Turn Signal Switch Replacement -- Difficulty Rating?

[67L48]

OK, since no one has any shop recommendations, I'll proceed with Evil Plan Z.

As someone with few skills, I often look for help.  I can usually take things apart and put them back together.  However, I've got no innate auto skills -- didn't grow up working on cars, barely know how to even spell carburetor, thinks a cam is a big forward who used to play for the Bruins, etc.  No better at electrical and wiring -- steered clear of EE during college.

With that said, I think I was just barely smart enough to figure out my problem.  Brake lights don't work, then blinkers went intermittant.  Now left is solid and right works fine.  Hazard lights work fine on both sides.  Getting power through the wires and the brake light switch.  Bulbs are fine.  Sockets are fine.  Based on the combo of weird turn signal behavior, brake light failure, and 30 years of age, I'm going with the Turn Signal Switch.

Looks like that part is around $65 + shipping at most parts houses.  Autozone has a part for $45.  Interesting.  Can also borrow a steering wheel puller from Autozone, so no capital investment in tools is necessary.

I've never pulled a steering wheel on any car before.  I have no help and no friends who have any clue about cars -- my only source of help is on forums like this one.

With that said, and remembering that I'm borderline Brick Tamland, what do you think the odds are of a girl like me and a guy like you ... I mean, how difficult a job is changing this thing out?  Is it just a lot easier to pay a shop $150 and not worry about it.  No, I'm not rich and fall into the category of having more time than money; however, I don't want to crack the thing open and be stuck with a car in my garage with no steering wheel -- pretty tough to drive it to the shop at that point!

Thanks.

[mrdetails]

I may be to your advantage to secure a shop manual for your car. It willl have blow by blow description of all steps and tools required for any job.Also things to watch out for. I think they are available from most camaro parts pedlers. Some times you can find them at flea markets also. The dealer manuals are better than an aftermarket brand like a Chilton's or such. This way you can check out a job and see how difficult it will be before you start.(by the number of tools required)
Hope this helps
Sam

[67L48]

I have a Chiltons and the Factory Assembly Manual.  What a guy needs for this type of interior work is the Fisher Body Manual.

Anyway, here is the saga:

Brake lights stopped working.  Left turn signal went solid.  Right turn signal worked fine.  Lights worked fine.  With the lights on, the turn signals triggered the higher brightness in the tail lights.

Almost 2 years ago, I checked the brake light switch.  I removed it from the car and checked that the circuit would open and close.  Looked fine.  I checked the bulbs and the sockets.  Everything checked out.  I figure it's got to be the turn signal switch -- based on the combo of turn signal and brake light issues and in reading of similar issues people have had with older cars. Summer 2005 was almost over, so I just bagged it.  Decided to leave it sit during 2006 and take some time to replace worn interior components.

So, 2007 rolls around and I'm tired of my camaro becoming a garage ornament.  At this point, I'm thinking that I either try the switch replacement myself or have a shop do it.  I finally decide to let a shop try it.

Shop comes back and tells me that the problem was the brake light switch, though they couldn't duplicate any of the turn signal problems I reported.  So, I'm not fully convinced that they solved the problem and feeling a bit like a moron that the switch that I diagnosed as being OK turned out to be defective (I assume that sitting in a garage for 2 years with no battery connected didn't do anything).  I picked up the car and everything worked OK.  That was last Friday (8/3).

I still had a lot of components in the dash removed.  So, I spent Saturday putting everything back together and polishing it up.  Go for a drive and notice that the left turn signal is solid (right turn signal works fine).  Get home and notice that the brake lights don't work.  Great!  Back to square one.

Take it to the shop today (Tues, 8/7) and figure that I'll just use my hazard lights when I apply brakes.  However, now my hazard lights cause one of two conditions:  either just the left turn signal comes on solid or both turn signals come on solid.

Shop calls me and notes that they only notice that the left (driver's side) brake light is out and the right (passenger side) works fine.  OK, this may be what happened on Sat, since I just did an over-the-shoulder check and I suppose that I only really verified that the driver side brake light was out and figured they both were out.

They check the brake light switch and the wiring harnesses going into the column and everything seemed OK.  Before cracking the steering column, they decided to check out the rear of the vehicle.  They found that they could duplicate all of my symptoms *and* "fix" the symptoms by wiggling the brake light socket in my trunk.  And, actually, my hazard lights worked fine as long as the brakes were not on.  The wiring to the brake light socket was all OK, but the socket itself was shot.  The self-grounding feature for the bulb wasn't working.  They plan to replace the socket and that should be the end of the problem.

Quite a saga and never once touched the turn signal switch.  Glad I went to a shop!

[jmcbeth]

Just reading your post. Interesting story that smelled like a ground problem. As a general rule, when you experience changing symptoms, look for ground problems first. Anyway, glad it's turning out OK.

Also, based on your posts above, I bet you wouldn't have any trouble at all pulling the steering wheel and replacing the turn signal switch. I have done this several times and there is no mystery to it. The horn didn't work in my '69 Z. After much investigation and practice pulling and re-installing the steering wheel, I determined that the previous owner had replaced the turn signal canceling cam with one from a '68 Camaro. So, if you end up replacing parts in the column beware that the parts are different for '69 vs. 68 and 67.

Let us know if your problem is indeed fixed!