Signals, indicators, and wires

 Raining some today so I don't want to pull the other car out of the garage and watch it rust in front of my eyes. So I worked on some easy tasks, mainly getting the dash indicator lights working and fixing the right front turn signal that is weirdly dim and non-cooperative at times. 

The dash lights were easy - the indicator bulbs had just fallen out of their sockets, and they were swapped all around anyway. Of the three indicators (headlights,turn signal indicator (which is two arrows, but one light), and high beam indicator), literally every one was in the wrong socket in the gauge. Easy fix. 

 

    Investigating the front turn signal was more interesting. This one was on the car when I got it, and I realized it was some janky wiring probably at fault. Someone in the past had used some butt connectors to splice wires, and as I think of those things as butt-terrible connectors, that was an obvious place to start. As I was uploading the picture below, I realized it shows the common ground is disconnected. As the side marker and parking light/turn signal still worked, it must have been finding a bad ground someplace else. Probably I could have just plugged that back in and fixed the issue, but I really hate butt connectors.

 

 

There is another little mystery here, which is the disconnected harness that on the wiring diagram goes to the driver's side headlight. But why this is on the passenger side, and disconnected, and the headlights still work is a problem for another distant day. 

I removed the whole harness and put new connectors on, and everything worked much better.  

In the afternoon I drove it across town, about 60 miles round trip on the highway, in a light rain and it did fine. The windshield wipers work but only on one speed (which is fine, RainX solves a lot of problems). I think the thermostat is stuck open. The handling is a little sensitive, and I have a new panhard rod to install to see if that damps it down a little. It's not bad though, and the ride itself is much better after the A-arms and alignment. It's noisy, and there is a small exhaust leak that leaves one smelling like Italian cars - unburned gas, burnt oil, with an an undertone of anxiety - but I feel ok about a long road trip in it once the few remaining small items are cleared up.

 

Tomorrow - see if I can fix the stripped rear lug and install the new LED headlights.