turn signal /indicator trouble

I'm having problems with my indicators - the left hand indicators work ok, but the right indicator light just stays on and doesn't flash. (bulbs checked and OK)

If I put the hazards on, the lights flicker, and they don't work correctly.

I'm thinking of changing the flasher units - i have swaped them about and tried using other units i had to hand (knocking about in garage from old cars) with no joy or smilar results. Infact i think it works better with only 1 of the units connectd. On the bike now - one of the units is 12v and the other 6v.

Does anyone know the part/model number of the flasher boxes to put on the bike?

Cheers

Buy some new flashers at the auto store. Typical flasher is heat activated, and hi-tech flashers are electronic, cost more, but seem to flash better.

Have you checked all the wire connections and sockets for corrosion? Did you swap bulbs around to check them?

Any flasher is designed only to "trip" or "toggle" based upon a certain electrical loading. Thus, if you were to have only one bulb or only one smaller bulb in the flasher's circuit, it would not toggle or trip.

I would take these steps in this order:
(1)
Test each bulb AT the bulb holders.
Use some extension wire (speaker wire works great for electrical debugging) with aligator clips installed on each end. Provide a ground to the bulb holder directly from the battery's negative terminal. Provide the positive 12v directly from the battery's positive terminal. Simple test and good results should be expected. You can connect directly at the bulb holder but I'd start with the connector points first. If they fail or have problem results, then move-up to the bulb holder directly behind the bulb's base and look for corrosion or bad connectors...
This will test the bulb holder for good grounding which is the most common source for flasher "flakieness"(sp?)
Each bulb should light-up with equal brilliance or there is a grounding problem (usually oxidation which causes the bulb holder bore to get larger in diameter and poor ground results) OR electrical source contact problem (poor 12v feed) within the bulb holder.
Both of these problems can often be solved simply by twisting some triple-0 (000) steel wool into the bulb holders to clean them up. OF COURSE YOU HAVE THE HOLDERS OUT OF CIRCUIT TO DO THIS RIGHT?

Once satisfied that each of the four signal-bulb holders ARE working equally well in the manual test then continue on debugging by connecting the bulb holders back into circuit...

(2)
Test each side as you have done, then flip the flasher units to see if the problem follows the flasher or stays with the same "side".
If the problem switches from left to right etc then you have isolated THE flasher as the problem. If not, then the physical wiring for THAT side is in question.
If it's the flasher - replace both (just a good principle to replace anything that is installed as a pair).
If it's "that side", then you will have to trace each wire from source (the flasher usually) to each end (the bulb holders). Generally, the wires themselves do not fail but the connectors do. Thus, suspect any and all of the connector points first. You may find simple cleaning with steel wool of the connectors helps but often, with age and use, the connectors become enlarged due to heat build-up from use. Over time, this will render the connectors sloppy.

If neither of these solves the problems, then you may have to investigate your display panel - the guage cluster - to see if you have some form of shorting of wires within the tight confines of (on my kz these are the headlight housing and the display "pod" above it) both of which have many wires crammed into place.

HTH.

Ooops!

I just re-read your post. I didn't realise that one flasher is 12v while the other flasher is 6v...
Hmmm?

I'm guessing that one is being used strictly for the display pod then? It doesn't make sense to me but why would you have different voltage ratings for flasher units?
All four corners (and the display pod bulb) are usually identical voltage ratings... no?
Hmmm...?
You only have a 12v battery...

Is it possible, that a PO swapped a flasher with the incorrect unit and just got lucky to have it work for a while?
Hmmmm?

Is it possible that you only have one flasher unit and possibly another relay (that might be different voltage rating)?

Sorry man... didn't mean to confuse things here. Just wanted to help.

What model/year is your bike again. I'd like to look-up the wiring diagram or schematic just to see what it is supposed to be....

Hey I just thought of something, I don't know why I didn't think of this before...I gotta wonder about myself sometimes.

Last week I just had a flaky right signal problem on my bike. After swapping bulbs, flashers, etc. and not fixing the problem I pulled the gas tank and started wiggling the harness. I got to a point where the wiggle made the blinkers work. I cut off the tape wrap, and found a bad solder connection on the gray wires that feed the right side blinkers. On my bike one gray wire is soldered to 2 or 3 more gray wires, and it was broken.

Here's a tip: Don't grab the wrong end of the 40watt soldering iron.:whistle:

After bitching and soaking in ice water I got the break soldered and all is well. So wiggle your harness and see what happens.

It seems to me if you had a bad flasher then you would see the problem on both the right and left side of the bike. Follow wrenchmonkey's post. It sounds like a bad ground connection somewhere on the right side, which would screw up both the right side indicators and hazzard flashers.

OKC_Kent wrote:

Hey I just thought of something, I don't know why I didn't think of this before...I gotta wonder about myself sometimes.
...
(snip)
...
Here's a tip: Don't grab the wrong end of the 40watt soldering iron.:whistle:

:woohoo:
That is sooooo funny! I thought I was the only one that could mistake the workin' end of the soldering iron in the "heat of the moment" :blush:

Hey... Just a quick question. I noticed yer location. Did you happen to make it to a closing bike dealer's auction in Grove, OK. yesterday?

To Jdburke:
Yeah. I thought the same thing too. Seems like one flasher would do the job as it does on most things but he mentioned "units" so I went with it. WhatdoIknow? I didn't even notice his bike or model was listed in his sig either :blush:

I think OKC may be on to something though. I've rewired a ton of vehicles (all air cooled too ) and usually it's the bulb holders first and connections second. Wire harnesses rarely fail except for vehicles that have been in accidents or fires (well ok and the few times a PO decided to add a new honkin' stereo without much planning .:whistle: )

I had the exact same problem and I had crossed the ground wire with the power wire on the right rear signal light. I just had to switch them back. May the same thing?

Thanks for the replies - I havn't had chance to take a proper look, but I will! When I get away from the missus and the kids for half an hour!

Post edited by: screwfox, at: 2007/11/17 12:36

Post edited by: screwfox, at: 2007/11/17 12:37

I replaced the flasher relays and all working fine now!

Thanks for the response.