I had a bulb blow on my left turn signal. Bought a set of new ones and all was well. Was is the key word. A few days later the left turn signal light in the dash stays on, usually a sign of a blown bulb. So off I go to check and swap and all bulbs are good. So on to the strange part. Now I know all bulbs are good the left side marker does not light enough. That meaning it glows very very dimly. I swapped that one back and forth to check it. Voltages check out on both sides. Passenger side works driver doesn’t. Why should be my next step? I’ve searched the schematic and it leads back to the printed circuit for the cluster. It’s still on my good ole 78 d100.

Check the ground on the offending light socket. It is even possible the bulb is not making a good contact to the socket shell.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 225 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170

Also make sure the front turn signal bulbs are installed right way round. It shouldn't be possible to install the bulb 180° off, but old socket + poor-quality bulb (easiest kind to buy these days) mean yes, you can.

The sidemarker grounds via the bright (turn signal) 27-watt filament, as described here. If the bulb's wrong way round, the sidemarker will be trying to ground via the much higher resistance 8-watt dim (parking light) filament, so the side marker will be much dimmer.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

For some weird reason the bulb was working but not, main turn signal bulb in front. Had some older ones swapped in and boom. But now the driver side is faster than the passenger and the driver side is brighter than the passenger. Also on my voltage gauge it barely moves the gauge when it’s on the passenger blinker l, other side makes it drop a lot and you can visually see it move lower than the 12 volt mark. If I knew a competent mechanic around here I would take it to them and let them go through it but as we all know today if it doesn’t have a computer the new gen has no clue (most of them anyway). I think I still have a voltage issue somewhere as that’s what it seems to me. Let me know if any tests or anything else I can do/check to finally get the gremlins out. As always I thank everyone who has helped thus far.

My lights already blink the side markers from the factory. Seems very odd though that they were working but super dim.

Yes. I sent you to that page to try to explain to you how that works. I also explained it to you here…or tried to, anyway. I also explained that…or tried to, anyway.

Good luck with repairs!

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Luckily my bulbs will only fit one way so that’s one out of the way.

Well honestly no idea what caused all these issues. The bulbs must have all been bad. I did clean all the grounds again and the plugs wires etc. Now the lights work flawlessly along with fixing my voltage reg now. The voltmeter does not move anymore when using turn signals like it used to. Those bulbs must have been bad right out of the package. Had a mechanic friend at work tell me that would cause the fast blink and sure enough he was spot on. Y’all have helped me more than I could have ever thought possible as well. I’m so glad I found this forum.

As an aside, I had a recent oddball "turn signal stopped working" moment..

the Right Side would blink and operate the single blinker indicator in the dash on my '62 Wagon... But the Left side would stay on dim.

Also got some goofy "feedback" on the dash blinker indicator when I had the Parking lights on.

After some troubleshooting I found that the bulkhead plug had worked it's way loose enough to not complete the connections properly.

Cleaned and pushed the Bulkhead connections together real good and that solved it all! simple.

Happy blinking and indicating everyone.

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

So, you refilled the system with the magic smoke.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 225 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170

Yes. Wasn’t easy as I lost some smoke due to wind

I've had a lot of connection problems lately and I think a lot of it is simply owed to 60 year old connections and "connectoritis," as I call it.

The high beams on my 63 were cutting out, leaving us in total darkness. That turned out to be the headlight switch overheating and becoming intermittent due to a dirty contact inside the switch. (I still need to swap it out, so thanks for reminding me.)

My favorite has to be when the horn would intermittently sound for a second when turning the steering wheel. Nothing was shorting or binding but, without notice and totally at random, the horn would sound! You never knew when it would happen, only that any time you cranked the wheel a little, it was possible. It became a real mindf*uc. That turned out to be a disintegrated gasket under the contact ring in the steering wheel.

I substituted a layer of RTV for the crumbled gasket and we all lived happily ever after.

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1961, 1962, 1963 and 1965 Valiant 200. The `65 is a `vert.

Pretty good odds this will keep happening with a new switch, because usually what's really causing this is current draw from the headlamps. The original 1963 headlamps were № 6012 sealed beams, 50/40w high/low beam. In 1970, the № 6014 (60/50w) replaced the 6012 on new cars, and eventually the 6012s dwindled off the parts store shelves. These days what you get is an H6024 halogen sealed beam, 65/35w. So that's 30 per cent more current draw than your circuit was designed for, when everything was brand new. Wiring and connections do not improve with age. The actual fix is to install headlight relays; see here. Maybe decent headlamps, too, while you're at it.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Hello, Dan. I just saw this. Thanks for the reply.

Because I am such a Luddite, I am still running old skool sealed beams from The Day on that car. They are probably 6014's, although there is an outside chance that one or both are original equipment. I bought this car in 1984 with 40,000 on it. it now has 52K and I don't recall changing out the headlights.

I have halogens running in the 65 'Vert and no problems with the headlights in that car so far.

I think you are correct about the fix, which would take the load off of the headlight switch. This car needs something. The fuse box is a sight, and I have repaired it many times. I can usually keep things in check electrically, but this headlight switch thing is something I have never encountered before, and it was pretty damned scary. I'm sensing internal corrosion in the switch, possibly aggravated by larger than stock lamps.

Old Veronica (the '63) has never been worth fussing with, but I have considered converting the 65 to a relay system. Here's the thing; the clouding of the headlights on my '01 Camry daily beater is so bad that I can actually see better with the stock headlights in the 'Vert and the four headlight system in the '62. The modern car is the bigger problem.

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1961, 1962, 1963 and 1965 Valiant 200. The `65 is a `vert.

Well updating this in case anyone runs into this problem as well. The bulbs I put in were brand new and not blown inside (checked with meter). However a friend that use to be a mech said the resistance inside the bulb could be wrong. Sooooo, he was right. I bought some more new bulbs and the problem fixed itself