Self cancelling indicators

[scotlan]

A few days ago I fitted a new indicator stalk and re-fitted the steering wheel. I made sure the indicators were in the central position when fitting the steering wheel and that the arrow on the boss was facing north.

On road test I discovered that the self-cancelling only operated on left turns.

Did I do something wrong ? Is the new stalk faulty? Any suggestions?

[niall]

Probably the rubber gaitor on the stalk is restricting its movement. Disengage the gaitor from the plastic cowl and see if that helps.

[scotlan]

Probably the rubber gaitor on the stalk is restricting its movement. Disengage the gaitor from the plastic cowl and see if that helps.

I'll try that thanks.

[scotlan]

Since my first post in January, I have now had a chance to strip the column down to see why the indicators do not self cancel on right turns, OK on left turns.
I stripped it all down and rebuilt it and now the indicator stalk "trembles" but does not self cancel when returning to the straight ahead position after right turns.

I wonder if the body of the stalk is not sliding far enough in to be activated. So, here is a pic and I would ask if looks right. If not I may have to try a different switch that slides in further.

[rip]

Mine has never worked, but I have never taken off the steering column cover to take a look.
Many parts on the Elan are shared with Vauxhalls. The indicator stalks certainly are. I had a Calibra & saw some talk of it on their forums, so the following may be of use:

When talking about removing the steering wheel, they often referred to the "Squib" & advised care not to damage it. This may be a key word to search for.
I removed & replaced the steering column cover in my Calibra & this broke the indicator auto-return.
The next time I removed & replaced it, I seemed to knock something which caused the auto-return to work again.
On another occasion, my steering wheel was replaced. There was a small orange clip attached to the back of it, which was sprung. It was less than 10mm x 10mm. I believe this was the Squib.

[david924s]

Mine has never worked, but I have never taken off the steering column cover to take a look.
Many parts on the Elan are shared with Vauxhalls. The indicator stalks certainly are. I had a Calibra & saw some talk of it on their forums, so the following may be of use:

When talking about removing the steering wheel, they often referred to the "Squib" & advised care not to damage it. This may be a key word to search for.
I removed & replaced the steering column cover in my Calibra & this broke the indicator auto-return.
The next time I removed & replaced it, I seemed to knock something which caused the auto-return to work again.
On another occasion, my steering wheel was replaced. There was a small orange clip attached to the back of it, which was sprung. It was less than 10mm x 10mm. I believe this was the Squib.

Think the squib mentioned is the airbag explosive charge and associated circuitry certainly something to be careful of if you have one but don't think it will impact the indicator cancelling, unless it goes off of course.

[scotlan]

I removed & replaced the steering column cover in my Calibra & this broke the indicator auto-return.
The next time I removed & replaced it, I seemed to knock something which caused the auto-return to work again.
On another occasion, my steering wheel was replaced. There was a small orange clip attached to the back of it, which was sprung. It was less than 10mm x 10mm. I believe this was the Squib.

Thanks rip
That is exactly what I did and how I got here. When I removed the steering wheel boss to remove the dash panel, I broke the indicator switch which, of course, had been working perfectly. I now understand that the switch needs to be in the central position to avoid damage.
I bought a generic switch which included Astra models. However I think it doesn't just quite seat correctly which is causing the problem I have but have no idea how to modify it to get a better fit.
Since I got a new alarm the indicator "Click" has got louder which will come in useful now!

[rip]

Since I got a new alarm the indicator "Click" has got louder which will come in useful now!

Good luck with hearing that when driving roof-down at 70 on a motorway as you pass a succession of HGVs!

[rip]

Think the squib mentioned is the airbag explosive charge and associated circuitry certainly something to be careful of if you have one but don't think it will impact the indicator cancelling, unless it goes off of course.

You may well be right. It was a term I had heard when discussing steering wheel removal. I forgot the Calibra had an airbag (because happily, I don't know anybody who has needed it) so assumed it was part of the indicator cancelling system.

[scotlan]

Since my first post in January, I have now had a chance to strip the column down to see why the indicators do not self cancel on right turns, OK on left turns.
I stripped it all down and rebuilt it and now the indicator stalk "trembles" but does not self cancel when returning to the straight ahead position after right turns.

I wonder if the body of the stalk is not sliding far enough in to be activated. So, here is a pic and I would ask if looks right. If not I may have to try a different switch that slides in further.

Since posting this, I received a private email from "Tony" who suggested that the indicator stalk I had fitted was slightly newer and different in some way although it looks identical. He told me he had bought a 1990's Calibra stalk on Ebay and it worked. He also told me that there was another available which I bought and fitted. This clicked in to place much more easily and I am pleased to say works perfectly.