Subject: RE: Strange Blinker Bulb Problem
Author: Tom Bowes
Date: May 6, 2001, 8:05 PM
Post ID: 1706618766
Keith,
Sounds to me as if you have a problem with a bad ground. You mentioned
that the problem changed with varying engine speed, which leads me to
belive that you have an intermittent connection someplace. Keep in mind
that there are actually three connections that go to each light, two
hots (positives) which go to the filaments, and the third (negative)
connection or "ground". Check the integrity of the connection between
the lamp base and its socket. Also check the condition and tightness of
the mounting hardware. This was a very common problem with cars back in
the 70's, i.e socket corrosion. Many's the time I was forced to take a
battery terminal brush to a wayward socket in order to get my turn
signals to work again. Nowadays I would probaly look for a round brass
brush as they are more gentle to the socket shell, but one has to use
what one has got. Oh, if you do use a battery terminal brush, use a
clean one as battery acid residue will only serve to corrode the lamp
socket in short order.
Tom
'70 Ambassador
'82 V50-III
Shelby Township, Michigan
Keith Ruff wrote:
| OK, ready for this one?? The right and left rear blinkers were working intermittently. Found that the rear connectors were pretty crapped up, so I cut them off, stripped the wires, and intalled new connectors. All is well with the right side, but here is the strange thing with the left. There's 2 wires to each rear blinker. Using a meter, it was determined, as I thought, that 1 wire was for the blinker, the other is for the rear flashers (police model). The blinker would work very slow, sometimes locking up, and when the bike was running, it would either go normal, or as I revved the engine, would flat out stop working. The flashers, however worked just fine. What I did next confused the heck out of me and I am still stumped. The bulbs in the blinkers are dual filament, one higher than the other (don't know the bulb #). I watched the right rear bulb to see which filament was used for the blinker versus the flasher (think the blinker used the low filament, flasher used the taller filament). I then checked the left side and noticed it was opposite, so I removed the bulb, and reversed it so the filaments used for the blinker/flasher would be the same as the right side. After doing this, the blinker now worked perfect, but the flasher would just blip real quick. Why would a bulb have this effect on the blinker/flasher not working correctly? Am I using an incorrect bulb? I even swapped the right side bulb with the left and had the same problem, and the suspect bulb from the left side worked fine on the right side. What the heck is going on where a bulb can cause this problem? HELP!! Keith Ruff 71 Police Amabassador - NJ |