Turn Signals Out - Good Time to Add 4 Way Flashers

[mcgovern61]

Hit a pretty hard bump today and suddenly, the turn signals are not working. Got back to the house using hand signals and pulled into the garage. I have been working on my '82 wire harness on the bench and I needed to check some of the wiring on the '81 harness that is on the bike so I pulled the seat and tank to get a good look at things.

The gray wire popped off of the turn signal flasher. Put it back on and the lights started working again, but only for a moment, then nothing. Fuse is not blown, horn works (same fuse), lamps are OK (no broken filaments) and ground wires are OK. Thinkin the left side switch on the handlebars is going bad. It is left over from the '81 and has a lot of mileage on it plus the cover is cracking. I have a spare flasher from the '82 harness so I try that and still no dice.

Time to start tracing wires I guess.

 

[mcgovern61]

Short of it is, I traced all of the wires and everything is where it should be with good connections. A bit baffled, I pull the left side hand control and dis-assemble. Looking pretty sad in there........

Good thing I have an '82 unit standing by since I was already working on adding the self cancelling unit and '82 wire harness. Harness will not be ready for a while, but I install the '82 control, still no dice. Getting a bit frustrated now.

Walk away I say! Think, think! Well, I decide to go to Autozone and just get a new flasher (considering but of mine are over 35 years old. Guess what? Works!! :yahoo:

Boy, do I feel stupid once again! Shoulda just got a new flasher unit in the first place......

Regardless, all of the wiring is exposed so now is a good time to do a mod I saw elsewhere. Add a 4 way flasher button to the turn signals. There are two types of mods available; one is to add diodes and a flasher relay plus a separate flasher that will allow it to run when the bike is off. The other option is just a hazard button that turns on the 4 way flasher when the bike is running.

I am going to install option #2. More to come! :yes:

 

[Ansimp]

You beat me to the new flasher Gerry :good:

 

[mcgovern61]

The four way flasher idea needs a control button and some minor wiring. I ordered some hazard buttons last winter from Ebay:

It is really pretty basic. The left wire goes to the left signals, the right wire goes to the right signals and the center wire goes to the trigger on the flasher unit.

On the 1100's, the left signals are the orange wires, the right signals are the powder blue wires. The flasher trigger is the gray wire. Take the headlight off and all of the wires are pretty easy to follow. They are all nicely color coded too so it is easy to trace!

 

[Ansimp]

Nice looking switch Gerry :yes:

 

[mcgovern61]

I had already taken off the '81 left side controller and the innerds were pretty much done for, so I cut the wires and pulled them out of the protective cover. Since they are the same as what is in the headlight wiring mess, I knew I could salvage some of the more unique connectors. If you look in the pictures, there are 4 way connectors on the orange and power blue wires that come from the controller. Salvaging these wires and connectors allows me to keep the new hazard button wiring color coded with the right wires, wire size and the 4 way connectors allow me to connect the system via the original style bullet connectors.

All i need to do is create a new set of connector wires to attach to the original 4 way connectors and bridge them over to the new ones:

Here, I have salvaged the old 4 way bullet connectors and wire:

I cut some of the wire off of them and then soldered new bullet connectors to the end to create bridge wires:

I installed the bridge wires and connected them to the original 4 way connectors and now to the old 4 way connectors with the wires running to the new switch:

 

[mcgovern61]

The wire length was perfect to run back up and around to the choke. I intend to mount the switch to a plate the same way the choke is mounted to the handlebars.

I grouped the wires so that left is orange, center is gray and right is powder blue the same as the signal system. Next is some heat shrink wrap to protect the wires at the steering stem:

I had a 4 wire plug leftover from last years wiring on the radio, so I used it to make a connector that matches the rest of the bikes wiring and allows me to replace the switch in the future without disturbing the whole wiring harness;

New switch:

Connecting the new switch via the new connector:

All of it wraps up nicely in the headlight bucket and for anyone looking into the bucket wiring, it looks like OEM matching color coded wiring!

 

[mcgovern61]

And lastly, how does it work you say? You be the judge:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZlBnxDqACY[/video]

 

[Ansimp]

Great job Gerry. :clapping:

 

[dan filipi]

That's great Gerry!

 

[joedrum]

good deal

 

[mcgovern61]

If there is anything I have learned through this process, the wiring diagrams for the '80-'82 standard are not the same as my '82 wire harness. There are items on the '80 through '82 diagram and items on the '83 standard that are needed to see my wiring. There must be an '82 standard only wiring diagram out there.