Been driving my 62 Bel air wagon and all of a sudden the right turn signal stopped working. Every once in a while it will work. Other times I can hear it blinking but the right turn indicator in the speedometer does not light up. A friend said it was in the wiring in the column. I was thinking maybe in the switch itself behind the steering wheel? Trying to figure out where to start. Edit: Neutral safety switch and turn signal switch fixed the problem. Everything was working fine until I started it up the other day and hit the brake pedal. The right turn signal indicator came on and stays on until I let off the brake pedal.
Pull the wheel off and have a look at the directional switch. Contacts may be dirty or worse broken. My 64 Belair switch just disintegrated one day. Had to replace the whole thing. Could be a bulb issue or a ground I suppose. Might want to check out the sockets as well. Had that issue too.
If the column in the car is like the truck, the switch will be mounted on the base by the floorboard. A cable runs from steering wheel to the floor. The cable sounds like it is out of adjustment at the switch. Dave
The electrical switch is at the base of the column, it has a wire running to it (like a coat hanger wire) and it pushes/pulls the switch. Either the switch is bad, out of adjustment or the rod isn't moving the full range. First make sure the rod moves equal distance for left/right turn. Loosen the hold down bolts on the switch, turn the ignition on and move the switch up the column and down........do both of the signals work properly. My money is on the switch being bad.
I haven't driven the wagon a whole lot since I first posted this. It started working normal then towards the fall it started acting up again. I just did a gear box conversion on it and decided to pull the steering wheel and check it out. All the parts behind the wheel looked good. With the wheel off, sometimes it will only blink once, not at all or work like it should with indicators working. There is a half moon relay at the bottom of the column. Unplugged it and the turn signal still worked if I could get it to. The rod that runs from the top of the column to the bottom rotates forwards and backards like it should and. I'm guessing it might be the half moon relay at the bottom of the column.
I had a similar problem on my 59 ElCamino. What fixed for me was to ground each light to the body with a short pigtail, and ground the body better to the frame. %0 years of gunk and rust can muck up the ground path. All my lighting problems are gone now.
Half moon relay may be the reverse neutral safety switch. Turn signal is above it. Most likely you got a switch problem.
Your turn signal switch should look like this one http://www.summitracing.com/parts/aww-03765110/applications/ They are adjusted by sliding them back and forth on the screw that goes thought the slot in the oval tab on the side . Once in a while that screw loosens just enough so that the switch will slip a bit off it's sweet spot. Y.ou might check that to see if it needs to be adjusted before buying a new switch
Have a new problem now. When I hit the brake pedal, the right turn signal indicator light comes on and stays on.
Still have the turn signal problem. When I hit the brake pedal, the right turn signal up front stays on solid until I let off.
As stated you need to get a good ground at your lights if the bulb socket loses ground it will seek ground through the indicator light in the dash.
The Jalopy Journal
