I blow a fuse when using the right blinker

[Tidybuoy]

Help!

My car suddenly started blowing a fuse when I use the right blinker. The left works fine. When this started, the relay also started buzzing so I installed a new relay. However, I'm still blowing fuses.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Vern

[rbell]

Vern, I had the same problem. The positive wire to the blinker was grounded. It caused my relay to buzz and get hot. Then the fuse would blow. See if you have power to the right blinker, if not trace the hot wire back and see if it is grounded somewhere. Let me know if this helped.
RB

[Jim Savage]

Weird timing.......last night my turn signals started acting funny.

With the key in the off position my turn signals light but don't blink when the turn stalk is moved to either up or down.

Correct me if I'm wrong but.....there should be no power to the turn signals when the key is off, Right? Bad Relay????

Jim

[JohnB]

IIRC, the turn signals will work when the key is off to serve as parking/emergency marking lights for whichever side you threw the lever. I guess they thought we'd be spending more time parked on the shoulder than we do!

[Jim Savage]

I never knew that. Ya learn something new every day. I didn't have enough time to look at the wiring diagram last night.

But my two indicator lights in the tach are dim all the time (when driving). When the stalk is moved then the correct light gets bright and blinks while the other light stays dim. I replaced the relay last time this happened and it cured the problem. Now it is back and I thought something was related. Looks like I need to clean all my contacts and maybe get a new relay. When I find the time.

Thanx, Jim

[JohnB]

I haven't actually tried the turn signal thing on my '74 2.0 but when I had a '75 several years ago this seemed to work. I know it worked on a '73 1.7 I borrowed from a friend in '78.

[Joe Bob]

It's a euro thing....parking light. Narrow roads, no night lighting....you leave the car parked and the outside blinker stays illuminated.

As to the the right blinker blowing a fuse....you are infected with a NASCAR virus....right turns are NOT allowed....8^)

[Jim Savage]

Mike,

That's a good one.....Nascar virus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jim

[Tidybuoy]

One more thing that could be contributing to my problem: I recently removed the steering wheel & greased the turn signal springs because the signals were not shutting off properly.

Now the shut off - but, the right one blows a fuse when used.

I will check out to see if anything is grounding out.

Vern

[JohnB]

Oooh, now you're on to something. I did the windshield washer conversion a year ago and learned that there's a contact on the switch assembly inside the steering column cowl that would short out against the metal cowl. When that happened I either blew a fuse or got random wiper action (like when I hit a bump in the road).

If you recenty took that area apart check to make sure you don't have that kind of problem. I solved mine by filing off a very small section of the metal that formed the switch contact. It's sandwiched in the nylon pieces that hold it all together.

Good luck!

When this happened to me, it was the front side marker (or was it the front turn signal?) that had a loose wire grounding out.