turn signal won't cancel

[Raider L]

I took great care putting my steering column back together, ( see my lengthy build thread with all kinds of pictures). Well, the other day I was fooling around with the horn button cap and it popped off. Dang! "Now I have to unhook the battery and put the stupid thing back on." Oh but wait! I need to also take the locking plate off, the thing that the steering wheel locking pin goes into when you turn the ignition off, and as you are turning the key there is the raised marking on the upper column housing that says, "lock" on it. That plate is some kind of hardened metal with holes and slots and openings and all kinds of stuff cut into it. To get it off you need a tool that compresses the spring behind it and a wire lock ring laying in a groove in the steering shaft must be removed. Once that's done the locking plate comes off.

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The special tool for removing and installing the locking plate. Okay this was the last pic I loaded and now the post with the wire coming out of it IS at 2 o'clock position, and is the way it is on the truck now.

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Well, dang, all the pics I took are all blurred, so here's what I'm talking about. Most all of you know this.

Any way I got all this off and went in the shop and did the best I could and straightened the locking plate out. Back at the truck I remembered that I had a problem with the signals not cancelling so I took the cancelling cam and put it on the shaft to take a look at what the problem could be.

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Here's a pic I took when I was putting the column back together on the bench so I could look at all the different ways this cancelling cam could go in and found that in order for the locking plate to line up correctly the pointed center hole in the plate needed to line up with a flat spot on the steering shaft, like here.

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I don't know about this pic because this is not how the locking plate is turned in the truck, now. as you can see the post the wire for the horn comes out of is at about the 9 o'clock position. I remember having the locking plate on wrong where it wasn't lined up with that flat spot on this end of the steering shaft and had to take it off a couple more times to get it lined up right. The way that post with the wire coming out of it is now in the truck is at about the 2 o'clock position.
But before I put the locking plate back on I took the opportunity to work with the cancelling cam to see just exactly what it was it did to cancel the turn signal. I put the cancelling cam on and pulled the turn signal lever down, then up, and turned the cam back and forth trying to get it to cancel the turn signal off and I never could get it to turn the turn signal lever off. Either I'm just to dense to get it but I could not ever get it to work.
So, I got the factory book out and any photos of it and the function I copied off the internet because the factory book has nothing on it. Well, I found nothing on how this little devil is supposed to work. I even put the cancelling cam on the shaft and just kinda put the locking ring up on there to see if maybe by some mistake I had it on there all wrong. Nope! It can only go on one way...that is unless I have the steering shaft turned wrong down where it attaches to the intermediate shaft, up at the firewall where the steering shaft comes out and you bolt it to the top of the intermediate shaft coupling. But if you remember there is a ground down place where the bolt slides through the coupling. It in turn lines up with a flat spot inside the coupling and it has to go that way or you can't get the bolt in. It has to go that way.

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The small end here is where the grooves are, and right there between the ears where the bolt goes through is the flat spot. That has to line up or the bolt won't go in. I am absolutely certain mine is correct, otherwise the bolt wouldn't have gone in.

So, I'm at a loss. I don't know what the problem is, and anyone who thinks they have a solution has to be well versed with the whole area at the steering shaft there where the cancelling cam and all that fits. Maybe if someone has a tilt steering column out of the truck and can duplicate what I'mm talking about and figure out what is going on. Or maybe if someone has a spare truck, or their running truck's steering column apart and can take a look themselves to figure out what's going on and why mine won't work!

I'd appreciate it very much!

 

[Blue Ox]

In my experience canceller problems are usually in the spring installation. Do you have a better pic of the springs? Also, does the directional work correctly otherwise?

 

[Goldie Driver]

In my experience canceller problems are usually in the spring installation. Do you have a better pic of the springs? Also, does the directional work correctly otherwise?

Or, lack of, but I see one in the picture.

The other thought is if one if the plastic cancelling cams is so worn it can't do its thing.

Just a thought.

