flasher relay woes

650Skull said:
If You don't want to listen to all of these people trying to help:banghead:, i suggest you get your friend to look at it and stop wasting all these good peoples time :wtf: and go and find a site that doesn't try to help:laugh:
Click to expand...

you remind me of someone Skull........oh its me !:doh:

Zero tolerance and a short fuse ..:D:laugh:
 
A simple wiring diagram might help me to follow this - as I see: it power to flasher, flasher to switch, switch to signals (front two linked, and both earthed, then separately connected to same side rear, they are both grounded, too) job done?

Please let it be so!

Anlaf
 
fuse box using a 10 amp fuse brown wire into flasher,out from flasher with brown and white wire to switch, out of switch for right side using dark green wire front and back and indicator light, out of switch for left side using dark brown wire front and back and indicator light, all bulbs have to be grounded
 
of course it was something simple.
i took the handlebar switch apart,this one off a suzuki to trace the wires and see what goes where.
turn signal circuit is light blue/light green/black-3 wires.
well...i was trying to use the black as feed when the blue is actually feed.
here's the bike.work in progress but it was up/running then i decided to rebuild the wiring for a more
road worthy set-up. bunch of homemade shit mostly...
IMG_0222ss.jpg
 
First time posting and I feel like this is the best place to ask for help with a somewhat similar problem, I'm at my whits end with this wiring!

So, I have a burgundy 1978 XS650 Special, I have decided to strip it down, clean it up and make a brat style bike. Everything worked before the strip. I took all the components off to paint the frame and have connected everything again.

However, the indicators don't work! The bulbs work when I power them with a wire and battery but when it's hooked up with the handle bars they don't work! I have power coming to the brown White wire from the brand new relay. I have indicators grounded then run from positive to green (rear indicator) and handlebar green and same for left brown. It just doesn't work. So all is connected but I can't make sense of the situation.

Since I did paint, I thought I painted over the parts that hold the bar, which messes with the ground. when I sanded them down the horn was louder but the indicators didn't come in

What could it be?
 
Hi Aussi, I don't know your specific wiring diagram but here's a few things to look at, there are others who are more knowledgeable than I on here to....

1/ Battery, fully juiced and powerd up
2/ Indicator relay, swap it out with another
3/ the terminals (relay) can be corroded, clean and retry
4/ Earth, its essential for this to work check for continuity
5/ Switch, pull apart and see if there is power there, is the mechanism is functional ?

I'll have a look at the wiring diagram too, but later tonight

Cheers Mick
 
Cheers for the help Mick!

1, fully juiced

2, got a new one, will try new and old one

3 i haven't cleaned all the plugs but they were workin before the build, I will give that a try tomorrow (10pm in Aus)

4 continuity all round

5, I have pulled Apart the switch and the middle cable (power cable) came off the switch from the solder. I then soldered it back on and nothing. I then pulled the solder off to directly touch the two wires for the indicators brown/white to green, then brown/white to brown, to no avail.

However, when I touch the brown/white to the green, I check for continuity and it beeps, great! But when I check for volts there is 0! So it means there is no power running through it, but continuity tells me it connected. Bloody hell!?!??

This ever happened or know of a solution?
 
Welcome to the forum ;)
it would help if you were a litle clearer in your description as it is a bit ambiguous in places.

When you say that you connect the brown/white wire to the dark green wire I take it you mean within the switch yes ?

The dark green wire in the switch feeds the pulsed 12v+ from the relay, (brown/white wire) to the signal bulbs .The other side of the bulbs are grounded .

How exactly are you checking the continuity ?? you will not see a constant 12v+ supply on the brown/white wire at the switch because the relay should be pulsing the live feed

I would start by testing one side of the bikes signals ..... say the left side (dark green wire).
Remove one of the signal bulbs either front or rear so that it is not part of the test.
Verify that the remaining bulb works.
Then check continuity from the body of the bulb/holder to the frame of the bike to confirm that the bulb is grounded.
Then check continuity from the 12v+ end of the bulb (dark green wire) to the other end of the dark green wire in the signal switch.
If you still have continuity then repeat the test with the other bulb .

If all is well you have eliminated everything from the switch onwards for the left side signals.

If you repeat this process with the right side signals (Chocolate wire) then you know that the problem lies with the signal switch or before that.

this thread may help

http://www.xs650.com/threads/flasher-fault-troubleshoot-flowchart.42200/
xs650 flasher flowchart.jpg
 
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The turn signals require a large amount of current in order to flash. To get this current you need a high enough voltage. If your battery only has lets say 12.0 to 12. 4 volts, that is not enough voltage to make the flasher unit flash the signals. You actually need around 13 or more volts to make the stock flasher unit work. If only around 12 volts, the signal bulbs may come on solid, but not flash. The need for the 13 volts can be eliminated, if you use a flasher unit such as a Tridon HD12. It will flash reliably with the voltage down into the 11 volt range.

