Could anyone advice in electrical issues with lights?

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

RE: Could anyone advice in electrical issues with lights?

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

seventy2plus2 wrote:
Neilvermilion wrote:
Ordering:)
Meanwhile, does anyone know what's this one for?
That's not the brake switch connector.
That connector appears to be at the bottom left corner of the drawing 11.03 that Mark provided. It has the black/orange stripe at the bottom of the "T", and looks like it's part of the courtesy lights as it goes to a door switch.

-- Edited by seventy2plus2 on Monday 21st of August 2023 11:48:30 AM

It has to be stop light switch. I made the colored scheme in the other thread, I marked all the connectors, this combination of wires only matches one connector - brake light switch, moreover I can't find any other wires that supposed to go to the switch. It has to be it!:) But I can see that Impala's switches have 2 parallel contacts, this one is T shaped, so... my only idea - maybe it's not original and someone replaced it?

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

seventy2plus2 wrote:
Neilvermilion wrote:
Hmm.. you mean turn light flasher? I have this cylinder relay plugged into the fuse box.

I think what Carl is saying is there is 2 flashers. One plugged into the fuse block is for the turn signals (standard equipment), and the other is on the back of the optional 4 way flasher switch you've shown (missing).
Later when 4 way flashers became standard, the flasher on the fuse block is for the 4-way, and the turn signal flasher was in the wiring harness.

I see, yeah. I found it on the internet, seems I'm missing the button from the front and will need to find 3 pin relay for this as well. Is it normal that it was just piercing through other wires?

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Neilvermilion wrote:
seventy2plus2 wrote:
Neilvermilion wrote:
Ordering:)
Meanwhile, does anyone know what's this one for?
That's not the brake switch connector.
That connector appears to be at the bottom left corner of the drawing 11.03 that Mark provided. It has the black/orange stripe at the bottom of the "T", and looks like it's part of the courtesy lights as it goes to a door switch.

-- Edited by seventy2plus2 on Monday 21st of August 2023 11:48:30 AM
It has to be stop light switch. I made the colored scheme in the other thread, I marked all the connectors, this combination of wires only matches one connector - brake light switch, moreover I can't find any other wires that supposed to go to the switch. It has to be it!:) But I can see that Impala's switches have 2 parallel contacts, this one is T shaped, so... my only idea - maybe it's not original and someone replaced it?

Found it! Although the sockets on both my connector and this switch seem to be males...

-- Edited by Neilvermilion on Friday 25th of August 2023 12:04:18 AM

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Does anyone know how this part is called or where to find it? Also - what was plugged there?

It's the one that holds the gear arrow.

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Found one more mystery. There's 11 lights on diagrams on the dash, 11 lights on the image of the dash from behind and yet I have 12 holes. One extra hole seems to be far brake light (maybe emergency brake) but I can't find neither diagram for it neither the lamp itself.

Was than an optional thing and there should be some sort of plug?

Also why some of the light sockets are metal and some are plastic, is there right order which go where?

-- Edited by Neilvermilion on Friday 25th of August 2023 05:26:56 PM

1965CS · Guru

From my experience, the 'brake' light hole is typically empty and have never seen one in use from factory. For my own use, I connected a light and switch to the e brake in line with the wire from the brake booster - comes on when the e brake is on and or, with low brake pressure. As for the bulb sockets, the metal housing sockets are single wire, both dash lights and high beam and the sockets are grounded. The plastic sockets should be 2 wires, one for oil the other for temp senders.

-- Edited by 1965CS on Saturday 26th of August 2023 05:28:27 PM

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Thanks.
So I fixed the snake wedding, brought everything to order, wrapped the harness but still can't make left turn signal work. Flasher is not clicking when lever is switched to the left side. I can make all 4 rear lamps to work, but one of lamps is acting weird - it's off, but when I push the lamp down to the socket - it turns on in my hands without even being put to the light housing to be grounded.
Front running lights turn on, but only right turn light is blinking. Flasher is clicking when right signal is enabled.
If I take out rear lights fuse - really still not clicking to the left.
Could anyone please advise?
Thanks.

