Turn signals stay lit

[cb1ocker]

I recently replaced my stock turn signal relay on my 77 GS550B with a cheap 2 prong unit that I bought for 10$ form a local parts store. For the past 200 or so miles it's been working great, but while driving around last night I noticed when I turn the signal on either side it stays lit and doesn't flash. I can manually make it flash by flipping the switch off and on repeatedly. Both sides behave the same. Did I blow the new relay already?

[posplayr]

unless it is a LED compatible relay , the flasher is probably load sensitive. It needs a certain amount of load to flash. If you are not charging as much as you should or have dirty connections to your blinkers it could have just dropped you below the amount of current you need to flash.

If you have two lights, then you could tests it by putting them both in parallel to make sure it will flash. I hat to say this but if you are just at the edge and are lazy and don't want to clean your connections then put a larger 1156/1157 bulb in they are higher wattage.

If you have an 1157 bulb on either end just connect both filaments to the blinker signal. That should be enough to push you over the edge.

[cb1ocker]

What I didn't mention in the first post is that after I replaced the flasher with the one I got from the local parts store the main fuse (I think) kept blowing. Not knowing why, I replaced the 10A fuse with a 20A fuse and everything seemed to work OK (I know, this was really dumb).

Today I replaced the flasher relay with the Bussman 552, which is a recommended replacement on BikeCliff's site, and put a 10A fuse back in. The fuse isn't blowing anymore and the turns signals work again.

Is it possible that the flasher I had in there was trying to pull too much power and causing the fuse to blow? After looking up some more info on it, it appears to be made for LED signals and I'm still running stock.

[tom203]

"Is it possible that the flasher I had in there was trying to pull too much power and causing the fuse to blow? "

Apparently,yes! The electronic flasher must have found a path to ground .

[cb1ocker]

Anybody know where the fuse box in this thing is supposed to be? For the life of me I can't find any fuses except the main. Is it under the tank?

[tom203]

As far as I can tell, you probably have just one fuse which should be 15 amp, not 10.

[cb1ocker]

Interesting, all the wiring schematics I see show a fuse box. When I cut out the original main fuse/holder it had a 10 amp fuse, and I swear I read somewhere that it should be 10 amp, but I can't find that now, so it is entirely possible I dreamt that.

[cb1ocker]

Would you look at that, right in the service manual:

Fuse: 15A