Turn signal started smoking and alternator light came on
 

]I started my 88 3.2 and pulled out of parking spot and turn signal started to smoke and soon after alternator light came on and the tachometer started jumping around some times not working at all. I removed the fuse and was able to make it home and ordered a new one from pp but not sure what caused this to happen and what else may be damaged. By the way I had just replaced the battery that morning.

toasted voltage regulator?

I'm thinking that the regulator is toast, which caused your old battery to go south. Check the voltage output.

Did the smoke come from the turn signal or the indicator on the dash? You need to chase that down and correct it, you may have a short.

I smoked mine a few week back without the light...

as suggested Voltage regulator
in my case I flipped the high beams on and smoked the switch, blew the headlight circuit at 10pm and had no lights to drive home...

once the new switch was in I looked for the cause and found I was putting out too many volts "sometimes" - so new alternator was put in

now the last thing to check is the battery and as I suspected it had boiled a small amount of water out of each cell, I pulled the battery and thoroughly douched the area in battery acid neutralizer, then topped off the batter and put on a new over flow tube - so far so good...may have saved the battery before it was toasted...

I took steering wheel off and removed turn signal and found where switch had burned. Got the new one today and will install new one tomorrow. I will try to find proceedure on testing voltage regulator. Thanks

Some thoughts...

1. Now is the time to install a headlight relay kit to prevent your switch from frying in the future.

2. Figure out what's going on with the regulator BEFORE you install the new switch. The last thing you want to do is burn the new switch because the regulator is putting out too much voltage.

I had AAA come out and check charging system this morning and this is what they found. Starting test Voltage 12.24 Amps 33.0. Charging system test. (No Voltage) No load was 12.3 with no amps. and Loaded was 12.43 with no amps. AAA said he had no idea why the car had these readings. I have no idea my self, do you still think it might be voltage regulator or alternator.

You may well have a regulator issue.

The typical charging voltage should be 13.5-14.5 Volts, and drop to maybe 12.5-13.5 during high loads. (A/C, Headlights ect..)

More likely as a previously stated, the turn signal stalk switch has to carry all of the headlight current which is the valid reason for the aftermarket relays many of us have installed.

Typically when the VR fails, the voltage will spike to 16-17 volts.

But here's something to think about......

Good luck,

Gerry

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