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Double check all your left side bulbs, make sure the filaments aren't touching each other, grounds are good, filaments are good.
These cars are designed that if a bulb burns out, then it isn't providing enough of an electrical load to make the flasher operate.

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

All lights on the left side work except left turn signal light on the dash. And one rear lamp acting weird.

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Also dash is not dimming in in out, the dash and the rear lights always on if battery is connected.

-- Edited by Neilvermilion on Monday 28th of August 2023 06:57:44 PM

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Just checked with 100% working dash light bulb - no luck:(

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Neilvermilion wrote:
All lights on the left side work except left turn signal light on the dash. And one rear lamp acting weird.

I would check all the grounds on all the light sockets for tail lights and park lights.

As far as the dash lights and tail lights being on as soon as the power is on, what happens if you pull that fuse (same fuse for both)?

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

If I take out "instr./lps" fuse - dash is still on and very left rear light as well.

If I take out "rear./lps" rear lights and dash lights (except turn lights and other special lights) are off.

-- Edited by Neilvermilion on Monday 28th of August 2023 11:02:35 PM

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Neilvermilion wrote:
If I take out "instr./lps" fuse - dash is still on and very left rear light as well.
If I take out "rear./lps" rear lights and dash lights (except turn lights and other special lights) are off.

Hmm.

Can you post a picture of your fusebox? The tail lights and instrument panel lamps should be the same fuse I thought.

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Ok, so for the turn light it seems something got misaligned or something inside the steering wheel. I took it off, using a screwdriver to connect contacts and it's blinking. Not sure how to make it work thought.

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Fixed turn signal light! At least relay and dash light blinking. It turned out to be this weirdly shaped metal piece inside the switch, it misaligned somehow, I reshaped it with thin pliers, made it ideally mirrored and now it works.
Thanks everyone !
Now never turning off lights:)

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Here's a diagram of the function of a typical 60's GM signal switch,

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Hmm.. interesting, I'm almost 100% sure there is no this bottom left part in mine. That's why friendly the lamps outside the car were not blinking, only inside. But I think I saw this element all squished on the floor. Will try to find it and reshape. Thanks for the scheme.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I went through the entire signal switch episode with my 65. Trying to chase weird symptoms.

I eventually bought a new switch and installed it expecting it would solve everything. Wrong, the aftermarket offshore switches are junk.

Ended up combining the original with the new and eventually got it to function normally. I think I took the contacts out of the new and installed them in the old.

Pritch · Guru

Mark is 100% correct. I had similar issues with my '64CS. It drove me absolutely nuts. I had no left brake light and no left tail light on a two bulb (1157's) tail light. Over a period of three years, I purchased 3 new signal light switches on line. They were all junk. I eventually paid nearly double the price for a name brand (Standard), installed it and resolved all of the problems. Those bi-metal connectors are a real b----. Mark's diagram is excellent. My problem was with the left contact (E) in the diagram. I strongly recommend that you purchase a name brand signal light switch. Good luck solving this issue.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Yes Brian, the issues with the switch were in the fact the metal strips just refused to make a connection with the brass prongs.

No amount of adjusting, cleaning, roughing up would provide a reliable contact. They just hated each other I guess.

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Yeah, in my case putting reshaped metal thingy fixed the issue with the outed lamps, at least on the back. The front one - i'll check if its a second filament row is broken.

Neilvermilion · Addicted!

Victory!!!
After plugging a brake switch everything is fixed.
Rear lights go off, dash lights go off and dim!
If anyone is looking for a brake switch in Canada - I discovered this one, it's for Jeep but looks pretty similar to Impalas, so I got it and it turned out 100% compatible with Parisienne.
www.amazon.ca/dp/B0030V9ODA
Yaaay.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Excellent!

You get full points for being persistent. I love hearing success stories.