I was reinstalling my steering colum this weekend, after the box rebuild, and I was wondering why are there soo many wires coming from the turn signal houseing? I'm sure there is a very simple answer. I'm jsut courious.

 

What column are you using?

 

56' original

 

Power for the brake lights, two brake/turn signal wires coming in, and two more going out, two wires to the dash indicators..... it adds up.

 

Why would the power for the brake lights go to the switch, and why not tap into the wires after the switch (under the dash maybe) for the dash indicator lights?

 

Because the canceling of the rear turn signal when turning is done inside the turn signal switch so that the brake light still works on the other side from the one that is blinking. The turn signal and brake light circuit/wires for the most part are the same ones.

Julie, give the man a sketch!

 

A sketch would be nice. Considering I have all the wires hooked up, but the dash indicators don't work. (never did sence I owned it)

 

A sketch may not help, and may be misleading, because....

There were FOUR different turn signal switches used on 1953/56's. Two for 1953/55 (6V), two for 1956 (12V)

Turn signals were optional (!) back then. So (depending on the year), there is one switch that was factory installed, another that was dealer installed.

 

Well I know it's a steering colum from a 56 and I pretty sure it was converted to a 12v.

 

All 56s came from the factory 12V neg ground. Ford stopped using 6V + grd in 55.

 

HI,

I thought I'd jump in on your question about the turn signal wires and why there are so many. If you go to my #1 gallery there is a Power Point Drawing for the lights scheme - it's generic but applicable to your question because there are a fixed number of functions the switch performs and the signal flow is the same for the lights to work.

In short, there should be seven (7) wires going to: (1) brake light switch (on the master cylinder); (2&3) going to the flasher; (4) right rear light (5) left rear light; (6) right front blinker light(in the parking light housing); and, (7) left front blinker light. The dash indicators would be run off a wire splice "T" from the two FRONT blinker light wires as they come off the cloumn and head for the firewall. If you have two extra wires (8&9) that's what those are. If not you can install them your self.

The reason there is a feed from the brake light switch is because the back lights use the brake lights (filiment) for flashing. The running lights are on a separate isolated circuit to the tail lights and up to the parking lights.

There may be (should be) one last wire in the column running up from the opening in the bottom of the steering shaft, and out the center top of the steering wheel for the horn button.

Got more or less let me know.

Bill, question for you: The four switches you spoke of - the two dealer installed, were those the clamp on type as opposed to the switch installed in the column housing under the steering wheel for the factory installed? In those (clamp on) I THINK the only difference was the little lights in the switch body had 6 or 12 volt bulbs (and of course came with a different flasher) - can you confirm that? Second question: were the different column mounted (internal) switches different because the actual switch was different, or because they may have come as an option KIT where one had a 12 volt flasher in the KIT and the other a 6Volt Flasher - the physical configuration of both switches being the same???? Wondering?

 

Here's the sketch for the '56 turn signals from the service manual. This and other wiring diagrams are posted on George's "Earl's World." Check it out here http://earl.clubfte.com/ Hope this helps.

Good Luck

 

NIce drawing! I didn't think to look in Earl's stuff.

OK, only one wire going to the flasher (from the switch) in the 56 - interesting. You can see how the dash lights are "T'ed" off the front lights. I'm just not sure if that physically occures inside the switch housing or under the dash. So, you will have 6 wires, 8 if they "T" inside the housing.

 

It is negative ground and the ignition switch is grounded to the dash in the 'ON" position. The ground is broken when the switch is turned off. There is no start button, the start is located in the key switch like most cars today.Note that some manufacturers have started going back to having a start button.

 

Where do you see the ignition switch grounding ? I would be very very sure before you hook a ground to anything on the ign switch!!! There is a straight battery feed to the switches on some of these old trucks, it could be smoke city if you ground anything.