Blinkers don't blink

[Under Dog]

Anyone know why my blinkers don't blink?

My rears will light up when I hit the switch, but they don't blink. The fronts won't even light up. I checked voltage at the front, and I'm getting about 9 volts. Is that too little to make them light? I'm wondering if I have dirty wire connections somewhere or if there's a blinker box somewhere that needs attention.

Any ideas?

 

[drewpy]

I would say its an earthing problem. check the blinker earth points and clean them

 

[Under Dog]

And where exactly would the blinker earth point be?

I went in behind the headlight to see what was going on, and it was a mess. The previous owner must have worked his "magic" on this bike. I located only one wire going to each blinker. They were unplugged so I plugged them back in, but I'm pretty sure I was only handling the power side. No earth side to be seen. ???

There was, however, one stray ground wire in there that I didn't know what to do with. Instead of a bullet connector, it had a ring connector one it. Now you got me thinking that maybe I should make a second one and put them on the posts of the turn signals???

 

[OliverB]

Each turn signal lamp is grounded where it attaches. Inside the headlight bucket if you look carefully you will see a ground wire under the nut holding the lamp onto the bucket. You will have to remove each lamp and clean the ground. May or may not solve the problem but it is a good, simple procedure with which to start.

The wiring inside the headlight bucket normally looks a mess since there is so much going on in there. That is not to say someone in the past didn't butcher it up some. You may even find stray unconnected wires.

 

[Under Dog]

Negative Oliver. Even looking carefully, I have no ground wires under the nuts holding the signals to my headlight shell. There was, however, one wire in the headlight shell that had a ring terminal on it, currently not connected to anything.

I'll go back in there and reconnect the currently disconnected ring terminal to one of the blinkers and give that a try. If it works, then I'll make a replacement for the missing ring terminal wire and run that to the other blinker. Maybe that'll fix it.

Thanks!

 

[Under Dog]

Allright you two...

I went back behind the headlight and into that rat's nest of wiring. Took the ONE black wire ring terminal that I have and hooked it on the post for the turn signal. What do you know, ONE blinker now lights. I'll have to manufacture another ground/earth wire with the proper terminals for the other light, but that's finally sorted out!

That left two unaccounted for wires in the headlight shell... then I remembered the front brake wasn't installed on the bike when I got it. Took at look at it and sure enough... it matches the two unconnected wires inside the headlight shell.

Well on it's way! Thanks!

 

[drewpy]

well there we go, nice when it all works out

 

[OliverB]

Glad to hear we could be of help.