Jacked up painless turn signal connections - HELP

[Millercorey]

Finished the brunt of my painless install many weeks back, but I was having trouble finding to time to finish the odds and ends. Because of that, I can’t remember exactly every snag I hit or every choice I made. I remember having some trouble with the turn signal connection and wire colors not matching painless docs. Now it’s all screwed up and my turn signals won’t work. Working the lever to one side will get the til-tok clicking and an illuminated light in the gauge, but nothing in the rear. The other does nothing. Also my horn is constantly on, so I know there’s something wrong there. Any help y’all can provide here?

 

[SHX669]

If I remember correctly There are 3 different configurations for the turn signals depending on the year of the Bronco . Painless has pretty specific instructions on how to go about connecting those . Only ONE of the configurations is a direct plug in , another uses an adapter plug and plug - fairly simple . The third requires cutting off the Painless plug in installing " bullet connectors " { I think }
Then of course this is all assuming the wiring for your steering column stuff is true to the factory wiring. If not then you need to find out what color wire does what.

 

[DirtDonk]

First of all, what year Bronco? And what year, make and model steering column?
If a '73 you could have different turn signal switch wiring, but at least it's close and all functions are still the same. So when in doubt, testing will work it out.

What colors are all the wires in your original column harness? Two connectors, right?
I know we can see the colors in your pics, but write them out in list format and it's easier for us to track and trace rather than flipping back and forth between pictures and text. So if you could do so, that would be great!

Thanks. Good luck.

Paul

 

[Millercorey]

It’s a 71 and I mentioned the time it’s been since I installed bc I can’t remember exactly what stock coming from the column was! Let me try to diagram out which colors are going where.

Assuming column is original (non tilt)

 

[Millercorey]

Here’s what’s coming out of my column. There’s a good chance I pinned them out in the white connector bc I remember making some guesses due to the colors not matching up with what’s coming out of the painless

Blue.........................Blue w/ white stripe
Green w/ red stripe....Green and white
Yellow (thick).............Blue and white
Orange......................Green

 

[DirtDonk]

Thanks. And yes, the turn signal/column wiring always seems to be the big slow-down during any harness install. Even when the colors do match the instructions!
By the way, which side of your chart is the column side, and which the Painless side? Looks like the right side should be factory, but the Painless kit matches the factory supposedly. Is yours the Bronco-specific Painless harness? Or something else?

The left side does not make a lot of sense from a factory standpoint, and the right side has two of the same color?
Here's what the factory was:

1. Blue - power in from the turn signal flasher.
2. Red w/black - power in from the brake light switch.
3. Yellow w/black - out to left rear turn signal and brake lamp.
4. Green w/white - out to left front turn signal (and dash turn indicator)
5. Green - out to right rear turn signal and brake lamp.
6. White w/blue - out to right front turn signal (and indicator)

The Green w/red was something in the early models that was dropped about '72-ish. I'll see if I can find/remember what it was for. I don't think it was ever in the Bronco wiring diagrams in Chilton's. Maybe in Seabiscuits diagrams? I'll check Steve83's stuff too.

Remember too though, that while waiting for my sorry slow a$$ to get a job done, you could actually test the function of each wire coming out of the steering column with your multi-meter. That's how I had to do my first FJ40 because I had no Toyota wiring diagrams available.

Oh, and some of those actually run to the hazard switch first, so keep that in mind if you're tracing things the whole way at some point.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

Ok, per the '68 full-size truck diagrams the Green w/red wire in the column is the power in from the brake lamp switch. Should be Red w/black in the Painless side.
Looks like you have that one correctly oriented from what I can see.

Paul

 

[Millercorey]

This fantastically artistic rendering I’ve put together may help explain what I’ve got going on. I’m terrible at electrical btw. How can I test w/ a multimeter? Positive probe on the wire in question as the switch is flipped and negative on some kind of ground?

 

[Flying Pigs]

I was terrible with a multimeter because I didnt take the time to learn how to use it. I bought a decent multimeter from Harbor Freight and went to youtube with my questions and learned how to use it in an afternoon.

 

[DirtDonk]

Thanks Flying Pigs. And welcome to classicbroncos too!

Millercorey, your rendering gets the job done. And that should be good enough!
When I mentioned the meter I was thinking more in terms of using the ohm-meter function to test when a circuit opened and closed on the column side of things. Not looking for voltage when connected at this point.

For example putting one probe end (either one in this case) on the solid Blue wire and try each of the other wires in succession to see which one opens the circuit when flipping the turn signal lever to the left/down, and which wire when flipping it up/right.
In theory, the Blue wire is the feed in from the turn signal flasher unit.
If the turn signal switch is in the left blinker position, you should see "continuity" or zero resistance between the Blue and perhaps both the Yellow w/black and Green w/white wires. You're just trying to determine what's connected to what, and when.

I just found my cheat-sheet from a buddy's '73 we re-wired with a Centech harness. I made this sheet because I'd already run across two other '73's that did not match the wiring diagrams, like I mentioned before. So this time I was trying to be prepared.
I literally cut the ends of the wires off and taped them to the paper with a description of each one. Eight wires total.

I see that, like yours, there are also an Orange wire, and a Green w/red wire!
Very interesting, as Jon Banner and Arte Johnson used to say.

I have the Orange marked as "Red w/black" (power in from the brake switch) but the the Green w/red and Green w/white are not marked on my sheet.
Bummer.

Anyway, I'll come back with a fresh brain tomorrow-ish and see if I can make sense of your wire colors. Hopefully someone will have all the answers first though.

Paul