Another Trafficator/Control Head Question

So, yesterday I got in my car, prepared to start it and noticed that the turn signal lever on the control head was skewed to the left. I have not worked on the steering box at all and have not messed with the steering wheel. I also don't recall knocking or striking the lever/control head to force it to the new position. I have a Moto-Lita wheel installed with the adjustable wheel on a BT7.

I understand that the fix is to loosen the nut on the end of the stator tube, grip the tube and then slightly rotate it to get the signal lever back into proper orientation. I assumed that the nut must have loosened slightly over time permitting the rotation of the control head; However, when I checked the nut and tube at the steering box, the nut was very tight as was the tube. How does the control head rotate if the nut is tight?

Before I loosen the nut and rotate the tube to fix this I wonder if anyone can help me understand what might have caused the head to rotate in the first place? As I understand things the grub (set) screws effect the inward/outward movement of the head, not the rotation. I would like to try to understand this before adjusting anything.

I should mention that everything electrical works properly as does the self-cancelling feature.

I am stumped. Any ideas? Thank you!

Lin

My guess would be the lower stator tube has cracked/split at the bottom of the milled slot - these are notorious for cracking. I think the only way to know for sure would be to remove the lower stator.

I see the steering wheel is off, and you have to pull the trafficator to remove the steering wheel, so I'm guessing you found no problem with the trafficator attachment to the upper stator tube? Also you can check the little nub on the upper stator to make sure it's not worn/damaged.

Dave

As Dave mentioned, it is probably the stator tube. Before disassembling stuff, try just rotating the steering wheel to see if you can get the inner tube to slip back into the outer one. I believe (if I remember correctly) there is a tab that slides in the "slot".

Thanks, guys. I have a Moto-Lita wheel so I did not need to remove the control head to take off the steering wheel. I wondered about the joint of the short and long stator tubes, but what puzzles me is that everything works as it should. When the steering wheel was on if I rotated it the tires/wheels and trafficator (control head) would move in sync. Nothing seems loose or disconnected, hence my puzzlement.
Lin

I should have also mentioned, the control head is not free - it does not spin or rotate. Everything is as it should be except that it is skewed to the left. Puzzling.
Lin

I didn't know that with a Moto-Lita you can remove the wheel with the traffiator in place - nice feature (I did the old 'assume' mistake ).

I still suspect the sliding joint in the stators as the likely culprit. Have you tried moving the wheel in & out? If the lower stator has cracked at the base of the slot, the lower stator may have compressed some and the little nubs that ride in the slot may have worked their way out of the groove and onto the outer surface of the lower tube...If that is what happened, that would explain why it stays stationary when you turn the wheel and you will probably have difficulty moving the wheel in & out.

BTW, if you do find a problem with the stator tube slot, consider repairing rather than replacing - I found last spring that the replacements can be 'marginal'. Tom Monaco at Tom's Import Toys suggested I epoxy a sleeve on mine. I'm not confident of epoxies so I brazed mine on but either way I ended up with a better part than the replacement I bought from England.

Picture of the cracks forming on mine with red arrows (had been welded 20 years ago but was cracking again). So I brazed the sleeve on but then, since I had some parts coming from England and could in effect get free freight, I decided to buy a replacement and below you can see the quality of what I got....


Pics of my repaired one next to the new one from England. As you know, the width of the slot is what controls the rotational play/slop in the trafficator and it's obvious the difference - the replacement looks like it was done by some guy they drug in off the street and handed a grinder to.... OK, QA/QC rant over .


Dave

This post very closely replicates my own on this forum a few weeks ago. I also found my turn signal lever mysteriously skewed slightly to the left and had no idea why. Fortunately, the good advice I received on this site helped me return the lever to its correct position without a lot of effort. With what I have read about trafficators, I have a lot of enthusiasm for not tampering with mine.

Thanks Dave and Ron,
Ron, our situations sound identical! I read your post and thread. Dave I hope that I do not have to pull the long stator tube out. Been there and done that but it has been 10 years or so. Being the reverse of those who live north of Ron and me, I am now entering the nice driving season in Southwest Florida so I really don’t want to fool with the stator tubes right now. I would like to drive my car - not work on it. I will try to loosen the nut, rotate the control head, and tighten things down as Ron did. Hopefully, I get the same positive results Ron achieved. If not, I will just leave the turn signal lever in the 11 o’clock position through Spring and then pull things apart later in the year.
Thanks again!
Lin

Sorry Lin, I read that you had checked the nut and found that the nut & tube were tight and not able to move. By all means, I would try loosening the nut and turning the stator tube before major surgery...

Dave

Dave,
I bought a Moss stator tube (from Tom, IIRC) a few years ago and the slot was identical to the original. I discovered the old stator tube is an excellent source of 5/16 ID x 3/8 OD bushing stock.

Side note: There needs to be a small gap between the trafficator head and the hub; if they're butted together the hub can twist the trafficator during turns. It's not a machined interface; a minimum 1/16" gap works good.