'83 GS650 GLD Turn Signal Problem

[sultan]

I'm a new Suzuki owner (new to motorcycles in general) and not a tech-head, though I have worked on my automobiles quite a bit, so I'm not a complete mechanical newbie. I just purchased my first motorcycle, a 1983 GS650GLD with 21,000 miles.

It had some problems when I purchased it (I probably paid too much) but all I was looking for was a basic starter bike and this seemed to fit the bill. I'll post the rest of the problems separately, but this one is the most annoying.

While the bike is warmed up and idling at about 1,000 rpm, if you turn on either of the turn signals, almost always they will *not* come on at all. If you give the bike a little gas and increase the RPM, the turn signal (both front and back) will come on and work properly. Obviously they're not getting enough electricity, right? I don't have to rev the engine much, even 1200 or 1300 rpm is enough for them to light up and blink properly.

My first thought was the turn signal relay. I went to an auto parts store and bought a replacement that fit. (It was round instead of the square one that same with the bike, but from what I read any 12V relay should work.) The problem persisted.

Shortly after this, I went to start the bike, and to shorten the story a bit, the battery was dead/dying. Not only was it dead, but I discovered that it was totally dry. There wasn't any acid/liquid in it at all. I figured it was toast, and went ahead and bought a new one. (I hadn't checked this since purchasing the bike...like the newbie I am...) After this the bike started and ran just fine, but this didn't fix the flasher problem.

So, reading more I discovered the electrical issues that seem to plague the bike. I figured what the heck, if I can prevent future problems and possibly solve this one, why not? So I replaced both the stator and rectifier with the after-market ones recommended on the GS forums pages: http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_statorfacts.htm
(I found that all of the wires on the rectifier were too short, and had to either extend them, or re-route the wires, but otherwise every thing installed and worked.) Amazingly, after doing all of this the bike still started. (I'm not so confident in my re-assembly skillz, and I'd misplaced my Clymer manual, so I was winging it a bit.) I get around 12V on the battery while the bike is not running and about 13.5V while the bike is idling. I haven't yet performed any other tests on the electrical system.

However, the problem still persists. To summarize, I have:
-replaced the flasher
-gotten a new battery
-replaced the stator
-replaced the rectifier

I have not yet tried:
-replacing any of the bulbs, or switching to LEDs
-replacing any wiring
-testing any thing else.

So, I'm hoping that someone has run across this before and can point this moto newbie in the right direction. Short of increasing the idle speed to the point where the flashers always operate, is there an easy (or difficult) fix for this or any way to test some things to determine where the problem might be?

Thank you so much.

-sultan

[onchiman]

The first thing to do is go through the electrical system and clean each connection and the grounds, especially on the turn signals. I bought a can of electrical contact cleaner called DeOxit from CAIG labs. It worked well, just pulled the connectors apart, sprayed some in and then reassembled. I did this one at a time with each connector. There may be other electrical contact cleaners that work just as well. Ground connections can be cleaned up with sandpaper or emery cloth, even a small wire brush. It'll take most of an afternoon to do it right but in my case it worked wonders, my horn began working without having to have the bike running, the turn signals flashed correctly and everything seemed better.

[Dave8338]

Get a lower resistance flasher unit.

[sultan]

Problem Fixed!

I thought I'd post a follow-up to this in the event that anyone ever views this again. I read onchiman's post, and took his advice. I went to Radio Shack and got some DeOxit (pretty expensive...$20 for two tiny cans) and also got a tiny hand-held mini-grinder/sander. I buffed, cleaned, and deoxit'd the battery connectors, the ground connectors, the fusebox, and a few of the quick-connects. Not only do the turn signals work while idling, they also work while the motor isn't running at all (but the key is on). So, thanks for the advice and the fix!