Electrical Problem Driving Me Nuts

[83ATC185]

I thought i would call on you guys' expertise and see if ya'll can give me some new ideas on my project car. I recently bought a 1983 Buick Electra Park Avenue with the intention of having a nice weekend cruiser. And it surely does ride. It runs great and the 307 wont be too bad on gas. But i have an electrical problem that for the past few weeks has been working its way under my skin. When the brakes are pressed, the left front turn signal lights up. If i turn the blinker to the left, the turn signal light and dash indicator stay on no matter if the brake is pressed or not. turn the left blinker on, both front lights and indicator lights come on, and the right light flashes as the brake is pressed. Also, in any position, if the headlights are on, the left turn signal indicator and front signal light stay on constant. In all my dealings with this car, the flasher has never clicked

Whats been done to try and remedy this:

Turn signal/taillight fuses replaced
New turn signal flasher
Turn signal sockets in taillight replaced
Turn Signal switch replaced.
Exterior bulbs replaced(All 28 of them!)
Brake light switch replaced.
All body grounds i could find have been cleaned with sandpaper and coated with dielectric grease and bolted back on.
At least a 12 pack of beer has been consumed.

An Aftermarket alarm has been removed, but the only circuits that were actually interrupted were the power windows and ignition, both ironed out now, this problem happened before the alarm was touched. I just don't like those alarms.

I should also add that this 1983 came with a factory alarm/keyless entry system, automatic headlights, power seats, windows, mirrors, and locks.
I'm almost at my end with this thing. Ive been at it every chance i get for weeks. I understand really how fragile car wiring is in the big scheme of things (especially when its 30+ years old) and i really would like a solution other than rewiring. Which i am capable of but who wants to do that? I will probably run separate grounds to everything this weekend, i admit i should've done that first but i had my fingers crossed on something simple. Just need to recharge the battery first.

Any ideas/ suggestions from you guys would be greatly appreciated.:idea::beer

[El Camexican]

I has to be the throw-out bearing on your clutch;)

Seriously, the one and only time (thank God) I had issues like this was on my F150 and the problem was a $75 module under the dash that according to the forums can get wet due to the design of the cab/windshield whatever. Point is when I changed the module everything started working again. Not sure what you have for computers in that car, but if you have one that can be switched out for a test I'd start there.

[danbur55]

Make sure ground strap from motor to body is connected usually located at back of head have seen really weird stuff happen when these are left off even a Camaro welded the shift cable because of this. Long shot might be printed circuit in dash. Lots of luck

[Gearheadtom]

Oddly enough I was watching an episode of Roadkill on youtube (look it up). They and an '80 Monte Carlo that appeared to have a basically the same issue. Maybe a common issue on those years full-size GM cars?

[tri again]

Make sure ground strap from motor to body is connected usually located at back of head have seen really weird stuff happen when these are left off even a Camaro welded the shift cable because of this. Long shot might be printed circuit in dash. Lots of luck

I had an mgb arc through the throttle cable.
I'd start with frame and engine grounds too.

Maybe find a species specific forum for that model year?
I too had an f150 with oddities that they nailed almost immediately.

[Chopsaw]

I made a living years back as a auto mechanic . I was good at tracing electrical trouble . Your post is hard to " trouble shoot " because you are there , and we are not . So maybe be more to the point when you say " lights "

my first thought was that you have a feed back short , if it lights a directional signal when you step on the brake . I have seen bulbs cause this , turn signal switch , brake light switch . All of which you have replaced .

Sounds like the car came with alot of options ,,, does it have cruise control ?
I have had cruise control cause more trouble than not . The cruise is set to disengage when brake is applied , and may be causing the trouble you have .
I have been a Union Carpenter for the last 35 years , so been awhile since I had to think about this stuff .

Chop

[Mosh]

You have bad grounds....Checking ground bolts is a good start but no way to isolate a break in a splice pack or further up harness..

