More fun with the Prince of Darkness

[lbc_newbie]

My directionals work fine as long as my lights are turned off. Once the lights are on, they don't work any more.... the Prince strikes again! Any ideas?

 

[MikeP]

First thing to always check is grounds, headlamps in particular. Electricity will always follow the easiest path to ground and that may not be what's it's supposed to be. So good chance cleaning them will fix it.

 

[RickB]

What happens when you add the emergency flashers to the mix?
Headlights and flashers on?
Turn signal and flashers on?
Lots of circuits go through that flasher switch - you should exercise it regularly.

 

[lbc_newbie]

Hazards work fine... I cleaned up the ground wiring for the tail lights. Here is what happens:

Lights off, engine off, key on.... all good
Lights off, engine running.... all good
Parking lights on, engine off... right lower bulb is on constant, dash light is on constant, upper dual filament bulb on, lower bulb will not flash.
Left light has lower off, upper dual filament on, all working now.
Brake lights/running lights work in all scenarios

Any ideas?

 

[Deleted member 8987]

Gotta be a ground.
Backfeeding from the park lite.

Contact of the bulb to housing, ground (or ground wire) to common ground bad or broken.

I would be running a test ground from the battery or engibe block to the housing and see what happens, maybe with a test light in between.

However, twice in 40 years I have seen someone stick a single-tip bulb into a dual-tip socket (one even ground off the locating pin on one side) and it also did that.

Dave

(drive it over to Kirkland tomorrow and I'll look at it).

 

[lbc_newbie]

Dave, I really appreciate the offer. I have a busy day tomorrow, but would like to eventually get together to figure this out. It would be a good drive to break-in the motor. I'll keep in touch and we can calendar a date.

 

[Deleted member 8987]

Okay!
Sunday is tied up for me.
We'll work on it.
Dave

 

[JPSmit]

My directionals work fine as long as my lights are turned off. Once the lights are on, they don't work any more.... the Prince strikes again! Any ideas?

FWIW I have the opposite, headlights stop working when left direction signal turned on - I haven't tried to track it down yet but this thread is probably reason enough to

 

[Roger]

I bet they're all ground problems.
Though if you call them Earth problems, in pukka English English, they're easier to solve. Don't ask why.

 

[Guest]

Almost torched my car the other day. DPO didn't fuse the choke wire for the DGV that was off and I was greeted by a plume of smoke from the steering column. Luckily I got to it in time and no harm done.