Weird electrical issue....

[badmix]

Ok, Im not one to sit around and be glad a problem fixed itself, I want to know why it happened in the first place.

I hadnt drove my truck in 2weeks, fired it up and a belt squealed, first time its ever done that, just figure stuff was stuck from sitting. Drove it 45min, shut it off (this was daylight hours). after about 2.5 hours, its dark now, I start it, get a squeal for a split second and then turn on my headlights. The drivers side headlight, parking light and turn signal indicator are glowing a weird dual brightness, not the same as passenger side. My turn signal works, but the green light on dash will stay lite.

Drove truck about 20min, monekying with highbeam, turn signal, turn lights off and on, etc etc. nothing happened, and then just driving the green light slowly went off. I tested all lights and turn signals, all worked fine and normal. So WTH, why would I get a weird glich that would just fix itself?

Now, prior to this.....

1) I was under the dash hard wiring my CB (didnt touch factory harness)

2) day later Tach stopped working

3) same day lights acted wierd

My thought is that the squeal was alternator belt and it wigged it out and caused system to act weird and once alt. got its crap together decided to make things good again.

ANyways, I plan to get under the dash and check fuse panel to make sure some arent 1/2 way in or anything and wiggle wires around

anything else to check?

Thanks

 

[4X4HIGH]

Only having one side of lights dim would lead me to a ground issue. Belt sqeal can happen for several reasons, accessory component going bad and seizing up, heavy draw on the alternator, bad belt, loose belt.

 

[badmix]

any factory grounds by fuse panel i can check for

 

[4X4HIGH]

any factory grounds by fuse panel i can check for

There are several under the dash in that area. Take a peek up under there and see if one came loose or undone.

 

[cybrfire]

I'd say ground as well.


It may not have anything to do with what you were working on either. There are grounds right near each fender on the radiator core support. Make sure those are tight. There should also be one from the engine to the firewall that can cause lots of issues with instruments.

 

[Fordum]

I know, I know, its a Ford, but I suspect the problem is the same. I had a Torino Elite in '76 that developed a similar problem. The lights were ok, but when I turned on the headlights the turn signal indicators glowed faintly. They worked ok, but the arrows on the dash stayed lighted. Over a period of time, one of them got brighter, but the blinker kept working.
I had checked grounds, wires, everything I could think of. I got a schematic and finally decided that the most likely cause was a bad ground with the front turn signal socket. It uses a dual bulb for the turn signal and marker light. When the marker light is turned on, if there is a bad ground, then it would feed back through the arrow bulb.
Problem was, the ground was fine. I checked several times. Finally ran a ground wire into the socket next to the bulb to touch the side of the bulb casing. That did it.
Turns out that there was a defect inside the socket where the ground wire was crimped on to the contact.
I cut away part of the plastic socket and soldered the ground wire to the contact and fixed it.
After that, I fixed a lot of them, since most all the Fords of that year had the same defect.
Made a lot of friends that way.

In your case, I doubt that the socket is bad, but I suspect it is still a bad ground.
As to why it went away, a bad connection generates heat, and heat will make the metal parts of the connection expand and press together tighter.
May even force out trash or dirt and make the connection stay good after it cools for a while. But sooner or later it will come back unless you clean and tighten it.

J.