Turn signal flasher

[1948man]

If a flasher is bad. will it not flash at all. Mine flashes fine for the right turn signal. For the left, when it is applied, there is a single blink sound as the rear turn signal lights up solid. The signal filament in the front left signal bulb never lights up. There is power to the connecter in the headlight bucket for the left signal filament (black female connector). The power was 10 or 11 volts but I might not have had a good ground on the multimeter. The voltage was the same on the right signal filament connecter and it blinked fine.

[posplayr]

The old thermal style flasher have a bimetallic spring contact that cycles when you draw current from two signal lights . If one bulb is out it will not flash . The electronic flasher work on a digital timer circuit independent of load.

[1948man]

The old thermal style flasher have a bimetallic spring contact that cycles when you draw current from two signal lights . If one bulb is out it will not flash . The electronic flasher work on a digital timer circuit independent of load.

I'm an electrical dunce. I'm pretty sure my old OEM flasher is the thermal style. I'm also pretty sure my bulb in the left socket is good. I've tried 2 new ones and they both light up on the dimmer filament. Visually, the flasher filament looks okay. I will swap the bulb that flashes in the right signal to the left one but if that doesn't work is there anything else to be done. Can I assume that the flasher is not the problem?

[posplayr]

It is possible that if either your voltages are low or you have a dirty ground to either bulb the current is restricted not allowing the thermal type to blink.

add a good battery or jumper it. Clean the blinker housing grounds.

[habsdoc]

+ 1 on the above solution.

[1948man]

Okay thanks, will go that route.

[rphillips]

Both light up on the dimmer filament? The dimmer filament should be the running light, not enough current to make the flasher flash. You don't have the wires connected wrong, do you? The brighter filament should be the turn signal, get it to come on & flasher may flash.

[1948man]

Both light up on the dimmer filament? The dimmer filament should be the running light, not enough current to make the flasher flash. You don't have the wires connected wrong, do you? The brighter filament should be the turn signal, get it to come on & flasher may flash.

Thanks, yes both light up on the dimmer filament but only the right will light up (and blink) on the brighter filament. It's like there is something wrong in the wiring for the left, maybe voltage loss from corrosion. The plastic gang-connectors are so brittle, I can't get them unplugged.

[Steve]

I'm also pretty sure my bulb in the left socket is good.

"Pretty sure" is not good enough, you need to follow Nessism's advice: "To measure is to know."
No, you don't need to measure the ohms of the filament, but you should at least remove the bulb and apply power directly to it.

I've tried 2 new ones and they both light up on the dimmer filament.

I presume this means that your bike has the running lights in front? If so, you need to make sure the BRIGHT filament works for the turn signals. If your bike does NOT have running lights, you need single-filament bulbs. Check the inside of the socket to see how many contacts are in there.

Visually, the flasher filament looks okay.

Visual checks are only the first step in troubleshooting. They are not the final test that lets you say "Okay, it looks good, so it HAS to be good!" Use a coule of jumper leads to the battery to test the bulb, so you KNOW it's working. And again, are there two contacts in the socket?

I will swap the bulb that flashes in the right signal to the left one ...

Substituting a know-good bulb is a good step in troubleshooting.

Can I assume that the flasher is not the problem?

Yes. Well, ... probably. The flasher does its 'thing' before the turn signal switch tells the output which way to go, so it's pretty safe to assume that if one side works, the flasher itself is OK.


One last thought. Has this left-front signal ever worked, or is this a resurrection project that you don't know anything about? If this is an unknown project, don't trust ANYTHING that a previous owner might have done. Go back to basics, make sure EVERYTHING is proper. One thing I have mentioned more than once here is the number of contacts in the socket. You have several bikes listed in your signature, but have never identified the bike you are working on. If it's one of the 1100s, it will have the running lights (with two contacts in the socket), but a previous owner might have changed it to a single-socket base.

This is all just a caution to inspect EVERY detail. Most will be easily recognized, even if you don't like electrical stuff.

.

[rphillips]

I think all your listed bikes should have running lights, dual element, on the front. You never mentioned, but if working properly the dim filament, in the bulb, will come on when ign. is turned on, bright filament will come on with turn signal switch. Like said before, the flasher won't flash with the dim filament, not enough current draw.

[1948man]

Thanks for all the help. The short version, now, is the left turn signal started working with the connectors mated as shown in the 1100gl wiring diagram. I don't know what the difference was between this time and the score of other times I had them mated like that. I do know that when I had the Vetter, the left turn signal would sometimes do that until I had driven the bike awhile. Seems like weak voltage to the black female socket.

The weird thing is the series of things I tried before the success.
I swapped light bulbs with no effect.
I switched the right signal male wire into the left female and vice-versa for the left signal wire. This caused the right front signal to blink with the left rear signal when I activitated the left switch at the handlebar, which I guess makes sense.
With this configuration, when I activated the right turn signal nothing happened. Running lights worked thru all of these steps.
When I gave up and returned to the stock configuration preparing to forget things until tomorrow, things worked like they should. I'm not sure they'll do so consistently but at least I know the flasher's okay and the wiring is right.

Sorry, I had another thread on the flasher ground and was thinking I had included all the info from that thread on this one.

https://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?258498-Front-Turn-Signal-Ground