Dane,you are trying to be helped but all you come back with is attitude. The wiring diagram 31 Vicky posted should solve all your problems and you don"t have to be an expert electrician to follow it. Punch up basic hotrod wiring diagrams and get the thing right.
You know Dane, Some of the best Electrical guys are right here in our little Hamlet of Santa Cruz. Call if you need help. all the best, Tim
If the instruction book that came with your kit is " How to wire your Streetrod" by Jack Sweeden then you a knockoff EZ wiring kit and EZ will tell you so as i got one of these knock off kits. The KNOCKOFF is a good quality kit but some instructions are vague. Persevere young man!
I used a factory correct harness for my 50 Fordor. Yes it cost 4 times as much, but I'm looking at it from the restoration aspect. It looks the same as the one that came out only less holes, breaks and direct shorts. I also happen to be a HV substation wireman, so I should be able to do this no problem. The thing with wiring is that it uses a different part of your brain that not everyone uses that much. I'm not going to criticize anyone if they can't figure it out and I can certainly understand the frustration.
Yup, had the same hair pulling experience. Speedway appears to deal through EZ Wiring also, btw. Same kit and instructions, same nightmare. BUT in the process of pulling all of my hair out on my first wiring project I learned how to doing everything from scratch. Because that's what I had to do. I thought I was crazy because I couldn't figure out the instructions, I ended up asking for help and ended up having to write up my own complete schematic. I figured out that you have to run the LED style flashers as well as running the regular 3 prong flasher. Ridiculous. I went out and bought a Painless fuse block. But I liked how Painless incorporated the blinkers into the fuse block. But just as I'm typing this out... I'm realizing that the blinker setup looks frighteningly similar to the EZ setup (dual 2 prong blinkers)... We'll see!!!
31Vicky, thanks for the idea on tagging wires, so simple and easy. I am going to be walking around the rest of the day kicking myself in the butt. Using a Rebel kit for my A. Will be a winter project. So far the only complaint is the lack of wiring schematic and no labelling of the fuses. Have to re-engineer the layout for the A so the schematic would be a help. No biggy, snip a few ties and figure it out. Was going to do my own harness till I found I could buy the Rebel kit for less than I could buy the wire. Canuck
I'm hearing anger, frustration and impatience here... and none of these will solve your problem. Yes, I do check every harness before installing it. While the ideal is that what shows up is right, fixing mistakes after the fact is a PITA as you're discovering. And while a schematic is helpful, it's not needed to troubleshoot a problem and can be a impediment if you don't understand how the circuit is supposed to work. I spent 35 years in the electrical industry, many of them installing/troubleshooting industrial controls, which can be waay more complicated than any rod wiring. I'd be happy to come over and help you, just pay my travel expenses.... Now, if you want to find the problem, here's the way to do it. If I'm reading what you've said right, the power wire to the turn signal switch is dead and shouldn't be. If that's the case and is the only problem you have, then this is a relatively simple problem. And I'm also assuming that the wires coming out of the fuse panel are somehow identified, with lettering and/or color. Power for the turns will come out of the fuse, go to the flasher, and from there to the switch. So checking to see if these connections do in fact exist is what you need to do. If the flasher is bad, it won't work. If the wire to the turn switch is misconnected, it won't work. So check first to see if the flasher is connected to a fuse, and that will be your turn power. Next, check to see if the 'dead' wire does go to the flasher or fuse panel, and check every fuse connection until you find it. If it's connected wrong, you'll need to find the 'right' wire. The wire doesn't go to either the flasher or the panel? Then it's broken or disconnected. Bottom line, if it's anything other than a bad flasher, you'll need to at least partially remove the harness and/or fuse panel to physically trace the wire(s) to correct it. I'll add one more comment... These 'basic' turn signal diagrams that get posted aren't helpful if you're using a OEM turn switch or even many 'add-on' types. You'll have way more wires than what is shown... Maybe I'll do a tech post for those who don't 'get' electrical and break it down so it's out of the 'magic' realm.... LOL...
I have found at least 3 different signal switch wiring setups, none seemed to be standard back in the day. I have tangled with an all black harness that someone else half installed......Who ever thought that was a great idea should be kicked in the Jimmy repeatedly....
In early 2000 or late 90's I bought one of the black wiring kit's , everything ok it came from New Jersy I think. Then later I bought 2 Kits that came from Fla. JUNK acc wires not hot, I made jumpers. AND BOUGHT NEXT HARNESS FROM DIFF VENDORS>
Well since I'm the one who posted the unhelpful diagram in Dane's thread Im going to comment also. I prefaced that with "basic" and also made reference to oem plugs and printouts. OEM as in original equipment manufacture covers a who lot of crap with design changes from year to year and even extinct manufactures. So until the unit is identified there's no way to know what it has or doesn't have. Lets just talk about the turn signal switch wires that are actuall involved in working the turn signals. Not the multi function cruise, wipers, washers brights, and headlights switches with i giant colum plug. There's only ... 1, power in 2,left turn, 3,right turn that's the basics all OEM follow. There may be additional wires if there's a separate wire for fronts and a separate wire for rears. They may add a piolot wire or incorporate the brake switch. An example of an OEM diagram,
You gauta love that Amirican koalaty. I'm rolling my own from scratch - there are a TONNE of schematics out on the internet...
