Having problems with turn signals

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Jul 29, 2002 | 11:00 AM

pigfanatic

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Having problems with turn signals

My teenage son has a 1971 F100 ( and is just learning to drive). He noticed the other day that his left turn signal worked fine until he appiled the brakes, at which point the turn signal would stop flashing. Yesterday his father (who has no experence with a Ford) worked on it for a couple of hours and could not figure out what the problem was... the best he could do was fix it so that he now has a working left turn signal when brakes are appiled, but not a right one. :-) He did this by doing something to the wiring at the back of the truck.
He has replaced the flashers and checked wiring for shorts... Any ideas?

Jul 29, 2002 | 11:05 AM

xericx

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Joined: Jun 2002

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From: Burlington USA

Having problems with turn signals

I was having similar problems with my 72 ford. I had no turn signals in the rear. I turned out to be the directional switch in the column. I was lucky and found one at a ford dealer about 200 miles form my house.

xericx

Jul 29, 2002 | 12:09 PM

Fordzlla

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Joined: Dec 2001

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From: Ontario, canada

Having problems with turn signals

Make sure you have good grounds at all the lights, and all the connections are clean. Most times when lights do something goofy, it can be traced back to a bad ground.
I replaced the turn signal switch on my '70 a few weeks ago.
it caught fire after being connected to an improperly wired trailer.
I got a new one from LMC truck, but shipping, duty and exchange makes it an expensive item to import. It only took a half hour to install the new one.

Jul 29, 2002 | 03:10 PM

bigblue

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Joined: Sep 1999

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From: Minneapolis

Having problems with turn signals

I just had the same problems with my 72, which is the same wiring. Take a look on the Tech Section of this site. There is a very good article on repairing brake and blinkers on early 70's trucks. Unfortunately, there is no schematic, but good information none the less. It was enough information that I got all of my lights fixed in three hours and no money spent!

Jul 31, 2002 | 07:37 PM

Fattydaddy150

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Joined: Jul 2002

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Having problems with turn signals

I had similar trouble with my '68 f-100. I had to set up seperate toggle switches. My problem started in the emergency flashers, I had to rewire the whole flasher lighting system.

Aug 19, 2002 | 10:37 PM

van_allen

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Joined: Aug 2002

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From: Rogers usa

Having problems with turn signals

I also have a 1971 F100. The reason the person that had it before me sold it to me was because he couldn't make the brake lights work all the time, and he had been stopped twice by the police.
I replaced the turn signal repair kit . I bought it from NAPA for about 12 dollars.

Aug 27, 2002 | 11:45 AM

sullyda1

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Joined: Mar 2002

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From: La Canada, CA

Having problems with turn signals

Turn signal/brake problems: #1. Before looking for exotic problems start with the basics. Check all 4 bulbs (front and rear) in the system for clean grounds AND broken filaments inside the bulbs. A broken filament in a dual running light/stop-turn light bulb can lay across the other filament completing a circuit to one or more bulbs at the wrong time.(i.e. brake light comes on when only running light should be and vice versa). Will drive you crazy.

Once bulbs are verified to be good, then proceed with the obvious connections. Suspect any hacked up rear wiring that someone messed with to hook up trailer lights. When I find this common situation, I remove any extra electrical fittings/conections that are almost always corroded and making weak contact. Cut out and rewire any old non-stock splices.
Turn signal indicators can be tricky to diagnose and are expensive to replace, but if all else fails...