Steering wheel/horn assy. now complete still struggling with turn signals

[kkarrer]

I've attached a photo here of my now completed and working steering/horn components.  Thanks to guys like Bruce Berghoff and Steve Cooley, I finally figured out what I needed and got the necessary parts.  But, as you can see from the dangling wires, I'm still trying to figure out what the problem is with the turn signals.  The turn indicator switch is good and all of my wiring is new as is my flasher.  I have double filament bulbs in the front and rear lights and all of my lights work when I pull the headlight switch to the "on" position.   The wiring diagram shows that the system grounds via the turn indicator bulb which is something that I don't quite get.  If anyone here has experienced a similar issue or has an idea to try as far a troubleshooting, I'd be happy to hear what you've go to say.
Thanks and Merry Christmas!
Ken Karrer 1941 6227D coupe
kkarrer@austin.rr.com
512-626-7268

[Paul Phillips]

Hi Ken
The car is really looking good.  I'm going to need to try really hard to live up to the quality standards you have set as I try to finish my 41!

I would suggest a good next step is to verify the wiring integrity to the turn signal bulbs on all 4 corners, then try to sort the flasher circuit.  If you unplug the flasher and create a jumper from the 'X' to the 'L' terminals on the harness, you should have a non-flashing circuit that will power the bulbs for left when the turn switch is down and right when the turn switch is up.  X is the natural/red cross tracer wire from the fuse and L is the natural with black & red cross tracers that goes to the switch.  If this works good, all is left is to sort out the flasher.  If no, then some additional troubleshooting will be needed.

I am assuming that you are using conventional turn signal bulbs, not LED's.  There are numerous challenges to using LED bulbs with thermal flashers, as they will not draw enough current to properly operate the flasher.  If you have LED's in place, it may be good to put in conventional bulbs to verify everything is otherwise right.

On the flasher, if your 12V flasher is the pilot type, it should work fine with the circuit as Cadillac shows it, with the lamp in the speedo connected to the 'P' (be sure that bulb is changed out to 12V).  There are some 12V 3 terminal flashers out there that look for battery, ground and load as the connections - that type will not work on the Cadillac circuit, and are typically used to flash at a constant rate, regardless of the number of bulbs connected (or burned out).

If you want to talk this out, please call me.  I'll send a PM with the phone #.

Paul