Quick easy im sure question. thanks

so i bought a new pair of two wire turn signals for the rear. they are led and when i turn them on they just stay on, not flash. is it solvable or do i need to put oem back on?

 

LED signal lights won't work with the stock flasher relay. The relay needs the current draw from the bulbs to work.
Options are:
1)Install a electronic flasher. They are available at most auto parts stores. You will loose the auto cancel function unless you modify it. There are several "how too" articles here just search for them.
2) Install a resitsor in sereies to gain the load back. Then the stock flasher will work.
3) put the old lights back on if you don't want to modify the other things.

 

I've found that just using LED signals on the rear of the bike, with stock signals in the front, the LEDs flash just right using an electronic flasher. There is just enough load in the front signals to trigger the flashing unit to get the LEDs to flash and work properly.

 

i read somewhere that the manufacture of the LEDs can supply a part that will solve this problem.

Call them up and see what they say.

 

Yes, it's called a "load equalizer" to make up for not running with standard filiment bulbs. It gives the LEDs enough resistance so it will trigger the signal unit to blink. It's also possible to make your own with resistors from Radio Shack that does the same thing.

 

Another thing I noticed when I switched out my lights is... they will not flash at low rpm's. Don't know why but I started the bike and got the rpm's up a bit and they would start to flash. Other than that they just stayed lit.

Rob

 

2) Load resistors go in parallel not series. Putting them in series will make it worse due to the even lower current draw.

 

[quote="darkfibre]Load resistors go in parallel not series. Putting them in series will make it worse due to the even lower current draw.[/quote]
I'm sorry but that isn't so. The load resistor will be wired in series. To parallel the LED with a resistor would allow unrestricted 12V at the tender PN junction and burn it out in the blink of an eye.
Not the desired outcome.

 

I'm not talking about a Bare LED which needs a biasing resistor to work with 12 volts, I am talking about a LED motorcycle indicator as bought on Ebay.
These are set up for 12 volts out of the box. They flash to fast (or don't flash at all) because the consume very little current. The resistors are put in parallel to increase total current draw so that a standard flasher unit will work.

 

Thank you for the clearification, I hope I wasn't the only one who got confused.