Hello. I bought a new turn signal switch for my 71 Polara Brougham. The hazard lights switch comes with it as part of the assembly. The problem is that with this new switch installed the 2 tail hazard lights blink all the time even when the hazard light switch is turned off. Front and back blink with the hazards on as they should. I did some continuity checks on the hazard switch comparing it to the old one and it looks like it has a short where the old one didn't. Here's some pics:
Does anyone know if this is correct? It seems to make sense now that I look at it but it's different than my old one. On the old one the rivet I marked as 5 doesn't have continuity with 1, 2 and 4 when it's off. The old one and the new one test the same with the switch on. This is the new turn signal switch I bought. It's supposed to fit all 1971 Polaras: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Mopar-1970-77-Turn-Signal-Switch-/181759626341 It does have this note in the info: "New turn signal switch for a 1970-77 Mopar W/O Tilt and W/O Cornering Lamp. This replaces OEM part # 3488804. PLEASE NOTE some 70's may require a slight modification of the hazard knob to fit the column ALSO some C-Bodies may use a different switch as well. This will work for most A/B/E-Bodies no problem."
The hazard knob fits the column fine and the switch looks the same.
Thanks, at the moment I'm not loving my Polara so much but I'll post some pics some time.
I'm in the process of getting a refund on the switch because it must be defective or just doesn't work with my '71 Polara even though the ad said it was compatible. I fixed and installed my old one and it's working correctly. I'm not completely confident in my repairs though.
This has been an ongoing problem. Long ago the car was having problems with intermittent brake lights and maybe turn signals. A new brake light switch didn't help. The turn signal cam had corroded rivets and didn't have good continuity from the wire to the whisker contacts on the other side. So I got a new Dorman turn signal cam. It didn't work. The turn signal lever wouldn't stay up in the right turn position and wouldn't center very well, shorting and causing lots of problems with the lights. Repaired the old one with solder and it worked ok though the intermittent brake lights came back. Re-soldered the cam some more and adjusted the brake light switch at the pedal. Worked for awhile but eventually no brake lights again. It was like a combination of the bad turn signal cam and the brake light switch doing something odd. Tried the Dorman turn signal cam again but it didn't work. So I bought this new turn signal switch that I posted and that turned out to be defective. Started trouble shooting my old turn signal switch and found one wire didn't have continuity with a rivet contact. Had a hard time soldering it, the solder kept balling up and had some problems with the rivet sinking into the melting plastic hah. Eventually got the solder to spread and the rivet back into place but the solder contact I made is very thin so I'm a bit worried about it. Tried the Dorman signal cam once again and after much trial and error of bending those friggin whisker contacts, finally got it to lock into turn positions and to center without shorting. All of the turn signals and hazards are working correctly. The brake light was still not coming on even though I could see that with the brake depressed the button on the switch was clearing and completely popped out (which is how it's supposed to be for the brake lights to come on.) With the switch unscrewed and completely clear of anything the brake lights stayed on and pushing and releasing the button with my finger worked every time. One of the wires broke while I was goofing with it, it may have been very weak and could have been part of the problem. I repaired the wire. Decided to put a washer on there to give the button more clearance even though visually it really didn't need it. The washer was too thick so the brake lights were on all the time even though I could see the button was pushed in at least part of the way. Took a few tries, trimming the washer thinner and thinner but eventually the brake lights worked using the pedal. That brake switch button is very finicky. But now everything is working correctly and I'm thinking of resoldering that one spot but I'm kind of scared to haha.
Well I got it to pass inspection. The intermittent brake light problem came back though and an intermittent rear right turn signal problem too but when another inspection time came again, it passed again. But now the intermittent rear right turn signal problem is permanent. The tail lights work but the rear right turn signal doesn't. The rear right also doesn't blink when hazards are on and the rear right brake lights don't work. I thought it might be a bad bulb but before when it was a bad bulb it would cause both the back and front not to blink. This is just the rear right not working. I checked the bulbs anyway, wd40'd the sockets, swapped the bulbs with the left side but the right rear is still bad. I was really thinking it was a corroded socket because sometimes my front signals on the hood stop working and I can get them to work by jiggling the sockets from underneath. When they stop working they don't effect any of the other lights either. I didn't check any fuses. I'm guessing it's something in that wonky turn signal cam and switch though. But if it was in the turn signal switch it seems like the right fronts wouldn't work either. Anyway writing this out is helping me think through this. Any suggestions?
Update: The turn signals and brake lights weren't working correctly again. I removed the decrepit turn signal switch but decided not to try and repair it again. I had gotten a refund on that new turn signal switch but they didn't want it back. So I gutted the faulty hazard switch part and grounded rivet 1 and 4 together with a wire (to bypass the hazards completely). So I have no hazard lights but the turn signals work correctly. It passed inspection again but the brake lights still have intermittent failures. I noticed that when the brake lights don't come on, I leave my foot on the pedal, turn on the headlights then turn them off, the brake lights will come on as soon as I switch off the headlights. So maybe it's something to do with the headlight switch?