Well, I have good news, bad news, and really bad news.
Good news: I managed to swap the entire steering wheel switch assembly without breaking anything or making anything worse. The lights, cruise control, wipers, etc. all work just like before. And I didn't have to pay anyone for labor, my only cost was $2 for a torx head from the local hardware store.
The bad: it didn't make a damn bit of difference on the turn signals. I have now swapped bulbs, relay, and switch assemblies and there is no change.
Really bad news: Someone has obviously been in here already. There is a Viper alarm system under the dash and a gordian knot of twist-connectors, black electrical tape and not-at-all-OEM zip ties. There is a small brown wire that goes nowhere, it just ends in a bare lead. There are two relays there that aren't present at all on the donor truck.
And something very, very weird happened when I reconnected the negative battery terminal. The engine fired right up, with the ignition key in my back pocket. Everything worked, the car could shift gears, all lights worked, etc, no matter what position the key was in. I think maybe the stupid alarm has an engine remote start or something. After playing with key positions for a couple of minutes it became clear there was no way to electrically shut the engine off, so I pulled the air filter cover off and shoved my fist into the intake plenum, stalling the engine as it starved for air.
I also noticed that while the engine was in "haunted tank" mode the driver's side front turn signal was on constantly. So that bulb does work and the wire to it was getting constant power while the engine was running with no key in the car.
Ideas anyone? Swap out the entire wiring harness from the old truck?
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