86 ford ranger turn signal malfunction

[Codyh00]

Hey everyone new to the site!
I have a 86 ford ranger 2wd manual 2.0 carb
Onto my problem..
First off I'm not sure that my turn signals worked properly to begin with but I have installed all LED lights in the last few weeks and have since noticed my turn signals aren't working! All my lights work (I've checked all using hazard button) and they blink like they should. When I use my left turn signal all my lights flash like I have the hazards on and the lights on the dash blink as well, when I use my right turn signal nothing at all happens. When I use my hazards they work correctly and everything blinks. Now to complicate things, when I turn my lights on and try to use my signals or hazards they don't work at all, not even the messed up way that they would do. To make things even more complex when I press the brake with the lights off all my lights will light up like I have the flashers on as well and the dash lights light up as well! If that makes any since... now to the things I have replaced! Turn signal switch in column, all new led lights in all spots except the headlights they are still one piece lights and I have also replaced the turn signal relay if anyone has ever ran into this or could lend any advice on what else I should check I would greatly appreciate it!!!!

 

[RonD]

Welcome to TRS

First off Ford used Brown wires for parking lights, if you were to miswire(or there was a short to) a turn signal wire then all 4 corners would blink(like hazards) when turn signal was on.
If there was Trailer wiring added at any point, now or in the past, it is common to find shorts there

Brown wire comes from the main light switch and then splits out to all 4 corners and license plate lights

Turn lights not blinking when Parking lights are on could mean they are not blinking because they are already on, short to parking light Brown wire.



Flasher units "flash" because of lighting LOAD, they need the heat of electricity passing thru them to heat up and separate, then cool down and reconnect, thats where the on/off/on/off flashing comes from, heat up/cool down

LEDs require LESS electricity than Filament(incandescent) bulbs.
With 6 bulbs(2 in the dash) the hazard flasher may work fine, but with only 4, Right turn signal, turn signal flasher can't work
Left works because of possible short and 6 bulb load

You can buy LED Flasher units, they need less of a LOAD, or add resistors to the LED wiring to increase the LOAD seen by flasher

 

[Codyh00]

So basically your saying I either have a short in the wires leading to one of the lights or my leds I added are making it act up?

 

[Curious Hound]

Also, make sure you have the polarity correct for all the LED'S. If installed backwards, they will not light. A backwards led in some circuits could possibly conduct if back fed from another source, thereby creating really weird situations.

The heat RonD referred to is caused by current flowing through a special strip of metal in the flasher, actually two strips of dissimilar metals. The current causes the strip to heat up and since the dissimilar metals expand at different rates, the heat causes them to bend and open a set of contacts.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Codyh00]

Ericb I understand what your saying if I have one of the leds backwards they won't light (because I did that at first) and one didn't light. But switched and all of them light now. I will check for shorts and possibly even remove all leds again and install my old lights just to see if that changes anything as well (whenever it stops raining here in NC) thank you guys for your help I will keep you updated in the next day or so!

 

[Mark_88]

Well, this may sound weird but on my 96 after doing the dash swap and wiring everything in under the hood I encountered a bizarre situation. The signals would all flash at one point when I turned on the lights and also the truck would sometimes not start/sometimes start with absolutely no problem...

I did the whole replace this and that as I saw fit but what it turned out to be was the ground wire on the starter circuit was not grounding properly. I had tried to use the newer grounding method for the 96 where it goes to the block and then to the starter ground but I did not ground the wires properly...

So...it sounds like a loose ground wire somewhere...and that, of course, could be anywhere depending on what exactly you have done since, during and after this issue popped up...

And that leads to my advice that has always managed to correct the situations I've gotten into...

Back track on all work you've done and check every connection and especially ground points. Further to this try to never work on more than one thing or system at a time to prevent confusion.

These trucks are very simple to work on but I managed to complicate them by trying to do two or three things all in the same day...which is fine as long as you complete one and test it before moving on to the others.

 

[RonD]

Yes, I agree with Mark_88, any one who has worked on trailer wiring knows GROUNDS and lack of GROUNDS can cause odd issues.

And yes after fixing/adding ONE thing you need to test EVERYTHING else on the truck before going to the next "thing", not just test what you added

 

[Andy D]

First off, its a 31 yr old Ford. Anything could be wrong with it. Wires get bent that haven't moved in decades re-doing bulbs. If you haven't got a meter, you should get one. I might start by restoring lights to the "before" state. I have heard that LED lights may need a special flasher unit. Also, swap flasher s between turn signals and 4 ways too. There, you just got 40 yrs of flasher experience in 10 seconds

 

[Codyh00]

Thanks for all the help guys but we finally got a break in the weather here and I figured it out, for some reason my brake and turn signal share the same light and for some odd reason it doesn't like LED lights, I kept all my other lights led and swapped the brake/turn back to regular old style bulbs and vwallaaaa it all works properly again and I kept led in all my other lights and they work properly as well! Once again thanks for all the help hopefully this will help someone else out one day!

 

[RonD]

Good work

Thanks for the update and the fix

 

[Mark_88]

Yes, good work and thanks for the update.

The 88 I had also used the same two bulb tail lights and that is probably part of the problem. Are the LED bulbs set up for two different currents that would run the elements of the old style bulbs?

If not (or even if so) I figured out a couple of alternatives that I was going to implement but ended up selling the truck for other reasons.