Those sloppy floppy turn signals

weekendrider

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You know the ones. . . they have been dropped, bumped and abused to the point the pin holding them is bent or broken. Leaving them at best to rattle on the stalk while riding or at worse turn on the stem till they are pointing at the ground. Perfect candidates for shorting by cutting the stalk off. But the remains are still loosey goosey.
I decided to shorten a pair for the front thinking this is a perfect job for the cheap HF 2 part epoxy. So after carefully (yeah right) measuring of the two parts and mixing I started spooning it in, on and around the stem base and pin hole. I'm saying I did a fine job of working that epoxy in. Good on me, pat on the back and all that. The next day after it had set up well, real well I cut off the rest of the stem and drilled/ tapped the base.
Careful vise work and the double threaded hollow stud was . . . somewhat straight. Good to go install them (yeah i have a pair of bent turn signals I don't discriminate when I fall down). Now I'm pretty sure I got all my wires hooked up correctly, I'm just blind not color blind BUT no flashy/ blinky or other life to the turn signal. Nothing nada. So I get meter out trying to find wtf I didn't do right. Turns out I got no ground at the threaded post. I can run a ground to the turn signal fixture and she flashes me. Can ya imagine that. That HF epoxy is a damn good insulator.
About that time my son the engineer that doesn't drive trains shows up and asks " You did use silver conductive epoxy right?" NO I've never even heard of such nonsense!
"Well that would have saved you this problem" says he. What 8 years of college and all you learned was how to be a smart ass I retort. Call the automotive store to see if I'm bullshittin you he replies as he drives out. . . .
Turns out there is such a thing. They use it to repair rear window defrosters. That or a aluminum adhesive tape. Hmmm but how to get all that other epoxy out to redo it?
Or maybe use the adhesive tape over the stem base and signal fixture??

I used neither cause
A> I'm a cheap sumbeech
B> I didn't want to drive to town. I'm as lazy as I am cheap
But I did fix it and it flashes like the friendliest girl in town.

Anybody want to hazard a guess what my cure was?

I'll post it tomorrow night.
 
Since you are notoriously umm thrifty. You went in the electrical junk box and grabbed a couple of those bare braided ground wires from house lighting fixtures that no one bothers to use. Slide it up the stalk tighten under one bulb mount screw the other end has a staked on ring that just happens to be a perfect fit over the threaded rod, done.
 
Hoo, boy. Lemme see. Ozark hillbilly rural Missouri problem solving methods...?


Jumper cables clamped onto the stalks, going to the frame???


No, that can't be it.


That's the way they do it out here...
 
Wonder if there is a mule involved?

Could be.

Them Ozarkians have a "Mule Control Tool" that doubles as a soldering iron.

$_35.JPG
 
a thin line of aluminum (read-real duct tape) wrapped around post to bridge one side to the other.
No mules were hurt during this saga
 
Hey nj1639 I'll have to remember that. Didn't know JB was conductive and neither does that young fella at the parts house.

TwoMany that is a NICE handle for an out house wiper. You could get your fingers outta the stink with a handle like that. The mule will have to deal with his dingle berries best he can.

Angus I did consider the tape. . .but it would take awhile for me to find excuses for the rest of the roll.

Ahh gggGary you were close. Real close. I did consider making a copper o-ring from ballast wire but solder doesn't stick to chrome and probably not that piss ant plastic metal they used for the posts/stem.

So after thinking abit it seemed to me the seam between the two would be a good place to attack this problem. I did go to the electrical scraps. For a short piece of 12/2.
An inch was all I needed. Then I selected a similar sized drill bit.
Drilled two holes at the seam of the base and fixture. Cut my wire pegs and tapped them in. Thinkin bout it now I probably didn't need the epoxy the pegs would have tightened and oriented the pieces.
K this isn't the best picture it is hard to see the screen on the phone camera in the sun.
But I think you can see the two copper pegs. The left slightly recessed and the right one's end is peened over the two pieces.
 

