Issue with turn signals in 70 Dart

[70DartMike]

Alright, after doing numerous searches here I still cannot find a thread with my similar issue.

My turn signals quit working on there own last year, as in they wouldn't blink when I pushed the lever. I figured the relay went out, so I swapped it out with a known working one. That temporarily fixed it, as sometimes they would work and sometimes they wouldn't. They eventually got to the point where they would only work if I manually moved the lever back and forth, lighting up the bulb. Then the bulbs quit lighting up. I did some research and decided to check the switch. Well, it was full of sand and grit so I tested it to be sure and it was hardly making contact. The horn "roller/spring thing" was also broken from its location so I replaced the whole unit from one in a '73 Scamp, with the wires all being properly soldered and heat shrunk.
The signal bulbs now light up brighter than ever before, but they won't blink on their own.
This whole time, the hazards have worked fine.
When the brake lights are on and you manually move the lever back and forth, the signals at the rear don't work since it won't cut the brake light off and back on.
I used a test light and tested all fuses and contacts on both sides for power, which they all had.
I used a test light and tested both harnesses for the hazard relay as well as the blinker relay (one under the steering column and the other near the glove box) and they both had power.
Any ideas? I'm getting tired of manually moving the lever, I just want blinkers.

 

[67Dart273]

This is troublesome. Might STILL be a bad flasher but make sure you replaced the correct flasher. Your car has two, one for hazard, and one for turn. Maybe you simply replaced the wrong one?

How to tell? Easy. Hazards work? Pull the flasher. If they quit, that is the 4x flasher. You can swap it into the other flasher socket to see if that fixes the signal problem

Other than that, ???? Time to pull the harness connector off the signal switch. Use clip leads to feed power into each 'bulb' wire, that is, feed power into left rear wire, see if the left rear and ONLY the left rear lights nice and bright, etc.

THERE IS a possibility this could be an effed up bulb. I'd just pull all 4, clean, inspect. Sometimes, bulbs "partially" burn out and weld themselves together internally. This can make interesting troubles.

 

[moparmat2000]

If all that checks out what was said in prev post, keep in mind that your turn signal circuits run thru the brakelight circuit, and i believe also thru the hazard switch on a 70 up.

You may have to replace the entire turn signal switch assembly with a new one. The one from the 73 donor car might have issues in the hazard switch.

If this can be dissassembled and cleaned up, contacts tightened etc. You may be able to reuse it. If not put a brand new turn signal harness in the column.

I had a friend w a 72 dart having these issues. Had brake lights, no signals, no hazards. I narrowed it down to a bad hazard switch in the turn signal harness right behind the steering wheel.

 

[Dartnut]

I'll bet it's the bulbs are not properly grounded or defective.
I've even seen new ones that don't work out of the box new.
Maybe try some known bulbs out of one of your other cars and see what happens.
If not, i would try the known flashers out of the same car to narrow it down.
Then if that doesn't work, start tracing wires in the whole system.
It honestly sound like it's a bad bulb or bulbs to me........

 

[70DartMike]

Thanks for the help on this guys. I tried swapping bulbs with no luck, so I finally pulled apart the bulkhead connectors and sprayed contact cleaner in there. I then pulled the relays and gathered up all my known wording relays and tried them all. No luck with any. I went into the back and found an ancient relay, no idea if it worked, put it in, and hey! The signals work again! Right on the side, it says Made In Canada. I looked at the other 6 I had, made in Taiwan, China, Germany, etc. Coincidence?

 

[67Dart273]

They are not relays. They are "flashers." I don't know who the hell started calling them "relays." Probably the damned English. LOL

You should not be having all that much trouble. Maybe they were all bad, maybe that's why they were "laying around." No. 552 used to be my default "go to" flasher. They don't cost "all that much."

 

[70DartMike]

Whoops, my mistake, flasher.

As for all being bad, I'm not sure what happened. The first ones I pulled from my '67 Cuda. They worked fine when I drove the car, but I've since torn it down for bodywork and thought I'd steal them out of it. Next was out of my '65 W300, same scenario. This working one came from a '64 Dodge way in the back. Fuse panel rusted beyond repair, full of all kinds of critters. Hey, look at that, it works.

 

[67Dart273]

With that much trouble with flashers, you surely have "other" troubles.

The trouble spots are fairly obvious

BULBS. Must be clean and tight, and of course "good."

SOCKETS. Must be clean and grounded

KICK PANEL CONNECTOR. This is in the left kick panel where the harness goes to the rear. Clean and tight

TS SWITCH CONNECTOR As above

TWO CONNECTIONS THROUGH THE BULKHEAD. To left and right front signal. As above

FLASHER and flasher connector

FUSE and fuse clips

WHAT exactly have you done for actual troubleshooting? "Trying stuff" is not. Very first thing you want to do is to access an easy point with a voltmeter. EG Turn on the key to "run" and stick your voltmeter into the power side of the flasher connector with the signal switch either left or right. You should have "solid" battery voltage there. That is if the battery is "fully charged" at 12.6, you should have at LEAST 12.0 right there at the flasher.

If not, next thing to check is both sides of the fuse. Might be rusted fuse clips, loose, or even a poor fuse.

Is the voltage coming INTO the fuse clip good? Be critical!!! WHAT IS the voltage at the fuse clip?

Get your diagram. "Jumper" around the flasher with a wire with "quick connect" terminals to fit the flasher socket

Look at the TS switch connector. You have flasher power going in. You have left rear, right rear, right front, left front all coming OUT on separate wires. Try the switch, check the voltage coming OUT to the various bulbs. Is it LESS than flasher power going IN? "Bad switch."