Russ Thompson turn signal issue (FIXED)

[Ted G]

I know that a few in the past has had an issue with the RT turn signal. Until recently, my RT turn signal has worked perfectly and I love how it looks. Turning left works perfectly. I turn it on, it stays on until I straighten the wheel and turns off like it should.However, recently I have an issue with only turning right. I'll flip the lever up for a right turn, but if my wheel isn't perfectly straight, it shuts off right away. To do a legal right turn, I have to hold the lever up. I have not taken it apart yet, but I think it's an easy fix but wanted to see if anyone had any input of this issue.

Thanks in advance.


RIP Russ

[Mike.Bray]

You can always make three lefts

[Sdonnel]

I'm following this. Mine won't stay latched on a left turn. Hope it's something simple.

[edwardb]

My Coupe did the same thing a couple years ago. I took it apart and played around with it. Would work OK briefly, but then not. Talked to Russ (RIP) and said he had fixed a bunch doing the same thing and said he would try. But didn't make any promises. Sent it to him and he returned. Worked for a little while but then same old issue. He sold me a new one for a good price and it's worked fine since. Bottom line, sems when it works it's fine. But if it goes south, maybe not readily fixable. If you take one apart like I did, you'd see what I mean. I think everyone knows these are VW assemblies. Russ told me the availability could be challenging. He had to buy quite a few at a time and usually knock-offs with sometimes marginal quality.

[nuhale]

Mine had same issue. I sent it back to RT (RIPx2) a couple years ago and he did something to it.. Didn't solve. What I found is there needs to be a gap between the housing and the base or it binds up causing it to snap back. The steering shaft telescopes so maybe it just needs a little adjustment. Thats what I did and it works fine.

[Ted G]

Thanks everyone. I will follow up with my diagnosis once I break it down.

[Fman]

Ted I have a similar issue, right turn won't always stay on so I have to manually hold it up until I make the turn. Left has always worked perfectly. I hope you can come up with a solution, would like to get mine working better.

[Ted G]

Well after further inspection, looks like there are two issues.

1) the upper body seem a little worn where the "cancellation tabs" protrude outward. This is making the tabs stick out just a hair giving me a very slight clicking noise when I turn the wheel. You can see with the red markings:

IMG_7236.jpg IMG_7238.jpg IMG_7239.jpg

2) Also, the lower body has two rivets/pins that holds these tabs in place. One was a little loose but I was able to hammer it in and make it tighter.

IMG_7237.jpg

I've seen that some have put some lightweight grease in this area to help with the wear. Has anyone seen this wear pattern before? My thought is to try to build it up with some hard epoxy... not sure yet. Still playing around with it, but hoping just a little adjustments, some grease and a good cleaning with solve the issue.

[Ted G]

Well, after a few hours of working on the RT turn signal, I found out some of the issues and fixes for those issues. First off, I had significant wear on the housing from the tabs rubbing on the housing without grease for what.... 50 years?

IMG_7238.jpg

I tried a couple different types of JB weld to fill these two gaps. I used the Automotive JB weld first; not good for this application as it was too soft/flexible. Then I used your standard JB Weld that is much harder and will wear out much slower than the cast aluminum. You can see the fill here:

IMG_7252.jpg

You can also fine tune these slider tabs by bending them back or forward. This will fine tune how easy or hard it pushes out the cancellation tabs.

IMG_7254.jpg

The whole mechanism works very closely with the hub tabs. The hub tabs are used for cancelling the turn signal after you make the turn. Russ Thomson (RIP) used what he thought would be the perfect size tabs, but I am considering removing some material here (not much) to change the timing of when it gets cancelled. Removing material from the inside or outside will lengthen the time before cancellation. Not doing this yet, but will make my assessment of this over the next few drives.

IMG_7255.jpg

One critical key to the operation of the RT Turn Signal is to have the mechanism perfectly centered between the tabs. Slight adjustment of the wheel alignment or turn signal will affect the operation. For instance, if the hub tab is in front of the mechanism when you try to engage the turn signal switch, it won't hold. Also, there is no way of knowing this when the steering wheel is on; therefore, I made a tiny "centering" mark on my hub of where the turn signal lever should be.

IMG_7246.jpg IMG_7257.jpg

Lastly, I needed some grease in the mechanism area where those upright tabs rub along the stepped part of the aluminum housing. Also, I think my gap between the hub and the RT housing was way too tight. I say you need about 1/16" or 3/32" gap so that there is no pressure from the hub to the housing altering the operation. You can see in this video I made after my repair:

https://youtube.com/shorts/T3XgBDbwA4E


I hope this helps some of you out there. I know there are probably a bunch of you out there who have similar issues with this. I actually enjoyed figuring it out and I hope my fix lasts! Thank God I made an easy way to remove the wiring; individual plugs for each wire so that I can pull it all through the small hole in the dash ring.

Ted