81 Dasher Turn Signals

[whisker]

Doing some "finishing touches" on my Dasher- Taking on the turn signals. The right turn signal works great- blinks at normal speed and even. The left sometimes works... usually only after the car has been running for a while. When it does sorta work- which is 20% of the time- you have to hold it in a sweet spot and it blinks fast. Is this the switch itself? Just wanting to confirm before I buy a new part. Thanks.

[Quantum-man]

Usually, fast blinking means one of the direction lights are out. Bad earth, or blown bulb

[82vdub]

Typically as tyler durden said, fast blinking means there's a bulb out. But, I've had a few cars that sometimes the blinker would blink fast when actuated, and I'd have to move the blinker switch back to central position and move it again. I'm not even sure if the lights outside were blinking when that happened (driving the car at the time). So, I believe that there could be issues in the switch that could cause fast blinking.

[bscutt]

If you have a bad ground which is pretty common, it will ground the turn signal back through the parking light circuit which makes for a lower current return path for the turn signal. This makes it blink faster. My 82 has flaky ground connections in the turn signal sockets them selves. This is in both front light sockets. If I wiggle wires around it makes the ground wire connect and the lights blink normally. So you need to check all the sockets front and rear and try pushing the ground wires more firmly into the socket while the turn signal is running. If the light start to blink at normal pace you have found a bad light socket. You can then try to just mess with it until it works consistently or try sourcing some replacement sockets.

[Fatmobile]

I'm not real familiar with dashers.
If the bulb holder is like the Rabbit; I'd pull the foam back and look for a rusty ground.

Since you say moving the switch fixes it, I'd pull the steering wheel and pull the switch apart.
Sometimes cleaning sanding the contacts can help.
Sometimes you can get it away from the steering column and just spray it down good inside while moving it.

[vwtyp133]

Could be just my dumb luck, but the Dashers we've had seemed to be much less plagued with ground connection problems than have our Rabbits.

OTOH that's still where I'd probably start my troubleshooting. Also helpful is to set up mirrors in front & in back (the rear mirror(s) visible from your car's own door mirrors) to check the actual turn signal light operations, rather than just relying on the instrument cluster's blinking indicators.

Of course if you've got extra helpers (and extra beer!) just sitting around, the mirrors aren't really needed.

[Fatmobile]

Ha, I check my rear brake and turns using the shiny grill of the truck that pulled up behind me.

[whisker]

So I'm going to Hijack my own thread-

More importantly right now is the significant oil leak that seems most likely to be coming from the back of the oil pan gasket. I had an experienced mechanic look at it on a lift and we didn't see much coming down from the flywheel area, though it was splashed about, so we think it's the oil pan gasket. Which sucks.

Anybody done this job on a dasher without pulling the motor? I don't want to have to ask the neighbor for the 6th time to borrow his hoist.

[Quantum-man]

No need for a hoist, no need to remove engine.
Span across engine bay with a 4" x 2" or 4" x4" piece of wood. Use suitable strips of wood to go in the wheel arch, [fender's?], nay bonnet's [hood's] rain drain to spread load, strap engine to this 'bridge' near where it meets the transmission. Do this from the top and wrap strap round itself to add a little tension.

Raise car onto wheel ramps. Loosen engine left and right side mounting rubbers' top nuts, and remove lower nuts.

Do not loosen front mounting.

Remove the two engine suspension frame front bolts, and slacken the rear ones.
To get the frame to hang low enough, to allow the sump to clear the oil pump suction foot, you may need to remove the front clamps on the anti-roll bar.

Avoid removing the anti-roll bar ends if possible, and only replace if they are clearly loose, and not merely distorted. New ones are very hard to re clamp!
10mm 1/4" socket with extension bars for the 4 rear transmission end bolts. They are accessible as the transmission has crescent shaped grooves for the purpose.

Did I say drain oil after going up ramps?

With sump off a good opportunity to check oil pump, clean it's gauze foot, and maybe big end shell bearings...
If the suspension frame refuses to hang down low enough, car body may need raising
in preference to wheel ramps, leaving front wheels dangling. I'll recheck Haynes/Bentley

[whisker]

Thanks- Im going to give it a try this weekend!

[greg lousy]

pre hijack... if it comes to it, there's a generic 2 contact bulb socket available in most parts stores that was an almost perfect fit for my 81 caddy (probably the same).. cheap too... depending on how "original" you want to keep things. On the caddy, all the contacts in the sockets were getting pretty flimsy, especially grounds.

[whisker]

No need for a hoist, no need to remove engine.
Span across engine bay with a 4" x 2" or 4" x4" piece of wood. Use suitable strips of wood to go in the wheel arch, [fender's?], nay bonnet's [hood's] rain drain to spread load, strap engine to this 'bridge' near where it meets the transmission. Do this from the top and wrap strap round itself to add a little tension.

Raise car onto wheel ramps. Loosen engine left and right side mounting rubbers' top nuts, and remove lower nuts.

Do not loosen front mounting.

Remove the two engine suspension frame front bolts, and slacken the rear ones.
To get the frame to hang low enough, to allow the sump to clear the oil pump suction foot, you may need to remove the front clamps on the anti-roll bar.

Avoid removing the anti-roll bar ends if possible, and only replace if they are clearly loose, and not merely distorted. New ones are very hard to re clamp!
10mm 1/4" socket with extension bars for the 4 rear transmission end bolts. They are accessible as the transmission has crescent shaped grooves for the purpose.

Did I say drain oil after going up ramps?

With sump off a good opportunity to check oil pump, clean it's gauze foot, and maybe big end shell bearings...
If the suspension frame refuses to hang down low enough, car body may need raising
in preference to wheel ramps, leaving front wheels dangling. I'll recheck Haynes/Bentley

Worked. Thanks very much!

[whisker]

I spoke too soon.... moved to here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12389 Thanks for your help.