Weird Electrical Issues

My CJ5 blinkers were fine. This is after a complete rewire. I had a small leak with brake fluid at brake switch near master cylinder. I had to take the wires off that switch. I forgot to disconnect battery. So they touched the frame and sparked. After realizing this I then disconnected battery. Leak fixed. But after reconnecting the battery when I turn on right rear blinker the left rear blinks too. So both rear lights blink. When the left blinker is turned on. Only left blinks. Front lights are fine with each direction. What could this be? Did I burn switch or flasher out? Thanks

 

It sounds like you may have a bad ground on your tail lights. I ran wires from the mounting studs to the frame. If you do this make sure both the frame and tail light threads are clean.

 

Thanks. I added ground wires. And it is still happening. Seems like the right blinker power must be sending power down the brake wire on the left side? Causing the left blinker to blink with the right blinker. The left blinker works fine. The brake lights works fine as well. I am not sure why this just started.

 

What year is your CJ?

 

It is a 1957.

 

You may have smoked your brake switch circuit causing a short in the circuit somewhere. I would remove the wiring from the tail light and see what just the wire does with a test light. If the wires behaves normally then check your tail light housing. If the wires feeding the tail light provide the unwanted result, go back to the turn signal connections and look around. Then open your turn signal switch housing and look for something scorched. I think you will be able to find something pretty quick.
I think the flasher is probably ok since it is used for both right and left.

Sorry if this is confusing....

 

Makes sense. I probably burned a wire in the area where the brake switch wire arc on frame. So it is sending voltage up the ground is my guess making the other tail light blink.

If someone could post a link to the color wire diagram for this CJ5, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

 

You might try simply swaping both tail light bulbs for new ones and try it. I have seen the filaments inside the bulbs brake or fail and touch one another causing a short inside the bulb that will feed voltage from one circuit to the other. I have seen it make the front parking lights come on (dimly) when applying the brakes and so on. Just saying

 

Remove the left turn wire from the turn signal plug to the main wiring harness. Turn on switch and move the arm to right turn. If the left tail light does not flash then you know the trouble is in the turn signal switch.

 

I would suggest looking at the turn signal switch as well. The brake light signal goes to the switch and then uses the same wire to send the power to the lights. I couldn't find a color diagram but this may help??

 

Here's a diagram with colors noted I found somewhere online for a 1971 renegade. The there are a couple special circuits for the amp and oil gauges but the rest of the diagram is applicable to any '71:

 

If you still have the original Spartan switch, they are pretty easy to disassemble and clean up:




And for anyone interested, here's how it works.

Park position:

• The two triangular contacts are connecting the rear lights to the brake switch.
• There is no connection anywhere else:

Left turn signal engaged:

• The right rear light is still connected to the brake switch.
• The left front and left rear lights are now connected to the flasher that provides cycling power under load:

Right turn signal engaged:

• The left rear light is still connected to the brake switch.
• The right front and right rear lights are now connected to the flasher:

 

Thank you.

Turns out the wires outside the steering column in the rubber cover were in very very bad shape. I had to solder the wires back to the blinker assembly. I will post a few pictures. I started stripping the wires looking for good wire but the wires were bad all the way up.

 

I am not sure what model this is, but this was the condition of wires.

 

Glad you ran it down!