Indicator Stalk 1978 Viva E

[gurrier]

At present there is one Viva Indicator Stalk for sale on ebay. It is for a 1972 model

It seems to differ from mine in some lead colours. The most notable difference in mine is an absence of leads leading into the positions indicated.

From having the unit open logic would suggest that the indicated positions on my switch should have wires going to them i.e. that there is a complete absence of connection for the right indicator.
(My apology to those who do not have an intimate knowledge of the stalks - those who know will hopefully understand what I am trying to explain.)
My question is - is the absence of these wires on mine a design feature of the late model stalk or have I wires missing. There are no visible unconnected leads under the dash. Thanks in anticipation. Bill

[droopsnoot]

I'm a little surprised that a 1972 car has both stalks, I thought that was on later vehicles.

I will try to look at the one from my Sportshatch project over the weekend, to see what wires go where. How many wires are on each? I'm struggling to count them from the photos. Equally, I can't think what function would be missing from the indicator stalk, regardless of year - they're all pretty much the same, indicator left and right, switch between dip and main, flash mains and horn push on the stalk.

I meant to ask when you emailed me - what's wrong with yours? I've sold a couple of these after stripping them down and rebuilding them, and as long as everything is present and the contacts are clean they're quite straightforward things.

[gurrier]

Thanks for the reply Mike,
Ebay item no. 374175843484 is the reference
Topics such as this may be off-putting detail for some but, IMO, if someone finds themselves dealing with such an issue it is handy to have a detailed reference on record.
The actual indicator stalk itself was out of its socket - the main problem appears to be that someone had already been working on the unit.
There are nine (9) wires going to the indicator stalk all connected to one connector.

The stalk pivots on the plastic bushings.
If you see the difference between the mid left and the right here, the three holes on the left have nothing in them whereas there are three contacts on the ones on the right. These three contact have their individual wires attached. Moving the stalk apparently makes contact between the three thus activating the indicator circuit for one side.
There are no contacts to meet if the stalk is turned in the opposite direction.
The question is - is there a second three wires with a seperate connector, (aside from the aforementioned nine connected to one connector) missing from mine. One would have imagined that there would be a connector with twelve(12) wires attached i.e why seperate connector for one side circuit.

[droopsnoot]

The Haynes Magnum manual only lists nine wires for the indicator stalk. I haven't seen one that's got an extra connector for the three other wires, as far as I can remember. I can't think of what else would happen on the indicator stalk - I know the Chevette has an intermittent wipe facility, but that's on the other side.

Wires are

42 - Light Green / Brown - Indicator flashing supply in from flasher unit
36 - Green / White - Right indicator out
33 - Green / Red - Left indicator out
7 - Blue - Headlamp power in
21 - Purple - Horn power in
9 - Blue / Red - Headlamp dipped beam out
11 - Blue / White - Headlamp main beam out
24 - Purple / Brown -
26 - Purple / Black - Horn(s) out

On the Magnum diagram, 21 and 24 are joined in the connector on the loom side of things, but I can't think what 24 does here.

Note that these are later colours, so an earlier switch might have different codes.

As you say, the detail (presuming we can arrive at a correct conclusion) will be handy for someone in the future. I took a load of photos while I was rebuilding a couple of these, but I can't find them anywhere. They showed where the various sliding contacts needed to sit, and so on.

I'll try to have a look tomorrow if I get chance, see if anything becomes clearer.

[gurrier]

Thanks very much for going into such detail Mike. Understanding wiring diagrams was never my forte'.
I believe I understand more fully now:-

The connection
1 is 42 flashing supply from flasher unit,
2 is 36 Right Indicator out
3 is 33 Left Indicator out.
Even through the stalk is moved a relative distance when changing from middle resting postion to right /left - all of the 'action' takes place between 1 2 & 3.
I postulate that if left hand drive Vivas have their indicators on the left hand side of the steering wheel then this would explain the holes that I was questioning. The switch would therefore be configured with the contacts in these now famous holes for the left hand drive configuration.

[droopsnoot]

Well, I didn't have more than a few minutes to look at this stuff today. I seem to have both types of indicator stalk - one where the positions have wires in them, and one where they do not. Both only have nine wires on the connector, but I didn't have time to look into how exactly that works. I suspect that we have two separate indicator contacts in the one with no spare holes, and one contact that switches between left, off and right in the other one. I'll try to confirm tomorrow.