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General Tech Turn Signal Issue

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glemon

glemon

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I tried to post this to a Ford Ranger forum, but I am not to impressed with the level of knowledge and activity I am getting there after more than a week, so will try here.

I have a 97 Ford Ranger, stripper edition, no A/C manual steering and windows. Practically an honorary LBC.

The chassis is pretty rusty and I have developed an issue with the turn signals. They work fine on their own, but if I apply the brakes or turn on park or headlights they blink fast like a bulb is out on the dash indicator lights, and I get a weak flash from all four turn signals and the brake light.

Since they work fine when the lights aren't on I am suspecting a bad ground, probably at the rear, but can't find a ground strap back there, though the factory manual indicates all rear lights go to a common ground. Should I just try to splice one in and see if that fixes things. Any other suggestions. If they didn't work normally without the lights on I might suspect the flasher unit too, but since they work normally (all dash bulbs and external bulbs) when lights are off throwing one on is probably just throwing parts at it(?).

Any suggestion? Thanks, sorry to be the Triumph list, but I have been on a bunch of other forums, you guys are the most knowedgable and helpful hands down.
 
Could be a bad ground, especially if both sides are wired to the same ground point.

But I'm thinking it might be something along the lines of voltage drop in the wiring, so the flasher gets less voltage when other loads are switched on. If adding ground doesn't help; try a "load insensitive" flasher.
 
Thanks Randall, could a bad flasher make it flash through the turn signals and brake lights? Or are you saying I have have a problem a new flasher will fix?
 
Clean the sides of the bulbs with some steel wool and sand the base with some fine sandpaper. That will eliminate the connection with the bulb and socket. If that problem still prosiest and your new switch makes no difference have a look at the hazard switch, put it on and off a few times, they do corridor just setting there doing nothing.
 
Thanks, I had all the rear bulbs out but not the front, super clean in there, slid them in and out to do a quick and dirty clean on the contacts, which on these are wires on the bulbs, and the sockets are blade inserts--thanks for the suggestions. I remember my sidelights on the tr250 doing strange things when the lights were not properly grounded.
 
You could do a jumper ground wire to see if that fixes the problem. Length of wire with alligator clips connected to the battery ground and the indicator base in the back.

David
 
Quick check. Find a ground wire at the rear, run a temporary wire from there to the negative post of the battery. Try all the lights. If they work then you need to find the ground strap or make a new one. I had Ford trucks for thirty years and you won’t believe the things that have rusted away.

David beat me typing. If you don’t have any wire lying around you could use a jumper cable.
 
Thanks, the jumper wire was going to be my next step, but it is wet and dripping under the truck now, so I followed Randall's suggestion, the linked flasher from Advance fixed the problem. I still suspect there is a marginal ground issue, I recently replaced a rusted out leaf spring mount and my son and I werebanging and poking on the frame a LOT, and the issue appeared right after that (story here https://oppositelock.kinja.com/me-v...KK0ieMWd4frZksTCZQOETYRBGtNgUuvLl2BMRBIcus52F ) I will address that groundwhen it warms up and dries a little, but glad it works now.

Less than 24 hours on the Triumph forum andI got more posts and helpful advice than the Ranger forum in week.

Great Amount of knowledge here, thanks again Greg
 
Good to hear. On one of my trucks both the rear spring mounts rusted off. The spring ends were actually wearing holes in the bed floor. When I took it in for inspection my mechanic put it on the lift. The truck went up but the rear wheels stayed on the ground until the shocks caught them.
 
Mine looks like it has already had the rear shackle brackets replaced. The drivetrain feels like it will go forever.
 
Sorry I'm slow getting back. Just to clarify, I did mean that a flasher (like the one you linked to) would work around the problem. The original flasher is probably not defective, but original flashers are designed to flash funny (too fast or too slow) if they don't see the expected amount of current through the bulbs. This was a safety feature on older cars and trucks (including Triumphs); so you could tell from the driver's seat if you have a burned out bulb. But low voltage to the flasher, or a bad ground at any bulb, or even just very old bulbs (sometimes) can cause the current to be low enough to make it flash funny.

But many replacement flashers are designed without this feature.

So, most likely, you still have something limiting the current through the turn signal bulbs. Since you were banging on the rusty frame, it might well be that the bed is no longer in good electrical contact with the frame, so anything grounded to the bed automatically gets a bad ground.

Or, my other point is that the bad connection doesn't necessarily have to be on the ground side. I've even heard of wires corroding enough inside their insulation to cause this symptom.
 
Thanks Randall, no problem in not getting back, as far as I know you aren't getting paid for this and working weekends. Agreed, still think there is probably an issue, but different specs on the flasher are allowing it to "power through" the issue.
 
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