unpredictable turn signals

[rgierer]

I tok my 1100G out yesterday. The first significant ride since the trip to Robbinsville the first of June.

In the beginning all was well. About 3 hours into the ride I turned on a blinker and had no blink. The light came on in the dash and stayed on. I assumed a bad bulb, so I tried the one going the other direction. Same thing. I have confirmed the lights in the turn signals are on when the light in the dash is on.

A bit later I tried them again and they worked, although they blinked they were 2X's there normal rate. I stopped for gas and checked some wiring and things seems to be working.

I headed on and found they didn't work at lower RPM but would at higher speeds. So I thought maybe my batterry wasn't charging properly. As I rolled into home I was sitting at a 4 way light for a while and the turn signals worked consisitently (albeit a little on the frantic side)

I got home and cleaned up more wiring, trying to ward off the dodgy connector. I also checked my batt which read 13 volts. So I am ruling out low charge.

Any ideas folks?

[hotspur]

Are the bulbs the correct wattage.?

[rgierer]

Yes I am confident bulbs are correct wattage. They are same bulbs that have been in this bike for the last year.

Thanks

[Redman]

Robin,

Do not have a complete "this-is-exactly-your-problem" answer but can offer these comments:
- t/signals going slow can be an indication of low voltage, especially if both directions do it. But you seem aware of that. You mentioned it happening at low rpm but not at high rpm, which seems consitent with marginal charging system capacity. You said battery voltage was okay at end of trip, but maybe charging is marginal, has problems keeping up at low rpm, but if run at high rpm enough then it can slowly catch up.
- t/signal going fast can be an indication of too high a voltage due to R/R failure or marginal ground on R/R. THe R/R failure is not likley to be an intermittent problem, but the marginal ground on the R/R could be. This is one of the reasons for adding a seperate ground wire from the R/R ground directly to batt negitive (so not relying on the bateryy box being grounded).
- t/signals going too fast could occure if wrong bulbs that draw too much current are installed. But that is not going to be intermittent at all.
- I have heard of bulbs having some internal problem other than the filiment burning out, that causes them to draw way to much currenet to cause probelm with the flasher unit, but not enough to blow fuse. But that is boing to be one bulb one rare occcasion and not cause problem on both sides.
- And I have heard that sometimes that as a bulb is nearly burnt out it can draw lots more current as it is burning out, the last few minutes of its hours of expected life, so makes the flasher flash faster as the bulb is burning out, then flash slower or not flash after the bulb does burn out. But again, that would just be on one side.

I would say to suspect problem with charging system, and to check out charging sytem more than just checking battery voltage.

PS, was good to chat with you there at BC this year and 3 years ago.

[Guest]

I agree that your R/R is failing or you need to add a ground. Get a multi meter and do the Sator papers

[ta473]

blinkers

On my 82 gs1100 i just unpluged the automatic cancel unit and they work fine now i just need to remember to shut then off.

[Guest]

The no blink, slow blink and the fast blink point to voltage surges which to me points to the R/R. Also a battery that is boiled out.

[RJ]

That's exactly what was going on with my '82 1100E. I disconnected the self canceling box and all was well. However now you have 2 detents for each direction you want to turn. It's a pain to try and center the switch while you're riding. I solved that problem with a push to cancel setup off of a '92 GSXR. The wiring is pretty easy to work out without hacking into the main wiring harness, and they it is SO much easier to use than the GS switch. You'll also lose about 10lbs of wiring when you ditch your self canceling setup.

[rgierer]

a couple things

Tested voltage to the battery. At idle 12.74 at 5000rpm 14.15. I gotta say I am not incline to swap out the r/r. I do have a replacement self cancelling device in KC. I will be up there next week and bring it home and see if it is the culprit. FYI, I have the secondary ground on the R/R.

These suggestions were the first thing that came to mind and are are consistent with my past experience. This one is just a little different. The first thing I did was go through my connections and check the grounds.

Thanks for your kind thoughts and Redman, the pleasure was all mine.

[catfishk]

thanks for the swap tip RJ! i have been wondering about that switch for a while, as it is a pain to center riding