turn signal problems

[lrburke]

I am working on a 79 GS850 and when the ignition switch is turned to the first position I get no turn signal activity period when activating the turn signal switch. Neither side does anything. The headlight and tailight work fine. I have checked all 4 bulbs and they are all good. The ignition switch has 4 wires coming from it, red,orange, gray and brown. The red is coming from the battery into the switch. When at the first position should all the other three wires have voltage? On this one the gray and brown wires have continuity but have no voltage. I am thinking this could be the issue but I thought I would summons some expert help. I read pages of past posts about turn signal problems and couldn't really find a similar situation. Thanks

[Steve]

Do you have a manual? If not, go to BassCliff's website and download one.
I think it's for an '80, but it will be similar enough. He also has a wiring diagram for a '79 850.

At the ignition switch, the red wire comes from the battery, gets connected to the orange wire, which then goes back to feed the fuse panel. I don't remember all the wire colors from there, but the top fuse I believe has a gray wire that goes to the headlight and back to the ignition switch, where it gets connected to the brown wire, which goes to the tail light. The tail light is on a separate wire so that when you put the ignition switch in the PARK position, the red wire (battery) is connected to the brown wire (tail light) for your "parking light".

Do your brake lights and horn work? They are powered by the same fuse (second from the top) that powers the turn signals. Just another tool for troubleshooting.

By the way, the third fuse powers the ignition system.

.

[sultan]

I can't answer your question about the voltages on the wires, but I had the *exact* same (or at least, similar) problem on my '83 GS650. If the motor was off, or even at idle, the turn signals just wouldn't work. Occasionally I'd get the turn signal to turn on, but if it would, it never flashed. If I started and rev'd the bike, I'd get working turn signals. I replaced the turn signal relay. Helped slightly, but the problem was still there. I replaced the stator and rectifier, as I read in the forums that these were common problems on these bikes. Still no turn signals. I replaced the battery. Still no turn signals.

On some advice from the forum I decided to go through the whole electrical system and clean it up, the thinking being that a 25 yr old bike probably has a few corroded connections. I bought a small rotary grinding tool with attachments for getting up into the bullet connectors), some high-end electrical cleaning/protecting solvent and started in. If it was electrical and rusted I ground off the rust and got down to bare metal. If it was electrical and tarnished, I polished it to a shine. I made liberal use of the electrical connection solvent. I had time in the first run to get all the wires coming off the battery, the fuse box, and a couple easy-to-get-to quick-disconnects (about an hour). Packing it up I figured I wouldn't see much difference yet. To my amazement, even in with the bike off, the turn signals worked. It turned out to be a high-resistance ground issue, I believe. I keep meaning to go back and do the rest of the bike, but so far there's been no need.

If you haven't already, I'd start with checking your ground connections. Can't guarantee that's the problem, but it certainly was for me..

[lrburke]

Thanks for the reply. according to the diagram the red and orange and the gray and brown should have connection. Inside the headlight bucket their is an extra brown wire with a female connector that connects to nothing. The wiring diagram verifies this. Should this wire be hot when in the first position? Atest light lights up at the turn signal fuse so I know it has 12 volts there. All grounds seem to be good. thanks

[Matchless]

If your bike does not have the original flashers on, but smaller ones that can only take the 10W bulbs you may have a problem. The original flashers have 23W bulbs and the flasher needs to see both on the same side connected to work, if any one is out or not making proper contact (dirty) or there is a broken or unplugged wire it is unlikely that they will flash on that side.