I own a small moving service in the Pittsburgh pa area and tonight my truck lost turn signals/brake lights/flashers. The truck is a 1999 E350 super duty/ Cut away box truck with the 7.3 turbo. It has 340,000 miles. This truck has to leave Pittsburgh Pa Friday evening on a run to Charlotte North Carolina. This is my only Truck as we are a small family run moving and transfer service having just gotten started in March of this year. Some info that may help in figuring this out is first its a moving truck so I frequently use the 4 way blinkers for extended periods. This evening while I was cleaning the truck out I had the radio on listening to Johnny Cash cd, both doors open and key in the acces. position since I had radio on. After I was done cleaning truck out I took keys out and the buzzer warning stayed on like it normaly does when keys are in the ignition with the door open. Normally it would only buzz when I opened the drivers door with keys in ignition but tonight it buzzed with the passenger door as well as the drivers door, the buzzer stayed on continusly even with keys removed and headlights off. The turn signals,brake lights and four ways all stopped working and all fuses tested fine. If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated Thanks in advance.

 

Well there's your problem right there!

I'm talking 2006ish here so I could be all wrong but the instrument cluster is what does the key buzzer deal, and the flasher module is involved in the turn/hazard lights, then you've got the brake light issue. For all those things to go out with no blown fuse, I'm thinking you've got a ground problem. There is a common ground for the instrument cluster and flasher. Not sure about the tail lights since you have a cube van and that throws things off a bit. The origin of the ground for the instrument cluster and flasher is on the metal wall to the right of the gas pedal. From my diagram I'm not sure if it's maybe way up there and difficult to get to, but maybe that's not important.

What you can do is go to the flasher module (square black three-pronged thing also in the driver's side near the fuses) find pin 3 and check for ground on the connector. If it's not there, then you know something at least. You could splice in a ground there and maybe get your flashers back.

Then on the connector to the instrument cluster you would be looking for a solid black wire. Technically pin 10 of connector 220a, however I'm pretty sure yours would be different. They might have used the same wire colors though for the same circuits and so you could splice a ground in as with the flasher.

As for the brakes, I'm not quite sure due to the cutaway van issue. There is some diagram of an area on the driver's side inside frame rail just ahead of the EVAP stuff that seems to possibly be the connectors for tail lights on cutaway vans. You might look for a connector in that area with a solid black wire that seems to go on toward your tail lights.

There is quite possibly a single common connector somewhere that has gone bad and that would be the thing to find, but short of a serious study I'm not sure where that would be, and I don't have the 1999 diagrams anyhow. With luck, splicing in a ground or two might work for now.

Hope this helps. If so, I'll PM you the address to send the pizza...

 

For that year chassis my guess is these issues surround or involve the ignition key lock cylinder itself. Del is on the right track citing all this is most likely just one electrical connector being at fault.

Because the emergency flashers and turn signal controls are all housed in the steering column this reinforces issues are somewhere inside.

It is somewhat baffling brake lights would be affected because their circuitry isn't routed through the column. Although Vehicle Speed Control controls (aka cruise control, if so equipped) are routed from the steering wheel through the clockspring and column to chassis wiring that still should affect their operation.

Has your ignition key cylinder been acting differently lately? With that much mileage and vintage its more than likely that part needs serviced or replaced.

Its also possible the ignition switch proper isn't making proper contact whether its worn out of the actuating rod leading from the key lock cylinder isn't adjusted correctly.

 

A lot of this makes sense that its a ground issue because I have been doing some body work on drivers side floorboard and rocker area and a section of the wire harness running to the rear of the truck ran right under the rocker panel/door sill on the driver side so is it possible that when I cut out some rusted metal that it "weakened or lessened" the ground?

 

There typically aren't any grounds attached to anything in the footwells. Your work there may have damaged one of the conductors so maybe carefully check any in or close to the area of work.

Tail lights have a ground connection on the left/driver's side near the floor inside---its just a ring tongue terminal bolted to the body. There may be another on the right/passenger side but I can't immediately recall.

Either way check and double-check all those wires, use magnifying glass and bright light. Anything suspicious fix it---doesn't hurt to be safe in the end.

 

Were you able to solve this? I have a similar problem I was about to post. I hope it is correct to add on to this post. I have a 1995 E300. No turn signals or hazard lamps. It was a sudden outage. No blown fuses under the dash, and I just replaced the flasher to rule that out. (On a 1995, Fuse #5 seems to be the one for turn signals).

Clue: I have brake lights, however, if I set the turn indicator to the left, the left brake light does not work. Same on the right side.

I have not checked the power dist box under the hood, but I don't think there are any likely solutions there.

Ideas?

 

Mikefred44 with loosing the brake lights, turn signals and 4 ways I would suspect the multi-function switch( turn signal switch ) is bad. But I don't think that would have anything to do with your door buzzer issue.

 

The left brake light not working when you set the turn signal to left means the multi-function switch is doing what is suppose to. In a left turn while braking you still need the left signal to flash, but it won't if the brake light circuit is engaged.

Check the ground. Easy to check, frequently the cause of bizarre multi-symptom issues. The flasher ground wire is the easiest to get to I would guess. If you don't have a ground there, try running one in to see if it solves your problem. You can just wire one in with a sheet metal screw and ring connector from somewhere nearby rather than hunting for the broken wire / connector.

 

AirKevin's comment reminded me of trying to fix a dash light problem. The layout in the owner's manual did not match the real item. Finally just pulled every fuse in order and checked until I found the bad one.
The variations in the wiring on vans makes troubleshooting difficult.
jim




Owner's manual and the real layout.

 

Thanks for the help, Del.

Do you know offhand which of the three pins on the flasher is ground?
They are laid out like this:

| _ |

Left, right and middle flat on the "bottom". Logo and part number are on middle flat side. Bracket is on side with no pin.

Part #SF602

-- Jim,
Thanks for the layout - Mine looks like this, except the flasher unit is an external square black box. It still has the circle but no pins from factory. 1995 E300

 

Op, sorry for the late response. But in case you're still wondering, I'm showing a black wire that connects to the pin on the right in your diagram. The left side would be the positive at all times, and the bottom pin goes to the switch. Different years might be different but probably not until you go way back if I had to guess (early 90s and before).