left side blinker causes the dash lights to light up

tomtoc · Jul 16, 2008

so my left blinker was "sick". each blink would sort of "cough". finally it was just solid. the right side was always fine. hoping for the easier fix, i replaced the 15 year old flashed today. i thought it did the trick.

just got back from driving at dusk and noticed that the blinker was messed up again. knowing the flasher was good i assumed it was the bulbs. then i noticed something funny - the dash lights would light up with the blinker. the longer i left the blinker on (left side only) the slower the blinks got and the lights were on constantly. right side is normal and does nothing to dash lights.

damn - sounds like a wiring problem and i HATE electrical. sound right? any tips? if the bulbs were the problem, the dash lights wouldn't come on

LEB Paul · Jul 16, 2008

possibly a bad ground on one of the lights? I had a similar problem with mine and found I forgot to hook up one of the grounding straps for the opposite side's headlight.

(this was on the bronco your truck may be completely different, just a suggestion!)

Brian_B · Jul 16, 2008

I agree...sounds like a grounding problem to me too.

I had a headlight that would randomly go dim and would flicker with the left turn signal in my old ranger. It was extremely annoying. :headbang:

One night...I accidentaly bumped the ground on the headlight when I was working on something else. Ohh...I found the problem!!!!!! I cleaned the connection, tightened it up, and it never happened again.

LEB Paul · Jul 16, 2008

Yep, thats exactly what mine was doing Brian.

tomtoc · Jul 16, 2008

friggin grounds - i've got a bad one on the gas tank too.

where should i start on the lights? should i be able to just see a ground wire coming off of each one? is it all wrapped in a harness?

LEB Paul · Jul 16, 2008

Well on mine it was coming right off of the back of the headlight and connected on the core support for a ground. I'd guess with the newer trucks its going to be in a harness of some sort though.

Brian_B · Jul 16, 2008

Captain p4 said:
Well on mine it was coming right off of the back of the headlight and connected on the core support for a ground. I'd guess with the newer trucks its going to be in a harness of some sort though.

Mine was the same on my 89 ranger as his bronco is apparently.

I have also seen one of the blinker sockets (where the bulb goes into) on another vehicle (scout II) that was corroded there and lost a ground somehow.

That might be worth looking at as well. It should not take long.

tomtoc · Jul 16, 2008

k, i'll look tomorrow or this weekend

could it be in my trailer plug? i've got a 7-way that looks like a birds nest

mrfixit · Jul 16, 2008

I don't know on the 93's, but on both my 88 and 79, the ground tab IN THE TURN SIGNAL SOCKET eroded... I mean, just GONE! I live a ways out, so I snipped a strip of flashing tin, fed it thru where the old one was, then crimped the old ground wire onto that strip... and it worked!
Good ol' redneck engineering... can't beat it! :rofl2:

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left side blinker causes the dash lights to light up

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