You must have a good ground at each of the 4 bulb sockets. Use you ohmmeter to measure resistance from each bulb socket to the battery negative terminal. It must read less than 1 ohm in order for the flashers to work.
 
PEANUT - that troubleshooting chart is excellent! Thanks for sharing - I'm printing that puppy,out and it will hang on the wall in Disaster Central (aka my workshop).

AUSSIE: I had A LOT of trouble with turn signals on my '76 XS650C when I first got it, but once I had a new harness and a new set of RH & LH handlebar switches on the bike, it all boiled down to the connections inside the headlight bucket (for some reason, the rear connections were good for the most part):
- each turn signal stalk MUST have a good ground (clean, no rust, no paint);
- each stalk MUST have a good power wire (the one that runs up the centre of the stalk through the little drilled-out hollow stud which is secured by a nut to either the rear frame or the inside of the headlight bucket).

Now, on my bike (a '76 C model), I found that at least two of the turn signals had power wires with small cuts in the insulation just as the wire entered the little hollow stud - and these breaks in the insulation caused short circuits which prevented the signals from blinking. Also, at least one or two stalks had intermitent grounds caused by crap under the big washer (the one that had the wire crimped onto it). Finally, I went through all of the bullet connectors on the entire bike - particularly those inside the headlight bucket - and most of them were either loose, corroded or outright broken.

That is when I bought a new harness and a bunch of new bullet connectors - male and female - and used them liberally throughout the bike. Now, all is well - touch wood.
 
BTW - none of the work I did was all that expensive (the switches are around $55 CDN each, the wiring harness is about $75 I think and the bullet connectors are pennies each). The electrical bits I got from MikesXS / XSDirect (CDN version of Mikes) are all quite nice parts and look exactly like the OEM components, but most importantly, they WORK!!!

Riding a 40 year old motorcycle is fun, but in my experience, the fun diminishes rapidly if you are repeatedly stranded on a lonely road....at night....in the rain....with a lady on the back....or trying to get to a church meeting or perhaps to a friendly game of cards with you buddies.

That is why I chose a Yamaha as my vertical twin....instead of one of the many fine offerings from....other nations.
 
That chart is bang on, I need one of them for every aspect of the bike! Would be great for Carbs I recon. The wiring has been the Bain of my Existence, so thank you guys for helping! As my articulation in the written format isn't as great as my sweet serenading voice, I decided to make a video (see link). I essentially worked out the problem! I tested all the components seperately and cleaned them and everything works.........Individually. I changed the switch to a toggle which works, the bulbs work, the new flasher relay works, the grounds work. I was confused so I set up the wiring of all components off the bike with new wiring and everything worked in unison, as u can see in the video! So the issue is with the wiring inside the harness, it's either from the battery to the fuse or the fuse to the flasher relay, I'm not sure but either way it's connected but not strong enough to put enough current through. So both have to go!

What would you guys recommend as the next steps?

You just know when your riding something that is 40 years old that the wiring is going to be on its way out very soon

Max Pete, Have you got a link to some harness's that you have used or recommend? Is it Easy to build a hardness? or should I just swap this section out with some diy job?

Ps. The video is taking ages to upload I'll put it up tomorrow morning.
 
excellent job aussiXS thats the easy way to tackle a problem like this.
If I were you I'd be looking for an LED solution as the original signal flasher system is a helluva drain on the battery.
 
Hi Aussie: well, you could make a wiring harness ("loom" in Oz isn't it?) but that seems like an unnecessarily complex way of dealing the issue given that you can buy a fitted replacement with all the correct coloured wires and connectors for well under $100 USD.

Other folks may have a better suggestion but I bought my new harness from an outfit here in Canada called XS650 Direct and it was a good purchase. I just checked their site and a '78 wiring harness is listed as P/N 24-6576 at a price of $79.98 CAD. There is a US version of XSDirect called MikesXS and they sell essentially the same parts in USD.

NOTE: they list different P/N for each year of bike - so be certain you know what you've got before ordering.

Pete
 
I have just gone through all of the XSDirect and mentally spent $2.5K, I would love so much of that stuf.! You are right tho, it has to be done.

Good shout on Geoffs, I just called him and he isn't too far away from me. I will pop by the weekend and see what he has, he does have some harnesses but not 100% sure if he has the right one. He said he focus's more on engines, rather than electrics and carbs.

Here is the link of the video I was talking about.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8mD85jqvz-oanRadVBMeVpXUlE

On to the next issue, the broken rectifier! Any ideas on how to make one in Aus? We don't have those Crysler regulator/rectifers.
 

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