I am in the process of replacing the turn signal switch on my '72 because it will not cancel after I make left turns. I have the steering wheel off and the switch hanging from the wires. One of the plastic tabs on the switch is broken off so that is why the switch wouldn't cancel. Also the switch has been quite stiff for the last little while so I think that is why the tab broke.

My questions are; what years of ford pickups use the same turn signal switch. Do I cut the wires and splice the wires from the new switch up by the steering wheel or should I fish the new wires through the steering column and splice them under the dash. Or is there a way of running the new wires right into the plug connector. I haven't got the new switch yet so maybe some answers will become obvious when I see what I get with the new switch.

Thanks in advance.

 

LMC Truck, Dennis Carpenter, Blue Oval Truck Parts, the parts suppliers are bountiful!!

any one of these guys should be able to set you up fairly inexpensively for the signal switch. I would think that the switch will either have a pigtail or a plug. anyhow it should NOT need to be spliced in.

I am going to rebuild my column pretty soon, and have been researching this aswell.

_Ken

 

I replaced mine last summer. I bought it from a local Carquest dealer. It was about $60-70. If you look at your column under the dash, you'll notice 6-8 wires coming out of a hole and all of them go into a harness plug that plugs into the truck's harness. I think it is an 8-prong plug. The new switch will have all those same wires. The new one was color coded differently but it came with a sheet that told you what was what. I had also already figured out what wire was what in the old switch. What I did was take some small gague steel wire and tape one of the wires from the old switch to it and pulled it up through the column. Then you tape the prong end of each wire from the new switch to the wire and pull the new switch wires down through the column. The metal prongs on the ends of each wire has a little retaining clip that pops out when you push it into the harness plug. You need to take a small screwdriver and push in the retaining clip and pull out each of the prongs from the old switch and replace them with the new ones. The first time I did this I put the new prongs in the plug from the back side. The plug wouldn't mate up to the truck harness so I had to take them all out and do it all over again. So don't make that mistake. But that's it. It's pretty simple but a little time consuming. Get some dielectric grease and grease the moving parts in the new switch. My new one broke 2 weeks after install. I wish I would have greased it.

 

triple X, Hold up bro, All you need is the canceling cam about $10.00 at your favorite parts house. Look at what you have and there should be a white C shaped plastic piece on the wheel side of the switch. It has a tab on each end and that is broken off causing it not to cancel. Just ask for your year model truck, there are many years that use the same one.

John

 

Yes, I got a turn signal repare kit from NAPA yesterday that is a new cam. It took a lot of screwing around but I now have the whole thing back together and it works.

Thanks for all the advise

 

Good thinkin jow, I wasn't paying attention. You really only need to replace the whole switch when you start having intermittent problems with your taillights and blinkers. It happens eventually.

 

Yup, I was fixing to jump all over this one, but you beat me to it Jo. I just went through this a few months ago with my left turn signal falling 'on' when I hit a bump. Turned out the cancelling cam was in about 10 pieces inside the column. $12 at NAPA and all is well. Glad it worked out Fordx.

 

Sorry Vern, I didn't mean to cut in front of ya.

John