1956 blinker switch question

Bringing a 56 dodge pickup from the weedline to the road. I have the original (?)turn signal switch. It has 7 wires. One leads to a bulb mounted inside the housing. The other 6 have the cloth braid covering the copper wire. For the most part, all the wire covering colors look similar due to sun fade. The arm moves freely so I would like to use it. So... as it is mounted on the left side of the steering column, top to bottom, excluding the bulb wire inside the housing, what does the top wire control? The next one down and down the line? Thanks.

i really can't answer that question directly, as the coloring can't be specific, but if you have a digital ohm meter, you could figure it out sorta easy. you should have [in no specific order]: hot[12v], left front,right front,left rear, right rear, and brake light in. i think ? any one else care to comment ?

Agree with above. Make yourself a "truth table"

Find out (I think they do) use integrated brake and tail lamps

Here is what you will have

1...Because 1 wire goes to the pilot lamp, this "indicates" a 3 pin flasher.

2...You would have the following INputs

flasher power going in

flasher pilot lamp going in

brake switch power going in

3...You would have the following OUTputs

left front turn

right front turn

left rear turn / brake

left rear turn / brake

Therefore you should have the following:

"Whatever" is the brake like wire should be continuous to the two (left and right) rear turn/ brake outputs with the switch CENTERED

So right away you can "group" those three

Next, turn the switch to "left" and take the three wires in the "group" and find out which OTHER TWO wires ONE of the three hooks to, IE

in "left" of course the "flasher in" will be hooked to left front and left rear

Separately, the brake power "in" will be hooked to the RIGHT rear lamp

How to determine? At first, you can leave the switch centered, but you won't really know which is brake, which is right, and which is left. Easy. Three wires. All continuous with switch centered. With switch left, two of the three will be continuous, and with switch right, the third will be continous with one of the first two. The wire that's continous in all three cases is the BRAKE SWITCH.

So now you have id'd the brake switch, and left / right rear, and you already know the pilot lamp, only 3 left

Take your left and right rear, and cycle the switch left right, determine which of the remaining wires are continuous with one in left, one in right. This is your flasher.

Now take this flasher wire and check the TWO remaining wires for continuity, left, and right. These are your left/ right front.



You should now have TWO hooked together, with the switch in "right" that is the left rear brake "out" and the brake switch "in"

If the colors are bad figure some way of marking them, either colored tape (you can buy at Lowes, electrical stores etc) or even numbered mask. tape.


This takes longer to explain than to "do" LOL

If you Google the switch brand and model #, you might come up with a schematic.

Kevin