You where writing to Jeff;
> After looking at my two other 60's cars there are only two wires
> coming from the front to the rear ending at the tail lights.(both have
> a single light with dual filament bulbs).
Correct.  One (bright filament) for brake & flasher. Dim for running lamp.
However, there should be a ground wire to the lamp housing. Bad grounds
cause very strange lighting behaviour.
One of the oddest I've seen, was a bad ground causing the trailer lights to
blink opposite to what the truck was blinking (truck left, trailer right,
and vice versa).  For fun, run a temporary ground to your lamp sockets and
see if things correct themselves.
> The switching must take place at the signal flasher can. ????
In the case of your setup (dual flasher cans yes).
The flasher can makes/breaks the contact by use of a simple bimetalic strip.
> Well I have a 78 chevy el camino steering column (non-column shift
> type.) and a 72 buick brake pedal assembly that has 4 male prongs of
> which I am using two of them. It must be switching the brake light
> function.
> 
> There are two signal flasher cans with two prongs each on them with a
> wire to each prong on both cans, these must be the left and right
> signal switches.(blinkers)
Have you checker that it is one flasher can per side, or is one the hazard
flasher can?
Typically the 4 prong brake lamp switch is one set of contacts for the brake
light, and the other set to control things like lockup torque converters.
But, thats not to say they cannot be used to independantly power each side
of the vehicle for flashers.
I might suspect you just have a bad turn signal switch assembly.
A trip to the wreckers should get you an assembly for next to nothing to try
out. You won't even need to thread it into your column to test it, just
unplug your current connector and plug in the "new" to try it out.
> I am assuming the wiring must originate at the steering column harness
> to the flasher cans and then rearward to the single small lights now
> being used for directionals. (I have not traced them as of yet).
> 
> So if you are correct there is an element (switching device) missing
> that the signal wires should be attached to and from that missing
> switch a wire going rearward that would operate either the
> tail/directional function or the brake/directional function depending
> which side of the dual filament is to be used.
Basic workable theory; the brake light gets routed through the signal lever,
center posistion bypasses the flasher can and results in constant brake
light. Engage the turn signal lever and the brake light is routed through
the flasher can causing the lamp to blink.
12volts    Brake switch    signal switch                 lamp.
    ----------XX-------------X---no turn-----------------OOOOOO----
                             \------------[flasher]/
Turn signal switch used to route through flasher, output flasher wire gets
tied back into the wire running to the lamp.
To use a single flasher can for both directions, the turn signal switch
uses multiple contacts such that it
1) Feeds  12 volts (from brake lamp) to both left and right lamps.
    (bypass flasher)
2) Switch 12 volts to the flasher when lever engaged. 
3) Switch 12 volts on the OUTPUT side of the flasher so that the flasher
    output is directed to the proper side of the vehicle.
To try to create a singl flasher can left/right system try to follow along
with the next part. =)
To define contact points of the signal switch;
Contact 1 = the 12v coming from the brake lamp switch
Contact 2 = the input to the flasher can
Contact 3 = the output of the flasher can
Contact 4 = the wire going to the left brake/signal lamp
Contact 5 = the wire going to the right brake/signal lamp
For constant left & right brake lamps
1 to 4   1 to 5
For left turn & right on
1 to 2   3 to 4  (flasher to left lamp)
1 to 5           (right on)
For right turn & left on
1 to 2   3 to 5   (flasher to right lamp)
1 to 4            (left on)
And since hazzards incorporate a different switch, a separate flasher unit
is used, utilizing contact 1 feeding it to the hazzard flasher, and the
output of the hazzard flasher tied into (but not necessarily at) contact 4
and contact 5---which is why on single lamp sytems the hazzards stop
flashing when you put your foot on the brake. (heres one point in favor of
the euro system with a SEPARATE turn signal bulb and separate brake bulb)
I hope I havn;t added more mud to the pie. =)
> normally I believe the brightest filament is used for brake light and
> signal as opposed to the dimmer of the two filaments. Is this
> accurate.
Correct.
 | AmiQWK 2.7 - S/N 0261 |
... Great! Now if we can just keep it from exploding!
--- OLMS 2.60p.a1+ [EPMAP55A]
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