No turn signals, blown fuse

[Pete Lenzini]

Greetings,

After spending the better part of the summer to date rebuilding the brake system and buffing, polishing, waxing, and detailing my car, I took it out Sunday only to find I had no turn signals. The last time I had driven it before Sunday was a brief 8 to 10 mile spin to check the brakes, which were fine, and I'm not sure whether I had turn signals then or not. In any case today I started in to find out what the problem was, after reading on the topic of no turn signals here, and began at the fuse block. I found the #1 fuse, which the manuals say should be a white 8/15 was actually a red 25/40. That raised a little suspicion. I rotated each fuse as has been suggested here but still no turn signals and when I pulled the #1 fuse out, it was blown or broken. I thought I had found my problem. So I got some new fuses, put in the correct white 8/15, turned on the key and the turn signal switch and the fuse blew. Tried another white 8/15 and blew it. Put in a new red 25/40 and it also blew. Any suggestions as to where to look next?

Thanks,
Pete

[Pete Indelicato]

You have a direct ground somewhere, get the wiring diagram for your model and start from there--follow the wire from the bottom of the fuse block to the front turn signals and then the rear, check for pinched wires or where insulation might have worn off--guessing that you have original wires--remember that wires are 60 years old--check bulb sockets and where wiring is attached--you will learn allot about your car trying to find the issue.

[Joe Ferris]

I had a similar issue on my #1 fuse. It would blow every time I put the car in reverse. It ended up being my reverse light bulb (Likely the original) was deteriorated and causing the short. Cleaned the contacts, new bulb and no more blown fuse. Check those bulbs and clean contacts before tearing into it too far. You can start by removing bulbs, trying the signal switch and see if fuse blows. Add them back one at a time testing in between.

[David Jones]

Pete, do the brake lights work? If so the problem is probably going to be in the front turn signal portion of the circuit but it is not difficult to disconnect the turn signal at the bundle connection behind the dash and check each turn signal circuit individually.

[Pete Lenzini]

Pete, do the brake lights work? If so the problem is probably going to be in the front turn signal portion of the circuit but it is not difficult to disconnect the turn signal at the bundle connection behind the dash and check each turn signal circuit individually.

No brake lights either, Dave.

Thanks

[Pete Lenzini]

I had a similar issue on my #1 fuse. It would blow every time I put the car in reverse. It ended up being my reverse light bulb (Likely the original) was deteriorated and causing the short. Cleaned the contacts, new bulb and no more blown fuse. Check those bulbs and clean contacts before tearing into it too far. You can start by removing bulbs, trying the signal switch and see if fuse blows. Add them back one at a time testing in between.

Good idea. I've run into some goofy wiring/electrical issues on Land Cruisers resulting from dirty or rusty sockets, grounds, etc. The left rear turn signal bulb was black, as if blown but I haven't checked it except by eye it looked like the filament was intact, or what I could see of it.

Thanks

[Pete Lenzini]

You have a direct ground somewhere, get the wiring diagram for your model and start from there--follow the wire from the bottom of the fuse block to the front turn signals and then the rear, check for pinched wires or where insulation might have worn off--guessing that you have original wires--remember that wires are 60 years old--check bulb sockets and where wiring is attached--you will learn allot about your car trying to find the issue.

Good points and helps me to get started chasing it out. I know about the direct ground but didn't know where to start, I'll do as you suggest and start at the bottom of the fuse block. Have Leoni and other wiring diagrams.

Thanks

[Joe Ferris]

My reverse light looked intact as well but definitely causing the issue. Keep us posted, would love to hear the outcome!

