Turn signals

Well I believe I read all of the forums related to the turn signals but I am still lost. The PO had layed the bike down hard on both sides and of course we all know what goes first. he removed all the signals before I got it. I baught a set on ebay and I hooked them up. they dont work. I have a new battery, also a 3 amp charger hooked to the battery.so I should have good voltage. turn on the right signal there is a click and nothing comes onunhook the front or back and the hooked up light will come on solid.
The left is the same way except you have to switch the switch from right to left quickly. so my question is what is the proper operation of the system?

 

Tebo,
i just spent quite awhile writing a long response but lost it when I walked away from my PC here at work so I'll keep it alittle more basic this time.

The flasher units in order to work meed to complete a complete circuit. this cannot happen if things aren't right

Make sure ALL of your bulbs are good and the proper wattage. If the they aren't drawing enough power they will not work properly.

Make sure all the wires are going to where they need to be. You may have crossed some up while rewiring new lights. If this happens it may be grounding out somewhere.

As you turn on the flasher at the grip power is sent to the flasher unit; a switch of sorts, then out to the bulbs. As the power is past through the flasher unit a lead inside there heats up and pulls away from the contact thus cutting power to the bulb. As the lead cools down it then makes contact again and turns the power on to the bulb. this then cycles till the flasher is turned off.

If there isn't enough power getting to the flasher unit it will not break the contact. Also if there is not enough drain from the bulb the resistance may be too low to break the contact.

So, check all the bulbs then if you have a multi tester ring out all the wires out to your bulbs and look for grounding problems.

I had the same thing that took me about 3 hours to figure out. Get out your wiring diagram and systematically eliminate each possible problem.

Good luck and have patients

Also I found a great way to reserect stiff switches. I mess with vintage audio gear and use "tuner cleaner" with lubricant to get rid of pops and scratchyness from dials and swicthes. The same stuff you can get from RadioShack works reat on all the contacts in the switches and buttons on your handle bars.

 

G.B.,
Good call on the tuner cleaner, that stuff works very well.

 

I love the control cleaner and lubricant (formerly TV tuner cleaner). It has a light oil in it. I wonder if the oil could collect dust and gum the switch back up. I suppose you could just squirt it in again........

There is another product, contact cleaner, that does not have the lubricant. Very powerful stuff and is great for heavy corrosion, but I'd be careful what I put it on. Does a great job cleaning up corroded trailer connectors on the cage.

Two tools that should be on every workbench.

Brought to you by the RadioShack guy.

 

In my experiance with vintage audio gear I find that contact cleaner should be used for just that - contact surfaces. Stay away from your plastic parts be cause it can cause weakness. I will sometimes clean the contacts with contact cleaner and a swab then apply the lub to prevent or slow a recurrance of corrosion.

As far as the lubricant goes, it is formulated NOT to gunk up as WD40 and other similar products will. No matter what you use for a lubricant it will attract dust but the tuner cleaner's lubricant will break down slowly over time as to not present the gunk factor.

The stuff ain't cheap but it works wonders.

 

All you need to do is replace ALL the Bulbs with new ones. When a Turn Signal Light comes on and stays lighted ... the same-side Bulb is usually got a bad contact or is burned-out.

I'm still reeling from how he managed to lay it down on BOTH sides.

Sorta reminded me of a scene from the that Summer -- John Travolta Flick "Wild Hogs"

"He don't need to work on his 'Wave to other bikers' thing ... He need to work on that 'Riding a Motorcycle' thing"

 

I had some problems with my blinkers recently, first I had to replace the front ones, one was broke, then I broke another, put in a wrong bulb so it stayed on. I was still having trouble with it not working consistenly. I traced the wires and the connector underneath the gas tank just needed to be cleaned. Try to check them one at a time, might help. Forgot the stuff you can put on the electrical connectors to help that problem.

 

He never explained if it was at the same time but the right side got the oil pump cover about thru dent in the tank right side handlebar bent to a 80 degree angle knob on the brake lever snaped off dented outside head pipe muffler snaped in 2 grab handle broke. as for the left side clutch perch broke lever snaped off handle bar at a 70 degree angle pick up coverroad rashed all the way thru. outside head pipe almost mashed shut. and all 4 foot pegs bent. so I have been busy with it The dent in the tank is my project after the turn signals.
Iread that there is a distance unit in the speedo to cancel them? I know I am going to have to be a surgen again to clean the switch properly. but doing the carbs should make it a piece of cake. wish me luck and thanks guys.

