guess. I am leaning more towards grounds than anything else.
I've been installing American Autowire and Painless harnesses for years and never had an issue that was the fault of the harness, usually something just gets overlooked.

It was not the harness. The only complaint I can give about the harness is that it didn't install itself. Lazy designers didn't figure that feature into the design.

As for the turn indicator on the dash, I used the double terminal on the back that allows it to have two positive inputs. It is just fine.

Ray, at AAW, says that the indicator gets its power from the front signal part of the switch. Since no power was going there from the switch, there is no signal.

Anyway, it wasn't the original switch. It was a repop, and it was bad.

Thanks for your help.

Hopefully between all the posts here, someone may be helped in the future if they need to figure out how the wiring of their switch and lamps work.

[tincan1966]

Good deal, glad you were able to find it. Electrical work can be very frustrating at times, but sounds like you did a great job.

[PoDuck]

Got an update quicker than I thought. I decided I couldn't wait for 5 days until Tuckers got more stock, so I opened up both my old switch and the new one and fixed them both. I took pictures, and I'll be posting how I did it. Maybe it will keep people from needing to buy crap repops in the future.