[Pete Lenzini]

Thanks to advice from Dave Jone and others on the Registry, and a lot of head scratching and studying of Joe Leoni's and Greg Bryan's diagrams and articles, I now have my turn signals, back-up light, and brake lights back. I've know for many years that grounds, or absence thereof, are a common cause of electrical issues such as the one I faced with my turn signals. I temporarily "forgot" this and was worried that I had a frayed wire some place in the bowels of the beast or a faulty ignition or turn signal switch. Dave's advice to troubleshoot the circuits controlled by fuse #1 (turn signals, back-up light, and brake lights) one at a time got me pointed in the right direction. I began by putting the car on jack stands and removing the wheels so that I had good access to the back sides of the rear tail/turn signal lights and the front turn signal lights. The first thing I found at the rear was that the factory ground straps were present but not connected to the fixture mounting studs. Instead there were separate ground wires with loop terminals on the mounting studs on each side. BUT, when I began to disconnect these for cleaning, I discovered that the nuts were only finger-tight, at best! So I cleaned everything, re-installed the ground wires and the grounding straps and went to the front, where I found the same finger-tight (finger loose is a better description) ground connections, These were all cleaned, re-installed and tightened. Same for the two grounding points in the front trunk although the nuts were tight but corroded. I had gotten a brief intermittent quick flash without dash indicator on the turn signals before i discovered the grounding problems, which I think was due to low battery voltage (it died completely not long after) and/or a bad flasher. So I fully charged my battery and put in a new NAPA flasher, and then everything on the #1 fuse was working as it should. I hope when I go out today, it still is! Bottom line, I think the problem was poor or inconsistent grounds and at the end low battery voltage.

Thanks everybody for your comments and suggestions.

Pete

[Martin Benade]

Good you fixed all the grounds, but ungrounded circuits won’t blow a fuse. Did you happen to find anything that was shorted?

[Mike Wilson]

Thanks for posting the results on your issue as others in the future will have the same issues and can search for this thread and its suggestions and resolve.

Mike

[Pete Lenzini]

Good you fixed all the grounds, but ungrounded circuits won’t blow a fuse. Did you happen to find anything that was shorted?

Nope, I didn't find any shorts but didn't really look and the fuse doesn't blow. I can't explain this even though it's been explained by others that a poorly grounded circuit can or will lead to the current finding an alternative path to ground through another item in the circuit. I'm surmising that something like this is what happened to blow the fuse. I just know that before repairing all the grounds, with a new fuse in the block, as soon as I turned on the ignition the fuse would blow. Only after disconnecting the turn signal wire from the fuse would the back-up light and brake lights work (though dimly) without blowing the fuse. The problem I guess may have been the flasher. I still have the old one and think I'll stick it in to see if it still works. If the fuse blows I'll know it was the flasher.

Pete

[Martin Benade]

Sounds good. Usually lacking ground the current finds some higher resistance path to ground, such as through some other light bulb. Sounds like the flasher.

[Pete Lenzini]

Good you fixed all the grounds, but ungrounded circuits won’t blow a fuse. Did you happen to find anything that was shorted?

Nope, I didn't find any shorts but didn't really look and the fuse doesn't blow. I can't explain this even though it's been explained by others that a poorly grounded circuit can or will lead to the current finding an alternative path to ground through another item in the circuit. I'm surmising that something like this is what happened to blow the fuse. I just know that before repairing all the grounds, with a new fuse in the block, as soon as I turned on the ignition the fuse would blow. Only after disconnecting the turn signal wire from the fuse would the back-up light and brake lights work (though dimly) without blowing the fuse. The problem I guess may have been the flasher. I still have the old one and think I'll stick it in to see if it still works. If the fuse blows I'll know it was the flasher.

Pete

I spoke too soon! Martin you were right. I put my old flasher in to see if it worked and it did not blink. Before putting the new one back in, I reattached the flasher base to the bulkhead with a screw instead of just letting it hang down below the dash and in doing that I had to do a little pushing and pulling on the 3 wires that go into the flasher base. After I had the base attached I put in the new flasher that had worked fine yesterday and guess what happened, no turn signals and a blown fuse #1. I was pretty sure then that I had a short in the wire from fuse #1 to the turn signal flasher. I used my multi-tester between the terminal on the flasher base that delivers power from fuse #1 and ground and had continuity so that was the wire with the short. I loosened the fuse block and the black wire from fuse #1and pulled the fuse block far enough away from the bulkhead to be able to inspect the black wire from fuse #1 to the bulkhead and I could see and feel right away a break in the insulation about a 1/4" long and about half way around the wire, with bare wire showing. This was at or near where the wire went through the bulkhead. The rest of the wire was OK so I put 2 layers of shrink tubing over the bare spot, put everything back together, and now have turn signals again.

[Mike Wilson]

Mike