Turn signal question???

[habsdoc]

Hi. Just a quick question about the turn signal operation on my 1981 1000L. The right hand signals will flash and work properly, but the left hand signals only flash once and then they just stay on (lit up). I know that a low battery charge will sometimes stop the signals from flashing, but my battery and charging is good. Can the flasher go bad only on one side??? Or is it more likely that the switch is causing the problem??? Thanks for all input in advance.

[Brendan W]

Most likely you have a high resistance on the left side. The earths at the signals a prime suspect. You could try swapping the feed left to right in the headlight bucket and the tail and see if the problem moves. It might help narrow down the search a bit.
Have you got one of those auto cancel things ?

[habsdoc]

Yes, there is one of the auto cancel units, but in the 20 years I've had the bike it has never worked.

[Brendan W]

Yes, there is one of the auto cancel units, but in the 20 years I've had the bike it has never worked.

You got one of the better ones then

[eil]

Clean all of the electrical connections. My turn signals didn't work at all when I got my bike. Cleaning every connector in the harness made them work perfectly. (Even the auto-canceling.)

[SailEXIT]

Mine was doing the same thing.
Turned out to be a broken black wire right under the triple tree.
Instead of open the harness and fixing the break I ran a new wire from the behind the head light to the rear flasher.

Shaun

[Guest]

Check your bulbs to make sure they are all the same.

I think the originals are a 1073 or something like that, but a more-common 1156 works just as well.
If you have dual-filament bulbs in front, use 1157 bulbs there.

[habsdoc]

Bulbs and sockets are all good. Will try and look for the wire that may be broken, but it may take a day or 2 to do because we just got another dump of snow. 3"+ and a whole lot of salt and sand. GRRRR!!! Thanks.