82 E150 former delivery Econoline. No frills straight six.

Hazard lights. Driver's front and Passenger rear works BUT not Passenger front/Driver's rear. 4 way flasher is good. No juice to Passenger Front or Driver's rear. Go figure.

Turn signals do not work now. But did earlier.

We did find the turn signal flasher and switched it with the four way flasher to check it out. We can hear the clicking but no lights
Checked all Fuses with meter and these are all good.

Got the van a month ago and the lights worked then. The Turn flashers worked. The turn signal lever was worn though. You pushed it all the way up or down and the lights did not come on. You had to bring it down or up just a fraction for the light to come on and the dash flasher to show and for the lights to work.

Some background before this problem appeared. Dont know if this helps or not.

When my husband fixed the worn shift lever, he reversed the steering wheel (Logo was upsidedown) and intended to fix it later. The next major thing was to put in a new oil sending unit. All I have been doing, up to this point, was driving the van around the block a few times getting used to the feel and learning how to use the mirrors.

A week ago, after putting the sending unit in, he decided to fix the steering wheel. He used a hammer to tap the wheel loose...just a wee bit too hard and seperated the shroud abit so when pushing steering column down slightly, the ignition switch was turned off. Push up and you could turn the engine on. Now, he has a steering wheel puller and dont know what got into him that day not to use it. The hammer was more convienent, I guess. That was when I found the turn signals stopped working. But all four hazard flashers still worked.

Ok, the wheel was pulled back out WITH a puller. The turn signal collar was checked (a little loose but not broken) and everything tightened back down where the column did not move. Drove it out of the yard and went to make a turn...no turn signals....and the hazard flashers turned on for the Driver's front/Passenger rear but not vice versa.

We thought he might have tapped too hard and pulled a wire. But when the steering wheel was taken off..again (with puller), the plastic turn switch collar was checked and the wiring further down in the column was checked. Nothing was found broken loose nor was the old plastic turn switch collar cracked/broken. It was a little loose but nothing untoward. We figured it might be a bad ground because the fuses are still good in the fuse box and the two flashers work when switched.

Considering it's age and hard use....anything could have happened that the steering wheel incident may not have caused. Frustrating....

From what I read in these forums, it could be a bad ground somewhere or a short. But all the fuses are good and both flashers. Could be the bulb holder as they look pretty bad. But we replaced the Passenger front with another and the bulb still did not light up...no juice. We have a Chilton's for this van but it does not have a wiring diagram to refer too and we do not have an owner's manual. We started doing some tracking and it is beginning to look like a nightmare without some kind of wiring diagram to go by. What we have considered is to rewire and attach a seperate turn signal switch/lever on the column. At least I will have turn signals.

Any suggestions or pointers?

 

It sounds to me like he damaged the wiring or the collar when he hit the steering column. That is one of the worst ways to remove one.. MOst auto parts stores have loan-a-tool program. That said, I'd replace the turn signal collar with a factory one, straight from the dealer. DO NOT use a HELP replacement. They rarely last longer than 2 days.

 

Checked the wiring in the column and everything is fine there. The collar might had been on it's way to be shot. When the signals worked, the turnlight switch lever had to joggled a fraction in up or down position. When pushed all the way up or down, the flasher/lights did not come on. It had to be pulled down or up a fraction before either turn signal would work. At this point, I am beginning to think it would have had to be replace sooner or later...in this case sooner than I anticipated.

As for "loan a tool", that may be so where you are but the closest town is over 30 miles one way and dont remember any of them with offering that kind of service. Like I mentioned, he does have a puller and knows how to use it. Just....dang it.....did not think to use it this time.

We have used aftermarket turnsignal devices before on a couple of older trucks. They worked for many years. Why I was considering this alternative.

Anyone here has a wiring diagram for an 82 E150 Econoline? If we had one, tracking down the wiring for any bad grounds or bad inline fuses would be alot easier. As mentioned, all we have is a Chilton's but it does not show one.

 

Update

Did not get the alternative setup yet as we got the turn signal lights working...sorta.

