turn signal relay?

[coffee_brake]

What the hell. This bike breaks more than the old Harley ever did.
I just did a valve adjust. Today I took the bike to work, no issues going out. Coming home, I lost everything on the dummy lights panel, tach and temp gauge, both turn signals, horn, and my brake light. Fun ride home. I've lost the lockout so it will start in gear too. Darn near launched it through the garage.

Anyway, I went through every where I'd been for the valve adjust, looking for a loose connection, everything's clean and tight. So I started testing for continuity (about the only thing electrical I understand) and nothing in...uh...I think it's the turn signal relay?...is working. It's one of the boxes under the left scoop, Denso part number 066500-2292. Has a 5-pin connector. It's about 3x2 inches.

Anybody know how to test it better? Or fix it? Anybody got one hanging around to sell me? Anybody know a way around this?


This bike finally has a name. It's "Heartache."

 

[coffee_brake]

Crap this part is $136!

:bang head:

 

[maleko89]

Coffee, check your signal fuse.

 

[coffee_brake]

Whattya know, you can't tell if they're blown until you pull them out...so I put in a new fuse and it blew right away.

Thanks Maleko...but where is my short? I don't see anything at all that looks out of order....

 

[RazoR333]

Is all the wiring free,...check for pinched wires. I once did a battery check ,put the seat and side cover on . NOTHING,.......looked again , found that a wire had pinched between the frame and side cover when i put the seat back on.

 

[maleko89]

It could be your dash connectors (2), brake switches, clutch switch, horn or turn signals to name a few. Unplug those things and re-try. Then, plug one component at a time and re-test.

 

[naughtyG]

I've also had light bulbs shorts in the past. Happens when a bulb melts and the two conductors end up touching each other. I'd get a box of fuses, remove all the bulbs and unplug most connectors of the circuit in question, then put a new fuse in and reconnect one by one till it blows.
When it does you'll have found your faulty circuit, at which point you can check its components. If all the components are ok, then it's most likely you have a melted wire, or wires that have rubbed enough to lose isolation and short. Fun, fun, fun..

 

[lankeeyankee]

If you dont want to test to see if you resolved your shorts ooops keep your shorts on Coffee.... I mean making sure you repaired your electrical rather then blowing throgh numerous fuses..

Stick a multi meter in the fuse block and the other end ground and make sure you have 0 resistence before installing a new fuse.

Sounds like you pinched a wire putting your bike back together.. There are a lot of wires up near the neck of the bike and could have tore some insulation off one of the wires when removing the valve cover...

This wasnt the bikes fault.. Mechanic induced problem here, and you performed a valve adjustement when the bike was running fine.. Yeah I agree the VMAX doesnt hold up well to beating and stress very well its your basic cruiser.

 

[coffee_brake]

If you dont want to test to see if you resolved your shorts ooops keep your shorts on Coffee.... I mean making sure you repaired your electrical rather then blowing throgh numerous fuses..

quote]

Meh, shorts are for wusses...go commando!

Thanks for the advice...can start this whole charade tomorrow in better daylight.
Crap and the Honda's in there now, forkless, for new neck bearings. Wish this would have happened right away instead of after another bike was in a bajillion pieces...

 

[coffee_brake]

What I've found so far, with you guys' suggestions and a borrowed "short finder" thingie:

The short finder says of course that the short is somewhere in the neck area but it only narrows down to about the size of a softball and there are a LOT of wires up there, and the ignition switch and the CDI.

I did Lankee's thing (as best I understood it) and measured the ohms of each component. There is zero resistance for all of them except one, and it gets up near the 200 mark on the lowest ohm setting (don't laugh, I'd know better what I was talking about if I could, this is one thing I can't learn from books and there's nobody to show me). This connector is the 6-pin that comes off the dash panel. When it is unplugged and everything else is plugged in, there is zero resistance. When I plug that connector in, the resistance jumps.

Now what? I'm looking at the wiring diagram and the only one that is common to all the failed components is the brown wire. Up where the short finder is beeping the most, there is a junction of maybe 6 or 8 brown wires.

I cut back the tape on the harness in that area and I can't find any damage at all.

Help? Please? I gotta give the guy back his short-finder in the morning.

 

[coffee_brake]

NaughtyG before I go taking the dash apart, do you mean turn signals and tail light bulbs, or the little bitty ones in the dash too?

 

[naughtyG]

did you try unplugging all the connectors in the area you found, putting a new fuse in, then reconnecting them one by one 'till the fuse blows? That would point at the fault..

Also, did you check all the bulbs in case one got shorted?

 

[coffee_brake]

HORN!
horn horn horn horn horn!!!

The horn was causing the short, don't know how but maybe when I loaded the bike on the truck, one of the tabs on the horn was pulled back and I guess that made it short when I hit a bump on the road or something.

At least, I read Naughty's last post and put a new fuse in and hooked all the connectors up one by one and none of them blew the fuse. I had already seen the bent tab on the horn and moved it out the way, so that's all that's left to blame.

I think I'll ride the bike with the hubby along next time, in case I'm wrong.

Is there a jam-up ace-number-one brand of electrical tape so I can wrap my harness back and it won't get sticky and peel in 6 months?

 

[coffee_brake]

OK Everything I lost is working now, and jiggling the harness around and moving everything around doesn't make it change, everything's fine now.
Guess I'll button it up and take it out tomorrow.

 

[naughtyG]

Is there a jam-up ace-number-one brand of electrical tape so I can wrap my harness back and it won't get sticky and peel in 6 months?

Great to hear you found it! :clapping::clapping::clapping:

I don't know of any electrical tape that's better than any other - I would just buy it from a decent auto/electrical supplies shop and hope it'd be better than if it came from the dollar store :biglaugh: