turn signal lever is mushy

[280ZWarrior]

Yes those are the fusible links. Somethimes they will be melted apart. If the coating on the link looks bubbly, change them....With my 280, I have the covers but they are all cracked. therefore water gets in there and screws around with the link.....with mine, the water corroaded the fuse from the inside. So I never thought that was the problem because they looked fine.....Make sure that it is a fuse and not just a wire...If it is a wire than it wont blow when it should and ruin other equipment attached to that fuse.

So therefore...you might as well change them...I'm not sure what guage each one needs to be so you might want to research that...i dont know which one is which either....I'm having charging problems because of the bottom right fuse according to the pic....it keeps getting real hot and melting. So the bottom right is for altenator to battery link....I think the headlights might be the top right one but I really dont remember. Hope I was of some help and good luck

[winstonsmith]

You were correct! It was the fusible link causing the problem. The lower left one is for the headlights. I wiggled it and they came on. Apparently it has a bad connection or it's just no good from being bent around so much. Thanks for all the help. One problem down! Many more to go...

[winstonsmith]

OK since this is the first time I will have ever replaced a fusible link I thought I'd ask here and make sure I'm doing this right. Anyone know what gauge it needs to be? I bought a 16 gauge universal fusible link. Is that the right kind? Here's a picture of what I bought along with the link I took off the car. Is 16 gauge too big? The back of the package says the link must be two sizes smaller than the wire it will protect.

[TomoHawk]

Fuse links for t he Z cars are sapecified by thickness in sq. inches, or sq. cm., not gauge. Make sure you got the right one. You could just buy the right one from MSA.

I think the lower right one is for the cabin power, right? what are rthe other two?

thx

[TomoHawk]

Being moved, or bent over time and again, check the wire that it has continuity through it, that it's not broken inside and also that the slide on terminals are clean and tight.

Good pointr. I had one

link go bad from disconnecting it so many times while working with the doors open that it broke inside and I couldn't tell until I tested it.

[winstonsmith]

I described a quick fix for my indicators that worked for me in another thread, try searching the forums for other threads on this too.

I found your description. My turn signal switch is a little different from yours though. I thought of something to try however. If it doesn't work I'll be back here again.

Here's mine:

Yours:

[winstonsmith]

Well my idea was to stretch the spring under the little copper contact piece to make sure that little copper piece was making contact with the contact points on the circuit board. Didn't do any good. I'm going to have to find someone to do some electrical tests on this thing.

[winstonsmith]

What the hell is going on with this thing? I went out last night and the turn signals worked perfect. As far as the "mushy" feeling goes, that doesn't seem to be any problem. They move easily enough and always click back into place after turning. But for some unknown reason they worked last night. If your turn signals worked sometimes and other times they didn't what would you think is the problem? A bad wire somewhere that sometimes is shorting out and sometimes not? Are one of the fusible links in the engine bay related to the turn signals?

[Daniel]

I put my bet on the turnsignal switch making intermit contact. I suggest replacement with a used working unit. Any bending of such just prolongs the replacement that will need to happen. The photo last photo you show that reads"switch wasn't getting pushed" Note the white square plastic sw that is near the bottom of the page. Note the small rectangle cuts in it. The cut on the left shows a bright shiny copper contact inside the cut. the other does not. There should be a fiber leg that locks the contact pad in place. The left is broken off. That is high beam contact you see.It will burn out soon if not repaired. I fill my switch bottom with silicone. It takes the pressure off of the old tired fiber legs.

[winstonsmith]

Ok to bring back an old thread because I still haven't figured this one yet....

The flasher unit has been replaced. The turn signal lever has been taken apart and cleaned up and put back togther.

The problem persisted. Sometimes I had turn signals and sometimes I didn't.

I gave in and bought a brand new turn signal lever. First off this new one works like a champ. It clicks into place and clicks back when it's done. Even with the new lever the signals would work sometimes and sometimes not. So today I got down under the dash on the passenger side to look at the wiring under there. None of the wiring looks suspect. I turned the turn signal on and then proceeded to wiggle wires to see if anything happened. When I wiggled a certain group of wires with a black plug that was coming out behind the console (and going over to the fuse box it looked like) all of a sudden the turn signals came on. I think maybe I finally found the problem. Do turn signal wires go behind the console and over to the passenger side under the dash or is this some coincidence that they started working when I wiggled the wires. I say that because when I plugged in the new lever they worked first try and I thought that was the problem, then later that night they didn't work again. I'm paranoid that this is just another coincidence.

[winstonsmith]

OK. That wire was the problem but more specifically the connector itself was the problem. The wiring is fine but when I pulled the connector apart that is under the passenger side dash anti-freeze poured out of the connector. The turn signals didn't work because the connector that they went to was full of anti-freeze! Why would my wiring under the passenger side have ani-freeze all over it? Something from the heater core is leaking? Does anyone have any good pictures of the heater core and what I should check for? My service manual is sort of worthless for this. There are no pictures in it for this problem. I'm guessing there are hoses for the heater core that run under the passenger side dash and one of them is leaking. By the way my heater doesn't work either if that pertains to this. Air conditioner works fine but no heat.

[Bambikiller240]

......... Why would my wiring under the passenger side have ani-freeze all over it?

Your Heater Core, or Heater Hoses, or the Control Valve is leaking anti-freeze.

You are going to need to get up under there and look for the source. Look for wet spots, it isn't rocket science.