[skyblade]

Electrical Problem driving me crazy

Hey there! I am new to your forum, as of yesterday anyway, but have used this site for some time. I wanted to put a question to the experts about my problem though. I have a 1973 GT that has an electrical problem involving the turn siginals. When you siginal the correct lights flash on the car flash but the instament lights flash incorrectly. Say if you signal left, the left instrament light with flash once then both will flash repeatidly. As I mentioned, the correct lights on the car work fine. My father had a friend who said he had this problem and knew how to fix it but unfortinuatly he past away last year. Anyway if anyone has an idea let me know. I have traced and retraced wires so many times my fingers are sore! Thanks.

 

[baronbors]

Check your ground wires- sounds like it is not grounding properly

 

[OpelMutt]

I had the same problem. It turned out the previous owner had put a single lement bulb in the front left turnsignal duak element socket and the contacts were shorting across.
Bad grounds are ALWAYS a possibility, too.

Bill & the FrankenOpel
Sorry, officer, I thought i was signaling. . .

 

[skyblade]

Grounded

Ok then I will defnitly check the grounds. I put up with it before but I am having more and more problems. The high beam on the right tail light does not work and starting last week I keep blowing the number 2 fuse. The last I problem I think I worked out as my electric fuel pump seems to have quit but the previous owner had some strange wiring going on. Took we a while to figure out that the fog light switch was wired in an attempt to kill the fuel pump. It did not work only cause break warning light to come on when the 2 fuse was blow as it reversed the flow and powered everthing on that block from the 3 fuse... I think. It has been a long day...

 

[Stressed]

When you figure out the problem with the indicators, please let me know what it is. I have the exact same problem. I thought it was the relay, but I tried my two spares, and the same thing happens.

Also, What should the red and the white indicator do? E.g. what do they indicate?

 

[skyblade]

Indicators

The red indicator is suppose to be break warning and the white is when the head lights fail to turn on. As for the red it also may come on at odd times depending on how you wire the car. If you put in a headlight switch then the white is probally useless.

I will not rest until it is solved! Well I probally will but it will be very irrating until I do.

 

[Stressed]

Are the front turn signals also supposed to be running lights? E.g. Two filaments? That may be my problem. The weird thing is that the dash indicators are acting up, but the actual turn signals are working fine.

 

[BQS4]

If you have an actual 69 model, they flash only, they do not come on when the headlights come on. If you have a 70-73 they are running lights and they flash.

 

[73Manta72gt]

It's sounds like your flasher problem is due to excess resistance in the wiring...either a bad ground, bad crimps on terminals, or the wrong bulb wattage....replacing the flasher won't help! If the wiring checks out then I would try a larger wattage bulb or pry the flasher apart and reduce the spring tension slightly. I never could find the problem in my wiring, so I just reduced the tension on the flasher spring.

 

[skyblade]

I will give it a shot tommarow

Hoping to try some of these suggested solutions tommarow. Thanks alot for the help and I will defnitly post if it works.

 

[skidmark]

My '72 did the same thing, turned out to be internal in the flasher assembly. It has to do with the grounding of the instrument lights thru the flasher. I came up with a way to install a normal two prong flasher and a jumper and it works with no cutting or mods to dash wiring.I'll post a drawing later.

 

[Stressed]

I have two original flasher relays, and an aftermarket relay. All three are doing the same, and the aftermarket flashes really fast.

 

[okieopel]

JJ had a fix for this on the '70- '73 models. I think it said some thing about disconnecting the yellow wire that goes to terminal C on the flasher relay. I will have to find the schematic I bought from him a few years ago.

My car also does the single blink then double blink on the dash indicators. It has never been an issue for me.

 

[Stressed]

It's more an annoyance than anything else.

 

[72opelguy]

i have no wiring harness

 

[patriotmsg]

I guess I am jumping on the band wagon as well. My '73 does the same thing, but only at idle. When I drive the indicator lights are fine, but when I am at idle (thank God, I finally got it to idle), both lights dim a little and start flashing. I have also noted that the nonflashing turn signal does in fact flash ever so slightly. I like the explanation of a bad ground, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Dave

 

[skyblade]

the beat goes on

I opened the flasher relay but found nothing that could be modified. okieopel is you do get that wiring diagram do let me/us know. I will look at terminal C and do some more exparmenting.

 

[okieopel]

JJ says in Note 2:
'(BK/Y) wire may be removed from term"C" of the flasher socket and taken to ground. 3-pin or 2 pin flashers will then work and there will be no more double green turn sig. lights on the dash board.'

This was taken from my copy of JJ Wheatley's 70-73 Opel Gt wiring diagram. IMHO it is the best wiring diagram. If you do not have one, find one.

Here is a link to a '72 color GT wiring diagram from anohter club (sorry Gary).
http://clubs.hemmings.com/frameset.cfm?club=oana

Cheers, Dan

 

[ben]

mine is doing the same thing trun sinal work fine but inside both bink so i am thing about fiw as well so you take the blk/y wire off and ground it to the car and this fixs it ?

 

[okieopel]

Ben- yes as I understand it, the BK/Y is the ground for the dash signal indicator lights. JJ grounds it on the speedo body. And term. "C" is not connected to any thing.

If you get it backwards, your dash signal indicator lights will not work.