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No Turn Signals - None!

  • Thread starter Thread starter WingMan71
  • Start date Start date
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WingMan71

Guest
I'm still in the middle of my '83 GS650GL restoration and I'm finally on the electrical stuff.

Got a brand new fully-charged battery in it. I've got headlights (hi and lo beam), and I've got brake lights. But NO turn signal lights at all. Zilch!

Last night I completely disassembled the left handlebar switch down to the last spring and ball inside each individual switch, and cleaned and lubed them, and hit the contacts with DeoxIt contact cleaner. Contacts actually looked pretty clean when I opened up the switch. Bike's wiring is actually in pretty good shape throughout.

I put it all back together and still no turn signals. Fuse is good.

So, what do I check next. Bulbs "look" good, but maybe not. Bulb sockets are clean. I don't think it could be the flasher unit, since the lights don't come on at all.

What is the protocol here, does just one bad bulb equal no turn signals on the whole bike, or just no turn signals on that particular side of the bike?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
take the flasher out and jumper the two terminals. if the lites lite then flasher is bad. the flasher is nothing more than a circuit breaker. and YES if the lites don't lite up, the flasher can be bad.....easy peasy quick check
 
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barnbiketom said:
take the flasher out and jumper the two terminals. if the lites work then flasher is bad. the flasher is nothing more than a circuit breaker. and YES if the lites don't lite up, the flasher can be bad.....easy peasy quick check
Click to expand...

Tom,

You don't happen to know where the flasher unit is located on a GS650GL do you? (Not at home at the moment.)

Hanging off the side of the battery box perhaps?

Thanks for the help!
 
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The flasher will be in one of three places.
1. right side of battery or airbox
2. front of battery box, towards left side
3. somewhere else that was a bit more 'convenient' for a previous owner. :-\\\

I am leaning toward #2, but the flasher on my son's bike is NOT in the stock location, so I can't say for sure where it is supposed to be.

.
 
I have the exact same bike (mine's 82) and I can't remember where it is. maybe later I can get to it and see but another member may recall better than I but it is somewhere under the seat/LH cover..?? sorry i'm old HEHEHEH
 
This happened to me on my 850. Cleaning all of the connectors in the wiring harness is what fixed it.

Does your bike have a turn signal control unit? These don't often go bad, but it has been known to happen.
 
eil said:
This happened to me on my 850. Cleaning all of the connectors in the wiring harness is what fixed it.

Does your bike have a turn signal control unit? These don't often go bad, but it has been known to happen.
Click to expand...

Charles,

The wiring diagram for my bike shows a "turn signal relay", which I think is what most people call the turn signal "flasher unit".

I'm gonna check that tonight when I get home.

On your advice, I'll find all the wiring harness connectors I can find, disconnect them and hit them with some contact cleaner.

Thanks.
 
I STILL CAN'T FIND THE DARN FLASHER UNIT! :confused:

I have a factory service manual for an '82 GS650, that shows the flasher unit is mounted on the bottom left-hand side of the battery box.

Nothing at that spot on my '83 GS650GL. In fact, there is no room for anything to be mounted there on my bike. The frame and the battery box are in the way.

Can anybody tell me just exactly where the flasher unit is located on an '83 GS650GL?

Can't fix it if I can't find it! :mad:
 
There's only so many connectors on the bike. Look for the wire colors shown in the diagram.
 
WingMan71 said:
I STILL CAN'T FIND THE DARN FLASHER UNIT! :confused:

I have a factory service manual for an '82 GS650, that shows the flasher unit is mounted on the bottom left-hand side of the battery box.

Nothing at that spot on my '83 GS650GL. In fact, there is no room for anything to be mounted there on my bike. The frame and the battery box are in the way.

Can anybody tell me just exactly where the flasher unit is located on an '83 GS650GL?

Can't fix it if I can't find it! :mad:
Click to expand...

Was it ever there, have you ever had them working? It is only a small box. Have you got a couple of wires hanging or a plug? As dale says, check the colours and trace them.
 
