EGR canister, gasket, turn signal issue

[Regis]

Had the PO36 code coming on intermittently for the past several months. I've been making a ton of very short trips so I was sure the EGR canister needed cleaning or replacement. Had the common symptoms of shutter/ stutter at speed. So I warmed up the engine for a few minutes to warm up the canister a bit before removal so as not to tear the gasket. Well, I managed to tear it anyways but fortunately I had a spare on hand. No complaints though since it was the original gasket with 233,000 miles on it. The canister was pretty fouled up and I had to really scrape and scrape around the rim of the plunger. Got it all back together and she ran like a champ.

Last week I lost the front left turn signal. The dash lit up in a way I've never seen before. The Hazard lights worked fine but still no front left turn signal. I figured it was a blown bulb so I replaced it. No luck. Hmmm. At this point I'm stumped and start jiggling wires and work up a few heated curses in hopes that it will help the cause. And of course it didn't help but I did feel better. So as a last effort I summoned up a couple of F bombs while shaking the socket vigorously. Apparently the F bombs worked because out comes this little flat piece of metal. I quickly surmise that this must be some sort of ground. After a little cobbing with 2 very small needle nosed pliers and reinstalling the original bulb all was better.