Should turn signals alternate front/back or be synchronized?

1980 kz750 E1

In between cursing the PO of this bike, who left a nice birds nest of rainbow colored wires in the headlight bucket, with various types of connectors, including plain white tape, I'm trying to get the blinkers and brake lights working. I'm making progress. I can make them all come on, and the switches are all good, just getting down to details now. I have the wiring diagram.

Should the left front and rear blink at the same time or alternate front/back, same for the right? What about on hazard?

Thanks

Front and rear should blink at the same time, and all the hazard lights should blink at once.

Thanks. I can make mine either blink at the same time, or alternate front/back, according to which wires I connect. They're brighter when they blink at once so I was hoping that was the right answer.

Ok, now a followup. When I turn on the key the headlight, taillight, and instrument lights come on--fine. The turn signals do nothing until I hit the switch. Is that correct?

I didn't know if the turn signals were also supposed to come on when the headlight did, just not as bright, or not blinking, like the parking lights on cars. The owner's manual is not clear, and refers to them as both turn signal and running lights, so I suspect they should be on.

Post edited by: bluegill, at: 2005/12/18 20:28

Turn signals are just that, they should come on and flash when selected, they are not running lights like on a car. At least this is the way it is on older kz's could be different on newer ones...

1045

The front signals on my 650C2 are running lights, but not the back, so yes they come on when the Ign. is turned on. The front turn signal bulbs have a dual fillament and have 3 wires running to them, and the rear are a single fillament with 2 wires running to them.

I had bought complete front turn signals and mounted them on the back. Then ran the 3rd wire to them and had running lights all the way around. Good for being seen at night.

rstnick wrote:

The front signals on my 650C2 are running lights, but not the back, so yes they come on when the Ign. is turned on. The front turn signal bulbs have a dual fillament and have 3 wires running to them, and the rear are a single fillament with 2 wires running to them.

I had bought complete front turn signals and mounted them on the back. Then ran the 3rd wire to them and had running lights all the way around. Good for being seen at night.

and that right there is why i love this site.

damn good idea nick

Heard from several 750-4 members via email that they should be running lights. Thanks to Ralph, Randy, JR, Duane, and Tom. Once again KZR comes through.

Followup 2.

Long day, but eventually I got everything working except the headlight, but I find that particular feature overrated anyway.

The turn signals in front are dual element, 2 wire, and now act as running lights too. The rear are single element, single wire, and are turn only. The turn signals work. The instrument lights work. The hazard lights work. All is well except the headlight, which I think will be an easy trace.

I found an unconnected (looks broken) ground wire (yellow/black) jutting from the wiring harness back around the battery area, right side. I can't tell where it was connected. I was having a hell of a time getting anything to work until I connected this errant wire to the negative battery post, and presto-chango, everything came on. The clouds parted, the birds sang, it was glorious.

So my followup is, do you typically have other wires that connect directly to your battery other than the battery cables?

Thanks.