Hi

A recent issue has popped up on my bike, I converted my front turn signals to LED's a few months ago (long story for the reason, it involved a curb and learning how to ride). I havent had issues until this past week. My indicator (on the cluster and on the actual indicator) will not flash except under certain conditions:

1) I have the bike above 2000 rpm

2) it will not indicate a right hand signal (even when manually held)

3) I have to hold the turn signal to the left to get a strong signal (right doesnt work)

My friend who sold me the bike told me the simple solution is dielectric grease in the indicator switch, somehow I doubt that's the whole reason why this is failing. I suspected it might be my fault because I'm using an LED and an incandescent on one side. Perhaps there isnt enough voltage to activate the LED and the feedback voltage wont allow the signal to turn on consistently? I was also worried about my alternator dying although the bike hasnt died in a week of daily riding. And the last possible issue would be that the relay has quit working where the signal voltage isnt kicking off the power circuit or isnt receiving enough voltage to trip the relay so it stays on consistently.

Thanks for any information!

 

It does sound like it is the switch on the handlebar that is the problem. Could rip it apart and manually connect wires to see if it works then

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try

 

I doubt it is the switch (unless you filled it with mud recently). I would guess that the combo of LED and incandescent isn't working right.... what you said about not enough voltage to engage the incandescent or the flasher relay would be my guess. grab the LED from the right and put it on the back left so the left side is both LEDs... then you will hopefully get the signals flashing (though it will be at an increased rate) but you will know if the problem is a combo of LED/incandescent.

 

I've had similar experiences, after installing LED indicators, as well as an LED-relay (that supposedly runs both incandescent and LED's in combo).

Cutting a long story short, it finally worked because it all came down to:

(1) Keeping the overall resistance of each loop circuit the same - I define a "loop" as the connection powering one indicator set on each corner of the bike ie. right rear. I found as long as the overall resistance of the loop I was working on (in this case, right rear, and then another loop at the left rear) was around 1-2 ohms (I measured it with a multimeter) - I can use the original relay on the bike (that wasn't LED capable). My end result setup on each rear loop was actually TWO incandescent indicators (they weren't very big, one off the number plate, the other drilled into the licence plate side) plus one LED (just to cover the original mount spot of the old elephant ear indicators). I found that connecting an LED indicator in parallel to the existing incandescent indicator did not change the overall resistance of the loop much at all, probably because the high resistance / low current of the LED does not change the loop overall resistance if hooked up in parallel and not serial (based on my basic recollection of high school / college physics ...)

(ii) Taking apart the indicator switch and cleaning it with electrical solvent, then (lightly) silicon spraying it before re-installing - yes, the cleanliness of the indicator switch DOES matter - I could not believe this was originally the main problem that caused my indicators to take ages to fire up (sometimes 3 secs) or not holding its signal.

So, my breakthrough was simple two fold - a clean indicator switch, and a loop resistance close to the original values.

Hope I've helped.

 

Thanks for all the input, so I did the free thing and cleaned out the indicator switch, turns out the last guy who had it filled it with dielectric grease and it had collected tons of other gunk, a spray with wd 40 to loosen it then an air can and let it dry fixed it all up.

Although not all the LED's are lighting up in one of my turn signals which is probably a voltage issue (plus the 2 front LED's dont match brands which is probably the main reason). But as for now it's road legal again and I dont have to use my left hand anymore which is nice. I will definitely take a look at the voltage issue though because that would indicate why some of the LED's arnt lighting up. Thanks again for all the help!

 

Great to hear mate, great to hear.

Yeah LED's being so cheap on ebay, worth getting a set of four decent ones and getting them over and done with.

Also, just my opinion, but I find the incandescent signals are still the way to go during the day as many of the 3rd party LED ones simply get washed up in the sunlight .... I ended up installing these incandescent ones - they're quite small, but bright ...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/2-Pc-Oval-Amb...item2c56e7fb14

Being incandescent, it made life a lot easier too when it came to getting the turn relay to work properly ...

All the best in cleaning it all up!

 

Was it hard to take the switch appart? Mine is doing the same thing and I already dont have front signals and the rear are LED but that hasn't caused an issue before.

 

As with most things, just be firm but gentle (paradox?) with the small parts inside - make sure you take a mental note (or better still take a digital photo) of the innards before you take it apart so everything can go back in the right way - you'll eventually work out most bits go back where anyway, since the thing won't work if bits are forced back in the wrong way! Parts laid out on a white piece of paper or cloth help.

Otherwise, it's easy to open up (screws front and back, I recall) and very easy to clean - I prefer electrical spray to clean, and silicon to lubricate.

 

Thanks. I took mine apart and it's still not working so I guess I gotta get a new one.