Turn signal contacts

[notny41]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has had any success cleaning the contacts on their turn signal switch? It's part of the combo switch mounted to the steering column behind the steering wheel.

When I added cruise control to my 944, I purchased a combo switch that the guy claimed worked properly, but the signals only work whenever they feel like it. If I turn the signal on for a right turn the dash light will sometimes blink once and that's it. The lamps on the outside of the car do not blink when the dash light doesn't flash either. If I nudge the stalk a little bit it will start flashing and continue to flash until it gets canceled. But I would much prefer it to just work properly rather than having one more thing to think about while driving. And if people, other than me, drive the car - I don't want to have to explain the embarrassing malfunction...

I'm 99% sure the problem is just dirty contacts on the switch. I feel like they are the self-cleaning type (similar to the little reed switches inside a pinball machine) but so far they haven't cleaned themselves up yet.

I was able to take apart one of my window switches that was giving me fits and cleaned the contacts of that and now it functions perfectly, but I don't think the combo switch is easy to take apart - it appears to be riveted together.

[gruhsy]

Cleaning should work well providing nothing is broken.
We clean electrical contacts all the time with the systems I work on.

Sometimes that is all that is wrong with electrical contact connections

There are literally hundreds of feet of electrical wires and circuits I am making comparison to

[notny41]

I'm wondering how to go about cleaning them though gruhsy.

[gruhsy]

Isopropyl alcohol that is what we use and it’s the official call out in J Standard and weapon specs for electrical contacts

Sorry I didn’t completely read everything you wrote yet…..multi tasking watching movie with my wife.

Soft bristle brush like and acid brush and industrial q-tips foam type

Kim wipes also can be used with alcohol

[notny41]

but the real question is where in that combo switch are the contacts and how do I get to them? I do have another old combo switch, I might just have to open that one up and see the innards to find out how to go about getting to those contacts.

[notny41]

well, I decided to just tear into the spare combo switch to see what the insides look like. here are some pictures from before cleaning the contacts and after:

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these last few are after cleaning the contacts:

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I think I’ll just use some small machine screws/nuts to hold it back together again in place of the rivets I drilled out.

[gruhsy]

Wow
That thing is in rough shape inside
What was the environment it was living in?
Humid climate?
Salt water climate?

I am going to take a look at the three I have removed.
Hopefully this week.

I know they look far better than that one

I will post my findings to add to info

[notny41]

I know, right? I bought it on ebay. The guy had two for sale out there and he sent the wrong one to me first, which was this one. Then after I told him that he sent the wrong one, he sent me the correct one and didn't ask for this one back. It almost seems like this one was in a flood or something... Luckily this isn't the one I'm using. The one in my car now is in better condition than this one - but I think I'm going to be taking that one apart like I did this one and cleaning it up too. I think I am going to use #2-56 flat head machine screws and nuts to put them back together. Probably will give the screws some blue threadlock too.

[Zirconocene]

I was going to recommend you take a look at this video but it looks like you have things pretty well under control. It's not exactly for what you were looking to do but might help give some confidence on how you're going to put things back together:



Cheers

[Tom]

I was going to recommend you take a look at this video but it looks like you have things pretty well under control. It's not exactly for what you were looking to do but might help give some confidence on how you're going to put things back together:



Cheers

Never saw this, but love it! Thanks for posting it! I tend to stay in my model-specific silos, but 928 and 944 folks (and 911 from the same era for that matter) can learn a lot from each other I'm sure.