we are experiencing faint power to left signal, would this poss. short steal power to rest of the system/

If it were an intermittent reoccurring short you should see other lights flickering or dash indications of an overload.

"faint power" mentioned could be a loss of voltage/current thru switches or power relay(s). As contacts wear, voltage/current thru them will decrease or be totally interrupted.

If this problem is only seen on the left turn signal I would be suspicious of the turn signal switch on the steering column.

Our wire connector going to the turn signal got loose and lost connection . The connector was located under the boot towards the bottom of the steering column .