Well, after a fun day of crusing around in the new GS350, it ended with a dissapointment. I decided to replace all of the interior lights that weren't working (which happened to be all but one). After that, I went to see if I could get the original AM radio to work, but I couldn't pull enough volume out of it to really hear it (I'm sure the amp is shot). Anyway, no biggie. Then comes the fun part, apparently somewhere along the way I really screwed something up. Although I did not spend more than 10 minutes initially under that side of the dash, I ended up spending 5 hours there later trying to fix the problem. It seems that somewhere along the way the turn signal and brake lights got crossed. Here is a breakdown of exacly what happens: - Depress brake pedal: Rear lights, front marker lights (the ones in the front bumper), and green arrows in dash light up. - Turn signal lever promts no responce at all from anything. Has anyone had this problem before or think they might be able to share some ideas? I'm really at a loss right now. After 5 hours trying to find the problem and having no luck, I'm pretty drained and I have one heck of a cramp in my neck. I looked through my '70 buick assembly manual but nothing is jumping out at me that I didn't check. Thanks in advance for any help.
well here is what i think might be worth checking ... the wire from the brake switch runs up the column so that it can be interupted for use by the blinker and/or flasher system before the juice head to its perspective bulb.... So... A. i had a similar problem on an old impala once ... some how it had a flasher for 4-way flasher use that was different from the blinkers. someone had removed that flasher and then one day while cleaning the car, my girlfriend had engaged the flasher switch on the column .... the fix was as easy as pulling the hazard switch back out. B. if that doesnt work for ya, make sure that you dont have a bulb in the rear that has a filiment broken and shorting to the other filiment(on 1157 style bulbs). C. your rear bulbs probably have ground wires screwed to the body, inside the trunk, that may have become loose or corroded or maybe broken/disconnected while you were doin some other repair. if these were unhooked your brake signal would feed back through the parking light filiment which is tied directly to the front parking light filiments (that you might have mistaken for front blinker filimentscoming on) where it would eventually find ground... rotsa ruk!:Smarty:
Hey Chris, Electrical problems are a complete b***h to deal with.. I feel for ya with the cramped neck from being a contorsionist for 5hrs.. I checked out my '71 manual and found two 'common' parts that could be the culprit of a short or something. The Neutal Start/Backup Lamp Switch and the (odds are on this one) Horn Button switch connection block. The wires for the direction signals, rear lights, parking lights all run through that one juntion center in what appears to be a tiered setup. I'd hightly doubt a ground or anything other then a short as no ground = doesn't work. Once my scanner quits giving me fits I'll scan what I'm talking about.
Scott, I can't seem to find the Horn Button switch connection block. I spent about 30 minutes earlier today flipping through my assembly manual and didn't find it. If I don't make any progress on here today, I think I may start unplugging harnesses until I get some kind of controll over them. It has to be a problem with both the turn signals and brakes, so I would think that a common connector or switch between the two might be the problem. Just have to figure out which one it would be.
Well, problem solved. It was actually pretty ignorant of me to look over these details but I did, and now I'll let the rest of you know what the problem was :Smarty:. My turn signal blinker burned out, and the Hazzard blinker was completely missing ou: . So, if you ever have the symptoms that I posted above that could be your problem. I just thought that what the car was doing was so bizzar that it just couldn't be something as simple as the blinkers. ou: Glad to have it fixed, and thanks for all of the help I received, it actually turned out that I had my Hazzard button in the wrong position and it caused even more problems.
sorta like my old impala problem that i wrote about ..... do i get a prize for being close ...? hope it all works well for you from now on ..
LOL, sorry no prize this time . I appreciate your help though. Now I have to start replacing lights behind the dash to get that stuff looking nice. Won't that be fun .
on my lesabre, i couldnt get my big ol hand up there very easy to change the dash bulbs .. so i showed my older sister what the plan was and she laid in the floor and changed them all ... one of the best uses ever for a sister. substitute a daughter or neice if needed.... have fun.
must be nice... only one to fix mine was my big ol hand... aka remove gauge cluster. then I forgot something else after putting it back together so I had to rip it all apart again... I'm geting pretty good at removing the gauge cluster. I had the same problem as Chris... turns out I had a burned out tail light.... then all was ok.
