Turn signal blinking erratically

[JMikeH]

I have a 2010 GL1800. I tried searching the forum for this issue but couldn't find anything on it.

Ever since my last 12K servicing my left turn signal has been acting erratic. Sometimes it blinks at normal speed, other times it blinks really fast (like a light is out). I've seen it go fast/slow/fast/slow at times all during a single instance of having the blinker on. I've got several additional (all LED) lights (fork arrowhead, fork accents, fork reflector, trunk spoiler, mirror indicators) all tapped into my turn signal lights and my front turn signals have amber LED lights in them so I believe they included the load resistors on them.

My right turn signals have not had any problems.

I just quickly tested this again before posting this and my left signals are currently flashing fast. After switching back and forth to my right and then back to left, at one point the left turn signals started blinking at normal speed, but after a few blinks it then went back fast again.

Has anyone seen anything like this and give me any ideas on what to check or how to test if it's the flasher (and where is it) or something else.

Thanks for any assistance,
Mike

[flash2002]

Hi, did you try to change the light bulbs, I saw this once on a bike and the was a bad connection in the bulb. If that doesn't work, check for a bad ground.

[JMikeH]

Hi, did you try to change the light bulbs, I saw this once on a bike and the was a bad connection in the bulb. If that doesn't work, check for a bad ground.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. The only 'non' LED bulb it has I believe is just the one in the saddlebag. I'll recheck the one in the front turn signal also just to make sure.

[WingAdmin]

If you have one non-LED bulb in the rear saddlebag, and that bulb intermittently gets disconnected, it could cause this. I would check all the various bulbs and make sure they are all flashing both when it is working correctly as well as when it is flashing quickly.

[virgilmobile]

If I read this right,your front lamp is now a LED with a load resistor and the rear is stock.If you have a bad connection on the load resistor,the LED would still light up,just flash fast.
My bet it a bad connection on that resistor.

[WingAdmin]

There might not even be a load resistor on the front - if he has a bulb in the back (and I'm betting another one in the dash), that should be enough of a load to the flasher to get it to operate correctly.

[JMikeH]

Thanks for the additional information. I keep thinking that when I changed the front light, it came with an adapter (which I thought was the load resister). I could be wrong. I keep wondering since I put the bike in for it's 12K servicing, if the mechanic might have touched anything I would think it would have been up in the fairing since I know the front area is dismantled for the air filter.

I have looked at all the lights when it's flashing quick and all the lights are all flashing. Just haven't had time to get into it but I'm definitely going to check the rear bulb but re-look at the wiring and adapters in the front pocket and in the turn signal mounting point.

I appreciate the information I've been getting.

Mike

[Steve F]

Have you considered changing your blinker fluid?

[virgilmobile]

He he.
Oriley auto parts is sold out of it.It was a 1 day sale on the first of the month.

[JMikeH]

I can't find that one in my owners manual.

[virgilmobile]

It's mentioned in the suppository book...access to it is under the seat.

Wait....sorry.....I meant supplementary book.

[JMikeH]

Well it's been awhile until I was able to get back on this.

I checked the front turn signal and wasn't sure if there is any load resister on it. I may have just been thinking of the adapters that I had put in to run the lights on my front fork (that are also connected to the blinkers).

At one point when the blinkers were working normal, I actually 'removed' the light bulb in the rear saddle bag. At that point the blinker remained blinking at normal speed. So it doesn't appear to need that light to actually work correctly.

I still haven't found anything else that might be causing the speed of the blinker to go fast occasionally. Something else that was strange, is that one day on the way to work, my 'right' blinker also started blinking fast. But that was the only time it did that and I haven't seen it do it again. But the left blinker blinks faster than normal pretty regularly with it only blinking at the normal speed only on occasion now. And when it is blinking fast, I have a total of 6 lights all blinking fast (not counting the console turn signal indicator light).
The lights I have are:
- Regular bulb in saddle bag
- Rear Spoiler
- Front clear Lense LED turn signal
- Muth mirror blinker
- Kuryakyn lighted fork tower accent light (bottom lights go out and top light blinks with blinker)
- Kuryakyn Aero Head marker lights

Do you think having too many lights could be causing the blinker to do this? Wondering if it's the blinker itself.

After checking my list of modifications, I did find that I had ordered the LED Dual Load Equalizer a couple years ago. So maybe I did install that on my bike. I'm going to have to look to see where I put it and see if maybe it went bad on me. Let me follow up on that to see if that's the problem.

[JMikeH]

OK, kind of feel stupid in starting this thread. Probably my mind going forgetful but I had put on the LED Dual Load Equalizer. Finally found my instructions for it which had me mount it behind the rear fender cover. So I finally was able to check it out tonight. Of course everything happened to be blinking correctly right now so I checked the load equalizer and put some Electric lube on the quick splice connectors. It does definatly blink fast if I either disconnect the main power lead to the unit or the individual wires to each blinker. So hopefully just adjusting the connectors might resolve my issue. If not, then it may be the unit itself going bad. At least I refreshed my memory for now if this keeps happening and I know where I can check it out. May have to wait until the next time they start blinking fast again if they stay that way once I get home and can pull the rear panel off.

Any way, thanks all the did respond.

[waituntilthebeep]

Have you considered changing your blinker fluid?

When in doubt, rotate it, don't change it.

[JMikeH]

Thanks, the next time I took the bike out, it was blinking fast again (I should have left the wires swapped). I decided to order a new one and got it in. Hooked it up to the same quick tap connectors that were installed from the first one and it's been working fine on several rides since then. So I'm pretty sure it was the original load equalizer I had on it. The one I had was an all Red colored equilizer and no labels on it. When I looked up my original order from WingStuff the original item link now goes to the one from Show Chrome Accessories (similar to the Back Off module) so I don't know if they changed the design since my original order. I went ahead and reordered that one again, if it goes out within a year like my first one, then I'll find a new brand to go to next time.

[Ed Z]

First thing I would do is put the left bulbs into the right side till the problem stopped... Then putting the right side bulb onto the left side to confirm... Do this one at a time or both front and back to see if the problem goes to the left side... You for sure know it to be a bulb problem then...