1962 Thunderbird Turn Signal Repair

The following information and pictures were provided to us by Chris Snow - 62bird86 to be added to the
Technical Resource Library (TRL). Thank you, Chris!

I thought I'd share some pictures I took when repairing my turn signal switch. Oddly enough, this is one of the few things that are not covered at all in the shop manual (same with the clock!). Most troubleshooting for turn signals has to do with anywhere but the actual switch in the column. These switches are pretty expensive from what I've seen, considering all it is is a couple springs and contacts. The manual didn't share anything on getting to the switch so I figured I'd just open it up and figure it out. I did this awhile ago so I may forget some steps or mix them up, but bear with me. I'll attach some pictures to make this more clear.

1. Pull off the steering wheel with a puller. Mine was homemade but worked great, considering how often I'll be removing the steering wheel.


There was a little rubber gasket inside, kind of misplaced but I just squished it back in for what it's worth.


2. Take off the little shift dial. Careful of the little horn switch that you don't pull it out and lose any of it. I believe around this point you'll need to take the turn signal lever off because it'll get in your way. This just twists out.

3. Once underneath the dial, take off that long spring and the metal piece that holds it in place. Then take off the little round plastic retainer from on top of the tiny spring. Be careful to not lose this because it'll want to fly somewhere! I'll tell you right now this thing is fun to put back on.


4. By now you should be able to pull out the actual switch (the thing that says BP on it). I should have taken a picture of it but I was only taking pictures to remember how the whole thing went together. Basically that plastic thing that you took the tiny spring off of is what slides up and down in the switch.


Take off the cover and look inside.


5. There's just a couple springs on the inside and you can see where the metal makes contact with the posts. In my case the problem was my brake lights were working but one of my turn signals wasn't. There was some grime and stuff on the posts inside. I just made sure they were clean and bent those metal contacts a bit so they made a better connection. Problem solved. Hope this helped some of you. Feel free to give me your thoughts.

Created 11 August, 2012

Last Edited: 11 August, 2012

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