Successful replacement of Army turn signals with 900 'Stat

[NAM VET]

I know that my own success with this was a nothing accomplishment for many of you, when I read threads of the vastly more complicated tasks others complete. But it made my day yesterday, when my turn signals blinked for the first time since I acquired my own M42. But if there are any others who move on to this replacement, here is how it worked for me. My truck has the mid '60's Army waterproof signal box controller, mounted on the transmission tunnel under the dash, with an assortment of wires coming from the old Signal Stat 600 on the steering column, and another set coming out of the box leading to wherever the Army intended them to go. My control box seemed to be in fine shape, it clicked then flicking the 600, and was sealed and in perfect shape internally when I took off the top. Just no turn signals.

I have built and sometimes modified the mechanical parts of my cars over the years, rebuilt my TR4 and MGB motors, and extensively race-modified my prior Superformance Cobra's motor and suspension and such, but wiring diagrams have always been difficult for me to understand. So, first i needed to make sure my turn signals, the ones the Army installed long ago, worked. So I bought four 6 volt batteries, taped them together, and then soldered wires to them to make then a 24 series tester, with two wire leads for me to see what wires under the dash went where. Then went to my fenders, and after disconnecting the Packard connectors, used my battery tester to ensure that the lights at least worked. I did not test the rear's, as my brake lites work fine. Pulled off the 600, finding a few frayed and possibly shorted wires, then removed the box, then using my battery pack, and with my wife checking the rear lites, put the neg to a ground bolt, and with the pos wire, determined which wire went to which turn signal, and marked them with tape.

Then laid the new seven wire 900 out on my work bench, and having bought a number of rolls of matching color wire at my local NAPA, added several feet of the same color wire to the ones from the 900, securing each butt connector with shrink tubing. Next, after securing the 900 to my steering column, sanding some of the paint off the latter to ensure a good ground from the metal 900 strap to the column, and putting protective wrap on the wire bundle, and safely fastening that to the underside of the dash, temporarily used wire twist-on connectors to secure my 900 wires to the truck's existing tagged wires. My truck has a battery cut-off right on a terminal, so to avoid shorts, did all this with the batteries disconnected.

Having previously located the power wire under the dash, the one that lit my test lamp with the light switch on, put in a 15 amp fuse to power the 24 volt flasher: I got it from on of the M37 vendors, but it had some corrosion on it, and had odd sized spades. When I was all done, turned on the power, and HAD NO FLASHERS!

The instructions that came with the 900 suggested the problem was likely with a defective flasher, so ordered a modern Buss 24 volt round flasher from Grainger, and yesterday, replaced the defective flasher, and gave a great sigh of relief when my turn signals blinked for the first time. So then replaced my temporary connectors with butt connectors after shortening my long wires, wrapped them in tape, and carefully put them up behind my glove box. By the way, the 900's instructions have a wire connecting the two tail lights, but I don't know if my truck has that somewhere, as I did not locate any wires that seem to do that. And the gray wire to the brake lights was not used either, perhaps that has something to do with enabling the 900 to have blinking hazard lights, which I have not tried yet on my 900.

I don't know what I will do with my pristine Army box; I suspect my 600 was the problem, and the box is good. It looks like something that launches rockets or something, so I may put it back on the tunnel, with some sort of signage that it is to be used in case of nuclear war or something.

Having successfully wired my Army installed turn signals, It just made my day. A small accomplishment to many of the vastly more experienced forum members here, but I was so happy I took my wife out to a sports bar for a beer and burgers.

NAM VET
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[sturmtyger380]

Glad it worked out with you. At least the Army had metal tags with numbers on them. When I work on modern wire harnesses the colors get kinda crazy.

'Is that a blue with a red line or an orange line? Oh wait no that is a brown with a pink line.'

[NAM VET]

It's even harder to discern wire colors when you are one of the 8% of men who are color blind, like I am. Going to fetch my 28 month old grandson in Columbia, who loves to sit in the cab of "gran'pop's army truck." Here he is holding his own truck.

all the best... NV....
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[just me]

Those are some interesting side marker lights and mounts. Glad you got them to work. BTW, I LOVE doing electrical stuff. To me, it is just second nature. Nothing bothers me worse than splices and 3M Scotchlock wire ruiners along with rat's nests.
Having the CORRECT tools and connectors makes the job a breeze. Whether an Army truck, Harley or hotrod. (I'm a HUGE fan of weatherpack and Deutsch connectors.)

[sturmtyger380]

I like electrical stuff too. It seems logical.

One of my buddies in my club had a M101 trailer for his M37 that as soon as he plugged it in to the trailer plug it would short. He thought it was the plug and wanted me to help him figure it out.

We took all the bulbs out and started running the OHM meter from each connecter plug to ground. Isolated the shorted plug in two minutes. Went to the plug harness connecters under the metal guard on the frame, pulled that wire, took the Douglas connector apart and there it was. Someone had not pushed the rubber grommet far enough over the metal connecter pin. So each time you put the connecter together you created a short. Not counting taking the bulbs out was fixed in ten minutes.

[NAM VET]

well, I am mystified by how a flashlight works. In due time, I will likely rewire my connections with something more reliable than what I have. If I could have gotten a soldering iron up there, I would have used that. As it is, I have several bags of Douglas and Packard connectors that came with my truck. I may use them.

Back from Columbia, and with my grandson on the floor, with his trucks.

all the best....

NV

[isaac_alaska]

i'm sure someone here will grab up your signal box if you decide not to keep it, i wouldn't mind having one to play with myself! old stuff like that is fun to take apart and see where the smoke got out