Most odd situation

[SunSoaked]

I just replaced my steering column with all new internals and installed Dakota Digital Guage cluster.
I've got two very odd issues:

1- Whenever I touch the turn signal stalk (chrome metal part only) while touching any part of the vehicle the windshield wipers make a sweep. This happens regardless of the wiper switch position.

2- Whenever the left turn signal is on the 3rd brake light on my license plate frame blinks in unison. It only happens on the driver's side, not the passenger side of.
I don't know if these are related but I'm guessing I've created an issue with a ground somewhere along the way.

[weq92f]

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F r e a k y...

When making massive changes, it's best to just make one at a time. Makes troubleshooting less of a hassle.

The wiper issue does seem to be ground related and is certainly related to your column work. My guess is both issues have a common cause and it's somewhere in the column.

Hope you get to the solution easily.

Got a pic of your license plate frame third brake light?

-klb

[SunSoaked]

Here's the frame. The red lens is the 3rd brake light, the license light is beneath it (same housing). The electricians I work with say the switch or column isn't grounded well enough. It's finding ground through me when I touch the metal part of the stalk or the b/u lamp since the b/u circuit and turn circuit run on a common ground. Hopefully an easy fix.

[rpmerf]

What year truck is this on?

[SunSoaked]

85

[SunSoaked]

Update:
Regarding the wipers- I believe the issue lies with the delay module. If I pull it out of the harness and plug the connectors together everything works fine except I don't have the delay function. I don't think it's a ground issue with the stalk cause I can pull the stalk and touch the inside of the multifunction switch with a grounded probe and it still does it. For know I'll just live without the delay function and leave the module out.
Does anyone know how to test the module? Its a brand new AC Delco unit.

Regarding the 3rd brake light. This was not related to the wiper issue. What I discovered was that there are only 4 wires that run to the back of the truck from the fuse panel:
Yellow-left turn, Blue-right turn,
Brown-tail lights, Green-reverse lights.
I tapped the the yellow wire because it came on with the brake pedal pushed. Initially, I didn't notice it was blinking with the left turn signal.
To the point- there is NO dedicated wire for the brake lights. The brake lights are a combination of BOTH turn (yellow & blue) being on.
One fix is to run a dedicated wire from the brake switch directly to the 3rd brake light.
But, this raises another question; How does a trailer plug work? Seems like it would need some sort of diode arrangement buried inside it.

[rpmerf]

I was going to comment that for the 3rd brake light, but I wasn't sure about the wiring for 1985.
A dedicated wire from the brake pedal switch would likely be most appropriate. Look at how they do it on newer trucks.
A standard 4 pin trailer plug should have ground, running lights, left, and right.

Not sure on how to test the module. Still seems like a grounding issue though. I think it acts normally without the module because the wiper switch does not need a ground to operate. Just a guess though.