Whew!!....what a relief

[Rick65Cat]

Today was a beauty day for a ride. I took my skunk to work today and at lunch I couldn't resist.
So off I go and enjoy myself. Anyhoo, I pull up to a stoplight and wanting to turn, I turn on my signal light. Sitting there in neutral, I look down and notice with every blink of the signal light....the neutral light would dim.
My heart dived thinking my charging circuit was screwed.

I got the bike home after work and immediately threw the meter on it.
Engine off...12 V.
Engine idling....about 13 V.
3500 RPM...about 14.5 V.

Soooo what gives? Charging cicuit obviously is doing its job. How come lights are diming with my blinkers on?
I'm no whiz with electrical..any pointers are appreciated.

[Mekanix]

Hi, I just posted something about this very thing. Here is the link:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=159047

what it comes down to is replacing the red wire that goes from the fuse to the ignition switch.

And to add one wire from the orange wire going down the harness to the slice of orange wires going up the harness and this usualy solves the voltage drop problem that causes blinking lights.

Or just switch over to LED's

hope this helps

[Steve]

It does that because the two blinker lights draw just about as much power as another headlight bulb.
That sudden increase in draw will affect everything else, and it shows up as dimming in the lights.

Put your voltmeter back on, start the bike. When it settles in at your 13 volts at idle, turn on the turn signal and watch the voltage change with each blink. Turn the throttle up to about 1500-2000 rpm, it will still fluctuate a bit, but not as much.

Really, it's nothing to worry about.

.

[lucabond]

As Steve said at higher rpm you wont notice it as much because your producing more voltage but who wants to keep up the revs at a stop light so people will know your going to turn.
I found my blinkers wouldn't work without the motor on. After adding another ground wire to the blinkers in the fairing and the ones in back and making sure the bulbs and sockets were clean my blinkers now work just off the battery without the motor running. Your dealing with almost 30 year old wire that just wont carry the current it did when new so clean the connections and run a jumper to ground and see if that helps and if it does run a new ground wire. Good luck

[chef1366]

12 volts is low for your battery.

[Rick65Cat]

K, thanks guys. Like I said...I'm absolutely duhhh at chasing down electrical gremlins. I mean, I can unbolt and replace any part...but electrical? Unless its a straightforward re and re job, I steer clear.

Heck, I built and raced my own stock cars back in the '80s. But always had a buddy do the wiring.

[Rick65Cat]

Ahhhh Crap!!

I hope its due to a battery thats not as new as I was led to believe. With the engine off, theres 12 V on the battery. With the engine off, lights on blinkers blinking, (they quit after a few blinks) it drops to a hair over 11 V.
With engine running at about 3000 rpm the meter reads just a hair over 13V. Thats low according to "The Stator Papers". It should be about 14 V shouldn't it?

Now mind you, I'm using the old style 9V. swing needle Canadian tire multi-meter.

I'm gonna get my "technician" buddy at work to get HIS digital meter and go through the tests with me.

http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfaq.htm

Strange too....the Thurs morning after my previous test Wed afternoon, I discover my headlight fuse is blown. I replaced the fuse tonight and it works fine now. If there was a short it should have popped the new fuse right away.
As was suggested, I'm going to clean as many of the wiring connectors as I can reach with elec. contact cleaner and a tiny wire gun barrel brush.

Aren't old bikes fun?