 

[Raider L]

@Goldie Driver,

Thanks very much for your response. Here are the pics of the new springs put in the cam. They are in there correct. And I to, thought that the nubs on the cancelling cam were worn down but they are fine. Here's that cam pic:

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I'm showing how to place the end of the spring behind the little foot thing that holds that end of the spring. There is a "left" and "right" spring. I even tried to switch them to see if they would go in. They wouldn't. They are definately Left and Right springs.

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Final placement of the end of the spring.

Yeah, I did a whole thread about this one part so people could see how to correctly put the thing together because when you get it in the package it's bare. You have to take any or all the parts from the old one and transfer them over to the new one except the springs. It comes with new springs.

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Installing the turn signal cam and the switch. As you can see there is only one way to put the cam in there because it has to make up with the turn signal lever and all.

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And the testing of the cancelling cam when I was putting all that together.

 

[Raider L]

@Goldie Driver,

I thought and thought how all this stuff is connected down through the steering shaft and I have come to a "hypothesis", (a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point.) And unless ya' know for sure, isn't that what we mostly do here?

So, here's my hypothesis, and that is that I have turned the steering shaft wrong where it joins with the coupling at the top where the steering shaft comes out of the firewall and connects with the intermediate shaft. There's that bolt that goes through that square hole and the end of the coupling making like a clamp for the end os the steering shaft. You know as I stated in my text above that the end of the steering shaft has that ground out place in it to allow the bolt to go into the coupling.

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Here's that ground down place from the factory so the bolt to pass through the end of the coupling.

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And now the bolt is inserted through the coupling end and the nut put on and all of it tightened up. It has to go this way so the bolt will slide over the shaft through the coupling.

Oh but wait! The first part I did was install the rag joint end to the steering box. There is a flat spot on the end of the shaft that comes out of the steering box and there is a corresponding flat spot on the coupling clamp on the end of the rag joint that have to line up. But when I put the coupling end in at the top end I didn't check the steering wheel end of the shaft to make sure that was going to correctly line up the cancelling cam, like it was when I had it in the shop putting it together. Unknowingly I turned the steering shaft in the column just to line it up for the bolt in the coupling clamp, above pic and bolted it up. "Whoope, I'm done!!"

What I'll have to do is, take the coupling off of the steering column shaft, in the above pic. Then....god I hate to even think about it because it was so hard to get it together and it was in the shop where I could apply force to it in the vice...., I'll have to take the coupling housing apart. Then slide the coupling housing off of the pin in the end of the intermediate shaft, and then turn the coupling housing over and slide it back onto the pin end of the shaft and reattach all the spring wire clip and all the hell it took to get it like I had it!!

What this will do is put the coupling clamp side underneath instead of on top like it is now. And doing so will turn the steering shaft over to be able to put the bolt back in. I won't have to disconnect it from the steering box down there or anything, just turn the coupling housing over. That will turn the steering shaft 180 degrees and possibly put the place where the cancelling cam goes on in the correct position so it will be between the springs on the turn signal switch.

Of course I'm going to study this further because, see, that rubber seal down there at the other end of the coupling was not the right size seal. I had to modify it so it would fit that end of the coupling where it goes, but because of that it made it very hard to get the spring wire clip back into it's groove to hold the seal in. That will be the hardest part of this change. I can't screw this up! It has to be right. Otherwise I might as well get used to turning my signal's off with my hand until the day I die. And then God help the guy who gets the truck after me and can't figure out why the signals won't cancel!!!
Can you imagine, hypothetically speaking, you got the truck and didn't know what I had done to it? That's a nightmare I wouldn't want to wish on anyone! So I guess I had better put out the effort and fix it.

 

[Blue Ox]

Does it cancel at all if you turn the wheel far enough. I mean, I know it should cancel at about 1/4 turn, but if you turn it 360° will it work at any point?

 

[Goldie Driver]

Does it cancel at all if you turn the wheel far enough. I mean, I know it should cancel at about 1/4 turn, but if you turn it 360° will it work at any point?

Once those nubs hit it should cancel AFAIK, so if you disconnect the lower shaft you can spin it to your hearts content and the the theory !!