What did I do replacing the harness?!?!

[70 gsconvt]

Hi, I've been "restifying" my 70 GS. I got to reconnect the battery today and I turned the key to see what would happen. Now, I did replace the speedo with the supposed "original" speedo. It has the speed alert. Anyway, when I turned the key on, the red light at the top of the speedo comes on, stays on; and the turn signal indicator for right turn is on constant with the lever in the neutral or left turn, but off for a right turn. I also replaced the front engine and light harnesses. I replaced all the light bulbs in the gauges, tach and speedo. Did I plug the speedo in backwards or something? I know there could be a lot of possibilities, but electrical troubleshooting is not my strong point, and any pointers, places to look, would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Adam Whitman]

Sounds like you have a bad ground. Places to check include the voltage regulator to firewall, dashboard grounds, engine ground strap, and anywhere else you can find one. It's gonna be tough unless you have a service manual to help you find where they all go.

HTH

[r72gs]

If it's not a ground you may want to look at your bulbs. I've seen more than once a dual element bulb like 1157 go bad or a single element bulb in it's place cause some wacky problems. One element touches the other and send voltage back to the dash or where-ever it can get. Most of the time you see a car that when the brake lights are on it turns the front parking lights on. I noticed you replaced all the bulbs so it's worth a quick look. Try pulling the bulbs out one at a time.

[LARRY70GS]

Carl is right, When a turn signal indicator stays on, it means you have a bad bulb on that side, front or rear. The red light at the top of you speedo is the brights indicator. Check the floor switch.
Larry

[John Eberly]

Had the same problem with my '68 - it was a real head scratcher, and I have the shop manual AND an electrical engineering degree.

It was a bad ground to the gauge cluster. It did real wierd stuff like the high beam indicator flashed when the turn signal was on. I finally figured out that the current was going to ground THROUGH some of the light bulbs and the associated circuits instead of straight through the normal ground path.

I just ran another ground to one of the ground pads on the foil printed circuit. Cured it once and for all.

[70 gsconvt]

Just an update. I started rooting around and found that I hadn't connected the headlight grounds. Once I did that, everything came to life as it is supposed to. Thanks for the help. Pheewww, that was close.