 

And also the lights I got was a set of 4 brand new said to fit the xj but they woulnt mount up so I have comming originals on the way.

 

Awww come on man! Turn signals are the eaiest thing to make work on a bike! Plus the factory lights are HUGE on these bikes, yuck!

 

It would seem that way, though mine are still having trouble as well. Same problem.

When the lights come on and stay on, the Haynes manual says that the first suspect should be the flasher relay (mounted under the coils near the front of the bike). Rick makes a good point, though, that even a good (STOCK) relay may not function properly if the bulbs draw the wrong amount of current.

Therefore, to me, the troubleshooting procedure should be as follows:

1) Check that all four bulbs have the proper rating (Watts). If not, either replace them OR replace the relay with an electronic relay (which doesn't care about the power draw on the switched circuit).

2) Make sure the battery is charged. The lights pull quite a bit of power and will drain the battery surprisingly quickly, and the flashers won't work properly on a low battery. Charge the batt or start the bike (assumes there's nothing wrong with your voltage regulator).

3) Disconnect the self-cancelling unit. Also mounted under the tank, closer to the seat. If disconnecting the self-cancelling unit fixes the problem, replace it or run without it. Some like it. Others don't. I have a couple of them I need to test out, so I may have one you can have REAL CHEAP before too long.

4) Remove the blinkers and connect them directly to the battery and make sure they light. Some are grounded through a lead; some are grounded through the chassis. This will be important later. If they don't light, replace bulbs, replace wiring, replace flasher assembly, whatever. If it doesn't work attached to the battery, it sure isn't going to work with other stuff!

5) Re-attach blinkers, taking care to wire them correctly! Right side "on" wire should go into the GREEN lead (think "starboard"). Left side "on" wire should go into the DARK BROWN lead. In the back, those are the only options. In the front there is also a "running light" lead that is LIGHT BROWN. The easy way to tell the difference is that the LIGHT BROWN lead has TWO CONNECTORS (one for each flasher). The DARK BROWN wire will only have a connector for one wire.

In the back, I found a two-connector BLACK lead that I discovered is a ground. You may or may not need this, depending upon what sort of blinkers you attached, but there is no "running light" lead in back, so don't look for it. The front flashers I have ground through the chassis, and I haven't found any other way to do it.

(The above description assumes a stock, non-PO-messed-with wiring harness. YMMV.)

6) Check continuity. If you don't have a wiring diagram, get one. Also, you need to disconnect the battery to check continuity, as it will give you a false positive under certain circumstances.

7) Fuses. There is, after all, a fuse for the flashers. If you didn't check it in step 4 (and you haven't already done something silly like bypassing it), now's the time. If you haven't already replaced the stock fuse box with a blade-type unit, chacal has those for fairly cheap as well (like $20 for the whole bit). Highly recommended.

8) Replace the flasher relay. Chacal has stock flasher relays for $9, or you can go with an after market electronic one, possibly even cheaper. I'm going to go for the stock one (that's just how I roll). Again, YMMV.

If you get here, you have a strange and bizarre problem that might attract a nearby XJ forum member to visit your garage just to see it! I sure would. Actually, if you get here, I would suspect things like wire splices that changed the colors of the leads or a mismatched flasher relay or some such bogus thing that has lead you to believe something is fine when it isn't. At any rate, if you're down to here, you should just get another pair of eyes to look at it. Never assume that you, yourself, are infallible. All too often, this is where a buddy of mine walks in and says something like, "Why isn't your battery connected?" or "It works better with the keys in it." DOH!

Edit: Updated the list, since I actually got MY blinkers working...

 

Well said Rhys!

 

Seasonal problems:

When it's closer to Christmas Tree than it is Sun Block; that Battery might just be too tired to participate with the Amperage needed to run the whole shaa-bang.

Voltage isn't as important as Amperage. Just because you can get the lights to come-on doesn't necessarily mean there's enough bottom in that Battery to energize the whole system.

Particularly if the Battery isn't capable of multiple starting attempts without being drained of its limited capacity to store energy in the cold weather.

 

All you need to fix almost any electrical issue can be found here:

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/7795/

Bookmark it, then print it out, then memorize it.

I suggest printing it out because it's liable to disappear from the web at any time!

 

Hey Chacal,

Just wanted to share that the above link to is no longer an active site.

 

Yes, it is dead, but you can still find it here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20071214...ies.com/MotorCity/Speedway/7795/xjfaqbig.html