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Since you are notoriously umm thrifty. You went in the electrical junk box and grabbed a couple of those bare braided ground wires from house lighting fixtures that no one bothers to use. Slide it up the stalk tighten under one bulb mount screw the other end has a staked on ring that just happens to be a perfect fit over the threaded rod, done.

For the life of me I can not visualize this. Got a photo?

Thanks.
 
pckopp you would have to work it backwards of the way gggGary explained it?
The terminal (ring) end would have to be attached to the stem/all-thread first then threaded through the stem and under the support strap screws?
Or were you asking about the ground wire itself?
 
pckopp you would have to work it backwards of the way gggGary explained it?
The terminal (ring) end would have to be attached to the stem/all-thread first then threaded through the stem and under the support strap screws?
Or were you asking about the ground wire itself?

I don't understand how you put a ring over the threaded rod, run the wire down the hole and then mount the turn signal. The ground wire is in the way! Is there a second hole drilled someplace?

Something basic I'm not getting.
 
Yes you would have to do it during installation.
The reason I discarded the jumper wire idea.
 
Yes you would have to do it during installation.
The reason I discarded the jumper wire idea.

If I was going to the trouble of adding a second wire I would just make it long enough to plug into the existing ground connection under the seat. Makes the ground go direct to the light socket. And makes the wiring look neater IMO.
 
Have you tried threading another wire through the OEM all-thread? It is a very small hole.
Big enough for the wire but not big enough to pull the power wire with the bullet connection through.
 
So I actually went and looked at some turn signals (wonder why I never get anything done) That made me remember; I had the exact same issue this spring with the 79 maxie maroon LR TS. The locking pin had left for parts unknown. Guess I got lucky, I unthreaded a turn or so, put a couple of drops of super glue on the end of the thread, turned it back in, done, it still flashes just fine and has stayed put for at least 400 miles so far. :shrug: But WER is right and I've messed with this before making good signals out of parts, that all-thread has a tiny hole through the center.
If i were doing a loose one again I'd just strip the insulation off a bit of fine stranded auto wire, stick an end inside the threads, then tighten them together, clip the wire off flush, it would take up some slack and conduct the ground path through the glue.
 
The pins that locate the two halves of my turn signals are still in place. The lamp end wiggles but doesn't move more than a 1/16". There is as much play vertically as around. Sometimes the signals work, sometimes not.

Your solution of adding fine wire (sort of a poor man's helicoil) is great but I have no way of unthreading the two halves. Do the pins come out? If so, how?

I wonder if you could heat the stalk with a heat gun and make glue flow into the gaps in the threads and the pin hole?

You would think there would be accurate after-market reproductions but I haven't come across any.
 
It is possible to drill the OEM all-thread out enough to pass two wires - I did it to convert to OEM twin-element bulb sockets so I could have front running lights. Soldered the terminals on after running the wires through the all-thread. Used the OEM grounding method (ring terminal over all-thread inside the headlight bucket).
 
The pins that locate the two halves of my turn signals are still in place. The lamp end wiggles but doesn't move more than a 1/16". There is as much play vertically as around. Sometimes the signals work, sometimes not.

Your solution of adding fine wire (sort of a poor man's helicoil) is great but I have no way of unthreading the two halves. Do the pins come out? If so, how?

I wonder if you could heat the stalk with a heat gun and make glue flow into the gaps in the threads and the pin hole?

You would think there would be accurate after-market reproductions but I haven't come across any.


I would think if you loosen the mount nut, turn the signal so the pin points down and wiggle it the pin will fall out??? Completely remove, tap on a solid surface....

I've tried several "reproductions" of various MC pieces, and have always been disappointed. The part is always cheapened up and lightly misted with "rusts in the box" chrome. :banghead::banghead: not that there aren't good reproductions out there they just haven't made their way to me.
 
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