How are these supposed to work? There are two positions each side of center.
All good information, so far, but I will answer your question as asked.
Arbitrarily number the positions 1 to 5, from left to right.
#1 will turn on the LEFT signal, and the switch is spring-loaded to go to #2
#2 will keep the LEFT signal on (but only after it was started in position #1) until the control unit turns it off or you move it to #3.
#3 is the manual cancel position.
#4 is like #2, but for the RIGHT side.
#5 is like #1, but for the RIGHT side, and is spring-loaded to return to #4.
BonanzaDave gave some particulars, but in English equivalents. Since the bike was designed in Metric, the values are 10 seconds and 15 km/hr. Supposedly, when you activate the system by moving the control lever to either position 1 or 5, the control unit will turn on the flasher relay (using the third terminal). When the control unit sees that the bike has traveled faster than 15 km/hr (9.3 mph) for 10 seconds, it turns off the flasher relay, but does not move the control lever. This is why, after a LEFT turn, the lever is still in position #2, and if you want to signal a RIGHT turn, you have to move the lever to the right three 'notches'. If you had wanted to signal another LEFT turn, however, you would only have to push it to the spring-loaded #1 position (again).
Many of the guys who say they don't like them mainly complain that they turn off too soon. Easy to fix, hit the button again. You don't even have to wait for them to stop automatically, just hit the button, the timing cycle re-starts. I like to signal a bit longer than the control unit will keep them on, especially for a LEFT turn. I will signal before I move to the left turn lane, then re-start the LEFT signal before I come to a stop at the light. After I go around the turn, about the time I get into second gear, the signals are OFF. Oh, and this short timing cycle is not exclusive to Suzuki, I do it all the time on my Wing, too. Slightly different parameters that turn off the signals, but similar concept.
Another thought, that "third terminal" on the flasher relay is what makes them so "special". They are NOT anything at all like ANY flasher you are likely to find at Auto Zone. Even the three-terminal flashers that you
can find are not even wired the same, so you have to watch out for them. Some of the three-pin flashers have the flasher relay on adjacent (perpendicular) terminals and the third terminal is a ground. Others will have the flasher relay on opposite (parallel) terminals and the center one is a ground. OUR flashers don't have a ground, that third terminal receives a signal from the control unit and turns the flasher relay on and off for the auto-cancel.
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