Both show on the dash now. But only the Driver's front and Passenger rear work. Juice gets to the Driver's rear, according to the Voltage meter, but the bulb will not blink. Nor any other bulb we tried. Cleaned the socket and bulb tip..nothing....although according to the meters and other tests, it should light up. Could need a new flasher or replace the socket itself. But we tried a socket from another slightly older Ford van and although it showed juice getting to it....it still did not light up the bulb.

Passenger front socket is in pretty bad shape to begin with and with this other problem, maybe replace those two sockets.

 

Ok. Got a new flasher and new fuse. The dash signal lights show but the Driver's rear and Passenger's front signal lights do not shine.

So what we did was run a wire from the Driver's front (which work) back to the Driver's rear. Now "Driver's side" works as it should.

We will be doing the same with the Passenger side. This way we can use the existing setup without going to an alternative market device.

 

Usually, if you have juice to it, but the light still won't light up, it's a ground issue.

Patrick

 

Yes, I'd check the grounds at the rear of the van. Being an '82 they are prorbably just about corroded off.

 

Turned out that three of the lightsockets were bad and it was a ground problem. All the lights work now.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

Glad to hear that it was a relatively easy fix.

Patrick

 

Update, everything still works but now my orange parking/running lights will brighten when when the brake pedal is pushed down. In otherwords, I have "brakelights" in the front showing as well as the back.

All applications (hazards, running/parking, turn signals) work that should be with these lamps. The brake indicator shows up in the Left Turn signal spot on the dash, though. Not in it's proper "Brakelight" spot in the right hand side. However, the Left signal indicator works despite it.

A friend who is a master electrician figured out how to correct the blinker problem we had and did the rewiring. It was the only way everything would work without tearing everything up and apart. Innovative to say the least and everything works as it should otherwise.

 

I hope your electrician friend didn't redesign the system. That would make it quite confusing to maintain the system in the future. Better to properly repair what is there, and adhere to factory designs. But sometimes a redesign is necessary, especially on an older vehicle. I know. I've done it.

I had a mysterious turn-signal / hazard light problem about a year ago, in my 98 CW Van. To solve the problem I ended up taking apart, completely, the electrical switching mechanism, pertinent to the front and back flashing lights, in the steering column. The copper had tarnished, and the lubrication was "green," probably from reacting with metallic copper. Obviously, electrical conductivity was seriously impaired. By the time I took it all apart, cleaned everything, relubricated with silicone grease, and reassembled, my system was again operational 100%. There was nothing wrong with peripheral wiring, bulb sockets, bulbs, etc.

This wasn't easy, though, and I have been fixing electrical gadgets since I was a little kid. I am an experienced electrical engineer. Though this kind of work does not require an engineering background, I consider my experience to have been invaluable for helping me "hit the curves" that were thrown at me. That is, I had previously bought a CDROM mechanic's manual for my van, replete with wiring diagrams. There was an electrical diagram of the internals of the steering column switch. It was WRONG. I labored very carefully to redraw the diagram, correctly. This was instrumental in my repairing the system.

I just hate trying to fix an electrical system without a diagram. It is even more infuriating when I receive disinformation. (It has happened a lot, in my technical life.) I can only wonder what the technical layperson must think. Most folks think that if something is written, then it is correct. It ain't necessarily so.

 

Thank you.

No, our friend did not have to redesign the whole system...fortunately. After seeing what he had done, the solution looked so simple. Like "Gee" why didnt I think of that?"

Trying to decipher wiring diagrams would have been confusing to my husband, who can "see" what needs to be done in his head instead. The same thing with his blacksmithing/swordmaking and blueprints. Give him the basic concept and he will work out all the technical details in his mind. However, he is not a master electrician although he has done some major auto rewiring with his father, who was a master mechanic and master auto electrician. But he died a few years ago although my husband remembered quite abit. Yet not enough when you do not do this for a living everyday or constantly to make it "stick".

My husband had have a similar idea to what our friend did, but time was short while finishing a project so did not have the time or the patience to work on the van. Actually it worked out better this way.

Why we went to our friend to ask for help.

Arghhh! So true in any technical field. We have come across all types who think they know more from a book (generally the same ones we have) but never handforged a sword or worked in metal. The stupid, arrogant ones are the worse. But most are just ignorant and are grateful for the proper information.... once they realize it.