Keep blowing the RIGHT hand directional signal and WARNING light fuses. I've checked all the wires for bare spots that could be touching metal and find everything to be ok. All other lights, head, stop and LEFT hand directional signal lights work as they should. Could there be a short in the wires in the Steering Column? Not sure who the Mfg. is of the chrome aftermarket column. Getting tired of sticking my arm out the window when making right hand turns!
Make sure all your grounds to the bulb sockets are good too. Corrosion inside connectors, and sockets. Higher amperage due to resistance will blow fuses.
Put something like this in place of the fuse, start unhooking things, wire to rear, wire to front, etc until the light goes out and you will have found the source of the short. (you don't need the inline fuse in the test rig; just the light)
Unplug the wires and test the left and right turn signals with an ohm meter. If the meter go's to 0 ohms you have a grounded situation and will need to isolate it. With the bulbs in you should have a resistance to ground and it should be the same on both sides. With the bulbs out you should have no continuity to ground. If this checks out ok then look at the turn signal switch for problems. With all wires disconnected from the switch it should have no continuity to ground in any position unless it has an internal indicator light.
Shorted filaments in a bulb can cause your problem. Remove bulbs one at a time see if short goes away.
Bad bulbs can cause weird problems. This is the first place I look in cases like these. Simple and free.
A bit more clarity in the explanation would help.... So, do you only blow the fuses when the right turn is selected? Or do you need to use the 4-way flashers (I'm assuming that's what you mean by 'warning' lights) to blow that fuse? And I'm assuming that you loose both left and right sides of the turns when that fuse goes, right? If that's NOT the case, then the wiring is connected strangely. I'm also assuming that the rear turns are 'shared' with the brake lights. So in this case, the problem should be restricted to the right front turn, right turn indicator, or the turn switch/column as these are the only two lights that are 'exclusive' to the right turn signal. I'd try disconnecting these two lights from the turn switch first, if after doing this the fuse still blows then you have a defective switch and/or a short in the column. If when you're using ONLY the right turn it blows BOTH the turn and 4-way fuses, the problem is in the turn switch.
Hay Crazy Steve, When the right turn signal is selected the fuse blows and all turn signals front and rear both sides quit working. When I replace the fuse and select the Hazard lights the fuse blows again. Sounds like a short in the column is the problem. All bulbs have been replaced twice and all grounds have been checked. Wiring can be very frustrating.
Does the same fuse service both the turn signals and the flashers? These should be separate circuits, but it will still work if only one power-in circuit is used. The disadvantage is the fuse will be larger than needed for the turn circuit, plus you may get 'feedback' from the flasher circuit. If this is the case, also try removing the flasher for the 4-ways and see if the problem clears for the turn signals. It could be a shorted flasher, although this should affect both turns. But I'd still try disconnecting the right front/right indicator lights and see if the shorting problem clears. If it doesn't, the problem is almost certainly in the switch/column and you'll need to pull the switch and check for melted/broken/bare wiring or contacts. If disconnecting the two lights does clear the problem, then you have a short in one of the lights. Remove the lamps from each, then check the wiring from the switch to the lamps to ground. There should be no grounds.
I'm with steve, don't make this harder than it is, look for the simple stuff first. Right front, check the bulbs, then check the wiring harness that goes into the light, look for worn spots where there could be a short. Then, same thing for the rear, looking for a bare wire, then, follow the harness back to the column, look for a short in the harness. Then to the column, my money is on a worn spot where the wires go into the lights.
Once you have removed, one at a time the r/s signal bulbs and then checked if the fuse stops blowing to eliminate a bad bulb. It would be easier if you broke the problem down in sections, easy things first. See what color the wires are at r/s tail and r/s front signal lamp.The wiring for the tail lamps will usually either run directly under the carpet at the toe board or run behind the l/f kick pad look for a plug for the rear harness in this area with your color wires among them and unplug it,see if the fuse still blows. Then look where the color wires for the r/ ft. signal lamps run into the dash,see if there is a location to unplug them a repeat above.You also could look for the color wires coming out of your turn signal switch and unhook first ft then rear to lead you to problem area. Last if fuse still blowing, Try looking for a pinched wire going up your steering colunm,( in most cases the same color wires will be here also),if no shorts found you will have to remove the steering wheel for a signal switch inspection. If you rigged up a device like Rich B posted with instead of the fuse a 20 amp circut breaker (avail at parts store)and a bulb, used as a jumper instead of your signal lamp fuse, for testing purpose-- One- it would save you a lot on fuses and 2 you could tug on wires in diffrent locations and keep watching for the lamp on your rigged up device to stop blinking, When it stops blinking,whatever you did, moved and unshorted the offending wire,now your right on top of the problem area. It will also give you a little more test time than an instantly blown fuse. .This would help narrow down your search .And if anthing was recently installed or done to the car do a lot of looking in this area first (repair the repair)
He doesn't need to check the rear lights, as he stated that the tail/brake lights work. If the problem was there it would show up as a malfunctioning brake light. This is assuming that the brake lights are wired through the turn switch as per normal practice. If he has separate rear turn signals, then you'd need to check the rear lights.
This may seem really like some really redneck troubleshooting but it can work. After dark, turn off the lights in the garage and have some helpers watch different areas of the car. When the fuse pops you will see where it arcs at. Sometimes it is as bright as flash bulb.
The flasher should act as a circuit breaker and protect the system try a light duty flasher while trouble shooting the system
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