Yeah if they never worked then who knows.. the flasher might be missing? but the plug and wires may be stuffed somewhere..it is left side of bike VERY CLOSE to the rubber boot over the driveshaft..within 1 inch of the top of it.. at least on my bike.
It is attached to the bat box i think. no self canceling so only TWO WIRE connector, one wire BLUE and the other blu/red i think, (kinda color blind dammit)
here's a pic:
 
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tatu said:
Was it ever there, have you ever had them working? It is only a small box. Have you got a couple of wires hanging or a plug? As dale says, check the colours and trace them.
Click to expand...

It's certainly possible that it's not there. I have never had them working before.

I bought the bike out of an estate sale with intent to restore it. It was ridden for ten years from '83 to '93 by its original owner, who stopped riding it and put it in the garage in 1993! He recently died. Thus the estate sale. It was supposedly running when it was put up. It has never run since '93. The restoration is now almost to the point where I can see if the engine runs, but I pinched the oil filter cover o-ring under the cover when I changed the oil, so I'm waiting on a replacement o-ring right now before I can crank her up.

I don't see a connector hanging loose anywhere, but I certainly could have missed one.

Not really that easy to trace wires by their color when they're wrapped up in a wiring harness and you can see them. I'm trying...

Really hoping that somebody with an '82 or '83 GS650GL can tell me where the darn thing should be.

***
 
barnbiketom said:
Yeah if they never worked then who knows.. the flasher might be missing? but the plug and wires may be stuffed somewhere..it is left side of bike VERY CLOSE to the rubber boot over the driveshaft..within 1 inch of the top of it.. at least on my bike.
It is attached to the bat box i think. no self canceling so only TWO WIRE connector, one wire BLUE and the other blu/red i think, (kinda color blind dammit) here's a pic:
Click to expand...

Tom,

THANKS FOR THE PICTURE ! ! !

That thing is NOT there on my bike!

I know that area intimately since I had to replace the shifter shaft seal on my bike (which was a nightmare) and its right behind that drive shaft boot.

Two questions:

How does the flasher mount to the battery box. Is there a strap or a hanger of some kind that holds it in place, or a slot it mounts on? I may be missing that as well.

What color is the two-pin connector? White or what? Might help me find it.

Thanks again for the picture of where this thing SHOULD be! :clap:

Now I have something to work with!
 
it's white at least on mine.. you can see it in the pic on the bottom of the flasher. i got thecolors from BassCliff's site.

ooh it appears it mounts on a rubber strap, of course In the last 50 years, I may have used a few wire ties or similar to re-locate a few things here and there, do what ever is easier, it won't make any difference!
 
barnbiketom said:
it's white at least on mine.. you can see it in the pic on the bottom of the flasher.
ooh it appears it mounts on a rubber strap...
Click to expand...

Thanks again Tom!

Looks like I'll be ordering a flasher unit.

Best price I found on line so far is $44.00. Yikes! :eek:

Oh well, gotta have it...
 
Seems odd that someone would pull flasher. Looking from right side at back of trans, the flasher can be seen about 2 inches above drive boot.
 
MY TURN SIGNALS ARE ALIVE! :)

First, I gotta eat some crow. That darn turn signal flasher was there all the time! Right were barnbiketom's picture showed it was located.

Thanks again Tom for that picture. (Worth a thousand words as they say.)

So, what to do...

I pulled the flasher unit out. NOT easy! You can't even get one hand on it from any direction, only a couple of fingers barely. Did most of the work with a very long needle nose pliers.

I jumpered the connector and moved the turn signal switch side to side. Got turn signal lights on both sides! But no flashing. So, bad flasher unit, you say.

Pulled the guts out of the flasher housing and inspected it. Coil windings good, capacitor looked good (not burned), transistor looked good (not burned). But... the small contacts in the flasher looked to be stuck together. Bike has been sitting since 1993, remember! I tried to move them with a small screwdriver and they would not separate.

Hit them with some DeOxit contact cleaner, which got them separated, and then polished them with a small piece of emery cloth. See pic with emery cloth still stuck between the contacts.

IMG_3521_zps17175639.jpg


Hooked it back up and the turn signals work!!! :D

Thanks everyone for the help, particularly Tom for the picture so I could find the darn thing! Never seen one buried that far into a bike before.

On to the next stage of the restoration...
 
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