Crazy steve, just to solidify my point. Way way way OT honda civic and let's say you need to put this column in something and make the signals work. Only 3 wires in that switch do the task. Connect those 3 and the turn signals will work. At least that's what Honda and Aldata tell every mechanic on the planet. Supposedly this is the meat of the diagram that you need to fix it or make the turn signals work.
Yes, but the five wire diagram is only useful if you have that switch or know how to determine which wire is which. Yes, there's only five wires, but what if you have five wires on a switch and they're not those colors? What will the novice do then? As to the OT Ford truck diagram, that's actually pretty close to what most 50s/60s vehicles had if they came equipped with factory turns (basically, early fifties up) and can even be true much later with a few additions for hazard flashers. But again, if wire colors aren't the same unless you understand the function of the switch/circuit, the diagram will be useless.
The first diagram I posted, that you referred to as unhelpful, has no colors listed, its void of any color reference but clearly shows the circuitry and how it works. Since Dane has an all black wire harness colors are of little matter. The circuit description imprinted on his harness needs to be applied to the logic of the switch. The switch logic can be worked out if the unit can't be identified, and like I said in my unhelpful post, ID or name the switch and you can find the pinout meaning the coordinating colors
Unless you don't know what the column is from, it's pretty easy these days to find out which wire is which, thanks to the internet and Google. I can usually do a search for whatever car/truck the column came out of and in seconds have a wiring diagram (with colors!) in front of me to print out. Sure better than the old days when we had to ring out the plug on the column and discover what was useless and what worked.
Sorry, but it doesn't 'clearly' show the circuitry. I see wires connected to a box, but no explanation of what goes on inside that box. Yes, you and I know that there's contacts in there (a SPDT with a 'off' position for the three wire switch) that move when the lever does, but without the contacts being shown a novice may have only a vague idea as to what's happening. Even with only three wires, there's six possible ways to connect this but only one right way. With five wires, now there's over forty possible combinations, with only one right way. A typical turn signal switch could have anywhere from 3 to 8 wires coming out of it, 9 if the horn is included, 10 if a hazard switch is present, 11 if a shift indicator light is there. Do you 'need' all these wires for a 'basic' turn circuit? Nope.... but which ones do you use if you don't know how it works and lack correct information?
I see the problem, you're clearly electrically savvy, but you didn't read that I'm saying the same thing, just looking at the pictures.
Dang, Crazy Steve since you are such an expert why don"t you post a diagram that shows the breakdown of the inside of every relay and turn signal switch you can find. The op is not working on a Lexus. Basic wiring just takes a little common sence not a electrical engineering degree.
EZ wiring was what I used with no problems. I used their instructions and the schematic for my car. It was a 6V positive ground and I converted it to standard 12V. I just made sure everything was clean, especially were I was connecting my grounds. I used a dremel with a little grinding stone. I did it over a weekend, with zero previous experience and worked like a charm from day 1. Good luck with that. Art.
Most good quality toggle switches have the terminals marked on them to indicate NO-NC-Common. So really don't need a diagram of the switch unless someone doesn't understand those markings, and if they don't then wiring a car might be over their level of expertise anyway.
I went back to troubleshoot the turn signal problem. It showed a lot of no's - No +12 at the purple feed wire on the column connector - No +12 at the flasher socket - No +12 at the fuse labled "Turn Signal" And lastly - NO ANSWER AT EZ Wiring Tech line 10:55 Pacific time on a Monday. It's not a toll free call by the way... What now?
There's a recent post asking for direction on what wiring company to use. Did you direct him away from EZ? I did!
Key on you should have one buss in the panel become hot. The fuse marked turn signals should have one side to the above buss, the other side of fuse to the + side of the flasher cans socket. Line side of flasher can should go to steering column. Since there's no schematics, where I said "should" above you could read that as "it will work if does" You may have to get to the back of the panel to sort this out. No fun I know, EZ should be doing something but the reality is they aren't and its on you now. You could take the EZ kit out and swap it for one with a smoother customer service department. Probably less involved to fix what you have.
I did check with key on, still no power. All the other circuits are working as expected. For now I'll bypass the fused "Turn Signal" circuit and use the cigar lighter power. I do appreciate the help from you guys. It's a real eye opener to see the difference between the "you're a dumb ass" replies -vs- the people who tried to help. There are some real good people on the HAMB , you other guys can... I always knew I could fix the problem, my point is I could have built a much better harness in less time I've spent trying to fix this one with no schematic. I thought it would be helpful to the guy I'm building the car for to have spare circuits for future circuits. I'll go back to building my own again in the future. You vendors listen up - If you sell a product, give your users the tools they need to install and make it work. If you choose to not to do that and require people to call you have an OBLIGATION to supply telephone support 24/7 not just when you feel like it.
Wouldn't it be nice if the vendors read this, understood it, and followed thru? Oddly we, mostly my son from his teens up, have used the E-Z Wire brand with ease and good luck. We do however use the GM modern signal plugs at the base of the column. I know some say these kits are not traditional but sometimes it's easier to use premade kits of this type. I'm not sayin another brand is not better. It's just that where we live these have always been on sale at car events at a much lower price. Wiring and interior work seem to be the biggest mystery when working on cars. But it's still better than chasing little white balls or wild animals.
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