spastic blinker lights all of a sudden

[ford4life69]

Ok, I haven't got the foggiest notion what's changed to cause this but I noticed going to work this morning that my right blinker was all spastic. I don't mean blinking fast like the new ones do when a bulb is out, I mean flat spastic as in blinks fast then slow then holds steady then flips around never doing the same thing for more than a few seconds. On the way home, both sides were doing it. The hazards are working fine and all the bulbs are ok best I can tell. Both of my side markers on the passenger side are out but those don't blink anyway.

Any ideas?

 

[blacksnapon]

Put a flasher in it. The flasher for the turn signals most generally is different than the emergency flasher.

 

[ford4life69]

ok what's the flasher and where do i put it? never heard of that before....

 

[TheRoadVirus]

It's located right near the fuse panel, at least it is on my truck. It's a cheap part you should be about to get at any local auto parts store.

 

[blacksnapon]

They're usually by the fuse box under the dash. Turn the turn signals on, and find whats clicking. It probably is cylindrical and plugs in with two posts.

 

[Mil1ion]

They tape the T/S flasher wires to the main harness.

 

[ford4life69]

i've never heard this one click... guess i need to clean my ears or something...

 

[mrfixit]

Yes... Dennis is on it. The Turn Signal flasher kinda hangs there by the block and is round. and my 4way was square, on the block iirc.. or was it under the center.... I've slept since then, but the 4 way one was square, too

 

[ford4life69]

Yes... Dennis is on it.

well since the alarm isn't blaring i don't think anyone's on anything in my truck. but D, if you did make it to tx and got into my truck w/o telling me, mind fixin it while you're there? please please *trying to act all nice and girly so you boys will wanna help me out*

so i need to look for the square thingy kinda hanging by a block thingy under the dash somewhere but not the other square thingy for the emergency flashers.... oh and it's supposed to be clicking....













i got it...







nope, guess the flinstone method of beat it doesn't work either ....

 

[mrfixit]

guess your flasher isn't all that isn't flashing...

But feel welcome to do it manually.

 

[ford4life69]

huh?

it's flashing just completely erratically. when i turn the alarm on it flashes like it's supposed to, x many times etc just like the parking flashers work.

i'm not wiggling the blinker switch up and down to turn... if i get pulled over i'll tell him it's busted, show him it's busted, and ask the cop if he knows what round blinker flasher thingy by the box thingy but not the square emergency flasher thingy you're talking about.

gotta remember, while most of y'all have prolly seen it once or twice and cld figure it out from that i haven't ever seen it that i wld know what it is and i'm not quite sure where i shud be looking anyway. somewhere in the vacinity of the fuse box? is that the box you're talking about... i just feel stupid reading some of y'all's responses sometimes cuz i don't get what you're saying but i'm too embarrassed to ask yet again.

i'm taking my tired frustrated tx ass to bed before i just say to hell with it and chalk it up to one more thing that's gonna just have to stay busted. thanks for the help and good night.

 

[dragogt]

Maybe this will help? http://www.autozone.com/N,15701559/shopping/partTypeResultSet.htm ... http://www.autozone.com/N,4294962916+4294962982/shopping/locsSelect.htm ... http://www.autozone.com/N,4294962916+4294962913/shopping/locsSelect.htm

 

[mrfixit]

sorry. my last remard was a joke.

BUT... I will see if I can get a snapshot of what you are looking for.

It's located at the Front seating area, driver side, driver side of steering column, under dash, mounted in upper left corner of fuse panel .
looks similar to this, but may be made of blue plastic:

 

[Mil1ion]

Usually an erratic flashing of the TS lights is caused by a Ground out of wiring to the frame. This can also hapen in the TS siwtch because everything to do with those lights runs through it. Corrosion can cause this phenonenom.

If it only does it on one side then you only have 2 bulb sockets to worry about.

The flasher only flashes faster from MORE DRAW on the circuit.
The amount of electrical DRAW makes cause the speed at which BREAKS the contact after being heated up. A fast flashing flasher has MORE draw than normal IE: standard flasher trying to run 3 Bulbs with trailer attached compared to 2 for just the truck.

Look for a spot where extra draw could happen..Ie: a bare wire touching another wire or ground.

 

[mrfixit]

In the light of day, my mind is not quite as foggy, lol.
I seem to recall my TS switch was the cause once, for me; in fact, it wasn't the switch so much as the red wire going TO it had broken inside, and I only noticed that as I took the old switch out. I figure it was acting funky because the current was literally arcing across that tiny gap. Fixed the wire, tried it, and it worked! was almost like surgery, tho, with so little room and not much slack for that wire! I couldn't trim it (too tight) and wound up soldering a tiny extension on it with heat shrink tubing.
Definitely not a job for someone unfamiliar with working like that, tho.

 

[bucks77ford]

Grounding can cause some crazy things for these trucks. After I had rewired my cab with new harness, I thought I had everything right and nothing would work at all. I kept checking everything and what not and low and behold, I forgot to ground the cab. One simple ground wire fired everything up.