Need help with turn signals.

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cmyoch

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I posted this on the NGW site as well. I am mounting my Windjammer V fairing. For some reason, I lost my right side signals. The relay clicks on the left side with and without the signal connected. I get no click from the relay on the right side. I also connected my charger to ensure enough load for the relay. Everything is disconnected in the headlight bucket for the signals. Am I missing something here?
 
Everything stock? No LED turn signals?

If the Windjammer wiring is disconnected, do the rear turn signals work?
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=214276#p214276:4aqdwdr0 said:
saganaga » Today, 2:13 am[/url]":4aqdwdr0]
Did the rear right turn signal ever work? If not, I have a theory...

Yes, everything worked perfectly prior to removing the front signals to mount the fairing.
 
Just for reference, was this Windjammer V installed and operating correctly before, been removed and reinstalled and now does not work?

I had a Windjammer V. If the filament in one bulb fails, the whole side stops working front and back.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=214280#p214280:1nz5b5ci said:
mcgovern61 » Today, 7:11 am[/url]":1nz5b5ci]
Just for reference, was this Windjammer V installed and operating correctly before, been removed and reinstalled and now does not work?

I had a Windjammer V. If the filament in one bulb fails, the whole side stops working front and back.

Well, according to the person I bought it from, it worked perfectly fine. My setup prior to the fairing had the signals bolted to the headlight bucket. All worked fine as well. I removed the signals and did a quick test. My rear left still blinked but the right suddenly did not. I'll add that I am using an aftermarket automotive blinker relay. When I disconnected the wiring from the rear left, the relay still clicked. Nothing would click on the right side whether I had the right rear connected or not.

I am thinking there is a grounding issue somewhere in the system on the bike side. I connected the fairing harness thinking that maybe the signal system would correctly ground and work but that wasn't the case. The rear signal are connected correctly through their respective blue and orange wires and grounds as it stands right now.
 
I had that problem with an aftermarket automotive relay. If I remember correctly, the aftermarket rely is setup differently and what is ground on the relay is not the same on the original Honda relay. I will go check what I have now, but I remember getting so frustrated that after replacing my relay with the auto relay that it would not work after having the system work fine for years. I ended up pulling an old relay off an '81 harness I had lying around and that solved it.
 
Hopefully it's an easy fix. I'll see if I can get my hands on a different relay.
 
So here's my guess: It's a bad ground on the Vetter's front right turn signal, or mixed up wiring.

Each of the Vetter's front turn signals uses two power wires and one ground - one wire is for the running light, one is for the turn signal, and the final one is the ground.

If the ground is bad, I could see the running light power going through the bulb's running light filament, then (since there's a bad ground) going the wrong way through the bulb's turn indicator filament, and finally through the rear turn signal's filament and then to a good ground.

On the Vetter, the black wire is the ground, the green is the running lights, and the blue is the right turn signal. (Orange is the left turn signal).

If you have a multimeter, disconnect the Vetter's connection and on the motorcycle side of the connector, check to see if green is always hot, and blue only turns on/off/on/off with the right turn signal applied. That's what should be happening. Then plug the connector back in, turn the ignition off, and check resistance between the shell of the right bulb socket and a good ground on the motorcycle.
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=214290#p214290:1yw5pjab said:
saganaga » Today, 1:02 pm[/url]":1yw5pjab]
So here's my guess: It's a bad ground on the Vetter's front right turn signal, or mixed up wiring.

Each of the Vetter's front turn signals uses two power wires and one ground - one wire is for the running light, one is for the turn signal, and the final one is the ground.

If the ground is bad, I could see the running light power going through the bulb's running light filament, then (since there's a bad ground) going the wrong way through the bulb's turn indicator filament, and finally through the rear turn signal's filament and then to a good ground.

On the Vetter, the black wire is the ground, the green is the running lights, and the blue is the right turn signal. (Orange is the left turn signal).

If you have a multimeter, disconnect the Vetter's connection and on the motorcycle side of the connector, check to see if green is always hot, and blue only turns on/off/on/off with the right turn signal applied. That's what should be happening. Then plug the connector back in, turn the ignition off, and check resistance between the shell of the right bulb socket and a good ground on the motorcycle.

The issue is on the bike side of the system. With my meter, I verified that green out of the Vetter harness is constant hot. Left signal circuit is working and nothing on the right side of the harness. It is dead.

I took the meter up to the headlight bucket. Left and right running lights are powered and turn off with the left and right signal switch. Left signal wire blinks, right does not.

I assume that in this system, ground is only at the signals, correct? All wiring appears intact but should the assumption be that the right side is grounding out somewhere??
 
Just to be sure you have the Vetter wiring:

Vetter Wiring.JPG
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=214293#p214293:1g3u8oc9 said:
cmyoch » Today, 3:07 pm[/url]":1g3u8oc9]
The issue is on the bike side of the system. With my meter, I verified that green out of the Vetter harness is constant hot. Left signal circuit is working and nothing on the right side of the harness. It is dead.

I took the meter up to the headlight bucket. Left and right running lights are powered and turn off with the left and right signal switch. Left signal wire blinks, right does not.

I assume that in this system, ground is only at the signals, correct? All wiring appears intact but should the assumption be that the right side is grounding out somewhere??

Note the following only applies to the 1975 - 1977 Goldwings. After that, for the standard Goldwings (1978 & 1979 GL1000s, all standard GL1100s, and the 1984 GL1200 standard), the wiring switches to a dual filament bulb so the wiring is slightly different.

According to the schematic I'm looking at, over at GoldwingDocs, the only ground should be at the bulbs.

The wiring looks like this (simplified):

Hot -> Turn Signal Relay -> Turn Signal Switch : [Off] / [Left Turn Signal (orange wire)] / [Right Turn Signal (blue wire)] -> Bulbs.

There's also an orange with white stripe, and blue with white stripe coming out of the turn signal switch. The front turn signals have a single filament, so the white striped wires power the running lights. When either left or right is selected on the turn signal switch, it turns off the appropriate running light.

Huh - there's an idea - did someone hook up the blue with white stripe wire to the Vetter wiring, instead of the solid blue wire?

Otherwise, that gives you an option to test things.

1. Unplug the flasher.
2. Use the multimeter set to volts to check the voltage on each prong on the connector - one (green with white stripe, looks like) should be hot. The other should have no power - this is the connection that goes to the turn signal switch. Check with the turn signal switch set to left, right or neutral.
3. The following steps should only be done to the connector that goes to the turn signal switch.
4. Then set the multimeter to ohms and see if there's some resistance when the turn signal switch is in each position - there should be similar resistance if the turn signal is set to either "left" or "right". If I'm doing my math correctly, should be around 4 ohms if the Vetter is plugged in, or around 8 ohms if the Vetter is not plugged in.
5. In the neutral position, there should be an open circuit.
 
This is about as detailed testing instructions as I'm going to get. Thank you!!

I will go test the system and report back.
 
PROBLEM SOLVED!! There was just enough corrosion at the blue bullet connector that was preventing the circuit to complete. I cleaned it, greased it as well as the other side and I have full signals again! Thank you for the help.

If there is a sticky section anywhere in the forum for blinker troubleshooting, I think saganaga's troubleshooting tutorial should be there!
 

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