Turn indicator lever works only one side?

Man, tell me there must be some trick to feeding those damn wires in the steering column?

Yup. Here's the full procedure including that trick:

Remove the steering wheel's central emblem (careful not to crack it). Remove the ground wire from its terminal. Remove the three screws holding the horn ring/button and horn switch. Lift out the horn switch. Remove the steering wheel nut. Use a wheel puller to remove the wheel. Remove the single screw that holds the turn signal lever to the switch and remove the lever. Remove the three screws holding the switch to the column and lift out the metal retainer plate.

The switch plugs into the under-dash wiring harness with a rectangular nylon multi-connector block at the base of the steering column (inside the car). You remove the nylon connector block by releasing each individual wire from the block, one at a time. This is achieved by means of a Terminal Extractor Pick (or, if you're in a hurry and don't want to spend money, a darning needle), inserted into the slot at the "front" (connector) end to depress the terminal's lock tab. Then a careful tug of the wire pulls it out the back of the connector block.

Draw yourself a diagram of which wire goes to which slot in the connector block.

Here's the trick:
Once you've released all the terminals from the block, tie a long piece of string or twine round the bundle of wires at the very end near the terminals. Withdraw the old switch, which will pull the string up the column. Untie it, tie it round the wire bundle on the new switch, then pull the string to guide the new wire bundle down the column without any of the wires snagging and refusing to show themselves at the bottom. Insert the wires into their correct locations in the terminal block, plug it back in, reassemble everything up top...and you're done.