Make you a few jumper wires about 2 feet long. Strip every ground back dont cut the wire in two, just peel the insulation, at every light location starting with the one area that lights the most when its not supposed to. Just about every black wire on the light sockets on a GM is ground. Here is the kicker though......You have to trace those black wires back up the harness, sometimes 3 inches to even 3 feet.....until you find their respective splice pack where they tie in to go back their source. Then jump the jumper wire at the splice pack area and check for correct functionality. More than likely you will find the bad wire before you get to the splice pack.

Use the jumper wire to tap into the the ground wire, and ground your jumper to a fender bolt or battery - terminal. When the problem goes away you found the effected area where the ground is missing.

The reason why trailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro is lighting up in other areas is because voltage is backfeeding to find a plce to ground...and the turn indicator is a tell tale sign you have lost a lighting ground at one of the 4 corners of the car.
So...you have a bad ground...maybe 2 since the brake lights backeed as well..look for areas the car may have been wrecked and pinched a harness. Side marker lights, turn cornering lamps etc.

It just takes time, and preferably a good wiring diagram for that car, which may be hard to find. Google searches on that typically will show misinformation or wrong vehicle since it is so old.

[83ATC185]

Thanks for the replies, guys. The car does have cruise control, a vacuum operated AC Cruise Master. I took the front left signal light off again double checking and found a crack in a ground prong in the 2057 socket, bumped it with my finger and broke it off. So i replaced that socket.

Now with the headlights on, both filaments of the 2057 bulbs for each turn signal on the front light up(like it would be if it was blinking, it stays on all the time, and flashes brighter), as well as the marker lights on the front.

With the headlights off, the indicator lights stay off no matter which position the turn signal switch is in, and i get no clicking from the flasher, and no outside turn signals. its like there's no power there whatsoever.

I also get no feedback in the indicator lights when i press the brake pedal. So I'm definitely making progress. Ive just got two separate issues here.
About the headlight switch. It can best be described as "flaky" like all those old switches got where you have to bump it just right to get the dash lights to stay on. I'm going to change it anyway since i have it out. It shouldn't be tied in with the turn signals at any rate so i don't feel that's the problem.

Maybe this weekend i should have more time to mess with it and really dig into it and run grounds and figure this thing out. I did get it fired up and drove it to the end of the dirt road and back for a little motivation :naughty:

I need to go about finding a year specific chassis & electrical repair manual. If not for this, it is sure to come in handy eventually as i plan on keeping this car and lightly restoring it.

Ill report back with what i find, whenever i have a chance to find it. Thanks guys.

[83ATC185]

I was fooling around under the hood the other day with it running and lights on and bumped a wire and saw the passenger side marker lights flicker.

these marker lights also flash with the turn signals at the front on the bumper.

traced the wires back through the core support to a connector held down with a plastic clip. pulled all the wiring through the fender and out under the hood, wiggle connector, sure enough its loose. So i replace it with a universal two wire connector. So that problem is fixed.

Now, until yesterday, i had all grounds fixed that i could find, and had no power to the turn signals. Check flasher socket, no voltage. So i run a wire from the battery to the flasher socket to see what happened if i by passed the short and applied voltage to the flasher.

So i'm taking the fuse block out of the car so i can turn it around a little and hook my wire up, and lo and behold THERE ARE NO WIRES THERE! And i don't see any wires around anywhere close but i did recall finding a very weird shaped connector behind the radio and telling myself i need to find where that goes. i take a close look at it and the flasher i had in my hand and it clicked.

What that connector was doing behind the radio, i will never know. But even though it wasn't in the fuse block where it should be, the flasher still fit tight like you would expect it to.

So now i have turn signals except the front drivers side dual beam turn signal lamp stays lit all the time when the headlights are on which i will deal with tonight.

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I looked a lot of different places and found A LOT of wiring/connector problems that needed sorting out that i wouldn't have found or maybe been to lazy to deal with had i not had this problem.

Gotta love a used car!