turn signals finally fixed!

Posted by David Grubbs On 2015/8/23 20:49:55

My 51 200 has had a mysterious problem with the front right turn signal not working, while the other three did fine. Previously I put in a new bulb housing, new grounds, new wires and terminal blocks with no success, other than the fact that the front left bulb is really bright now. I finally pulled the steering wheel off, and dug out some old turn signal switches out of the bone pile. Using a multimeter, I finally determined that I was not getting any power to the orange wire from the signal switch. This is the wire going to the front right bulb. I unplugged the existing switch and plugged in another 51 switch. Then the front right worked, but not the left front! I then plugged in a 1950 unit and all lights worked. I cleaned up the 50 switch and changed the receiver for the turn handle - it is a circular unit, and the 50 has a flat bottom that doesn't fit well in the hole in the steering column. After soldering everything back together, it all works nicely.

After I was finished, I looked at the shop manual - the second thing it suggested was changing out the switch. Guess I should have read it first.

So if anyone else has this problem, it might pay to check out the switch.

I may take a run at taking the switch apart and see if I can fix it. Has anyone else tried doing that?