It should only go one way- with the signal arm and hazard button lined up with the holes in the signal housing. I went and looked at mine and they are at 3 and 9 o'clock. As mentioned above, there are two kinds of switches. What color is yours? White is what the Delco switch usually is [but I have seen black and grey aftermarket ones]. Red is the Boyne switch. There are two sets of holes where the switch mounts, a set for each style. So if the switch is placed in the wrong set of holes it would be orientated wrong. I found this out the hard way too. You want to talk about not paying attention to how it went- mine came dis-assembled in a big cardboard box with parts falling out. I spent a LOT of time with the FSM figuring out how everything went together.