Blinker doesn't work, but I swear it has voltage

[TronDD]

My left front turn signal doesn't work. It's the early style housing grafted onto my 79.

The parking light in the same housing works fine so it's not the ground.
The blinker bulb works in the parking light socket, so it's not the bulb.
If I put a multimeter on the socket contact and socket wall, I get a (blinking) 2 volts.

I compared my multimeter reading to the working blinker on the other side (since the digital meter doesn't like the voltage repeatedly going away after it has calibrated itself) and it looks the same.

So either I am doing something wrong or I am crazy but no bulbs work in that socket even though I seem to be getting power to it. Now that I have typed this all up, I wonder if the bulb being in there creates a short. The connector in the socket is basically just a spring loaded wire. If the wire gets bound up and pushed off to the side, maybe it touches the socket wall.

Tim.

[aj81spider]

If you're really getting two volts then that is your problem. The bulb isn't getting enough voltage to light.

This smells a lot like a resistance/connection problem. Some things to check:

> Resistance of the ground side of the wire to the frame of the car. If it is more than 0.1 or 0.2 ohms then you have a bad ground. Find the where the ground connection is and clean it up.

> Check the voltage at the power side referenced to the car frame (not the negative side of the bulb). If that is not 12 volts then you have a resistance problem between the power source and the bulb. This may be difficult to check with a normal meter as the pulsing on/off may cause errors. However with a meter that has reasonable response times the blinking should be slow enough to see what the voltage is. If there is a resistance problem here check the connectors and switches back through. Use your wiring diagram to figure out how many and where they all are.

Disconnect your battery when you are screwing around with connections and cleaning terminals.

[TronDD]

I thought 2 volts was low so I looked at the rating of the bulb. I am pretty sure it was a 2 volt bulb. Unless I just saw what I thought matched.

But I tested the socket on the other, working blinker and got 2 volts there too.

Have to look again tomorrow. It got dark out.

Tim.

[aj81spider]

My 1974 uses a 1073 bulb in the turn signal. That's a 12 volt bulb. You might have seen a rating for 2 watts. The car's electrical system is all 12 volts.

[divace73]

I'm sure it should be a 12V bulb, you could have a dodgy socket, pull out the connector where the bulb socket meet with the wiring harness and 'temorarily ' with some wire (or a different working socket and bulb) wire it up the line. If you are getting the same problem then you know it is up stream, but more than likely I think it is a dodgy socket stopping the bulb from grounding, otherwise if it was a supply problem , then the whole left side would not work, not just the front??
my 2c worth

[TronDD]

Got it figured out though not really solved.

First off, my meter is not fast enough to read the voltage of the blinker. It only reads 2 volts. The working blinker reads 2 volts.

Well, without getting into the trial and error, it turns out the socket is not allowing current to the housing which is connected to the ground. The socket is sort of crimped to the housing so you can't really pull it off and clean it. With so much contact, I don't know how it fails to make a connection anyway. I guess it corroded.

My temporary fix was to tape a piece of wire to the side of the bulb, and the other end to the light housing. I just need to pass inspection for now.

Seems like I'll need to buy a new housing.

Tim.