Welp its me again. After the tail light socket melted out, I replaced it and its working now.

After re-clamping down my handlebars the left turn signal now flashes 3 times normally then flashes super quick.

So I went and replaced all the bulbs, Then switched them around, and still the same thing.

I took the left grip and assembly off and I did find a couple wires that had been pinched, but no contact to metal and when i spaced them all out - still the same thing.


So Im thinking maybe I have a short somewhere else that is causing these socks to blow, and then my lights are getting screwed. Its just so odd that it happened right after adjusting my clutch and re-tightening down the assembly.

Before I kill myself - where would you guys start on this? Perhaps its time I just bring it to the local indy and have it taken care of, but Id really like to be a man about it and learn how to solve this myself.

On a side note: with this happening can I still ride the bike, assuming I may lose a light here and there? Or could the bike straight up die on me at some point? I am trickle charging at night, and the battery is full in the AM.

Please for the love of god!

- Cursed Cruiser!

05 xl883l

 

Another thing to mention is that the turn signal that is not working is a dual filament bulb, yet only the running light filament is working. When I hit the turn signal the running flight filament flashes, but the flashing filament never ignites.

 

I'll bite. Tell us more, LED or regular bulbs? Stock wattage or super bright.
Your socket melted due to resistance in the connection which causes heat. With stock bulbs I would assume corrosion in the plug. On my sportster I had a missing piece of rubber flap over the square hole for the wiring coming under the fender. I filled with something, I don't remember and it's dark.
I also torqued up a handlebar change, I learned a lot about the right grip wiring on my dyna. Mine was more serious since the internal damage was an open circuit in the ignition wiring which only made the bike useful downhill. I suspect you have wiring damage which is either an open circuit or causing high resistance (most of the strands are broken). This will be a pain in the *** to find and fix. Making it look good will cost money. My dyna is a rider , not a looker , I cut the wires and spliced in good wire where the break was. You can find the broken wires by using a volt ohm meter set on ohms to test the individual wires. Be carefull, the inside of the switch housings is like building a ship in a bottle. I'll leave telling you how to test the wires with the volt ohm (multimeter) to someone with less investment in refreshing adult beverages this evening.

 

Buy a good voltmeter first. There is a setting where if the two prongs touch the meter will beep. That's continuity. If you put one prong on ground and the other on the hot wire for the signal, you can see if it's grounding out. Also you can use it to see if the hot wires are crossing for any of the lights. That would happen say if the blinker was flashing with the high beam on.

Don't worry you will get this.

 

@kokemill - Stock bulbs / stock wattage. Yes I just finished up a handlebar change ( up 12 inches due to lower back pain and searching for an option that didnt end with a bill of sale and watching as my bike rode off into the sunset with someone else ). When opening up the swotch housing I do see some wires that had gotten cut. One of which Im assuming is the horn, as everytime I turn the key to ignition, and hit the horn button, the accessories fuse blows. Ive blown it twice, back to back, within 30 seconds. I opened up the casing and found one of the wires cut, and lodged against the metal. Im heading to the store this AM to buy a volt meter and new fuses.

@Yamaharley - I will try this out for sure. My fear is that due to seeing many of these wires squished, Ill just find that Im screwed. At this point I think I may just purchase a replacement switch housing ( turn signal, horn and high/low beam ) with new wiring, pull my internal wiring job outta the mini apes, and start over. These wires are crushed so close to their ends within the switch assembly that Im not sure i can get in there in fix it. I have to believe the bike is grounding out somewhere else as well, as I just had that taillight socket melt out. I have no idea how to use a voltmeter ( I actually work in sales focused on data center electricity so this is a) embarrassing as F and b) a good project for me as I will learn knowledge I can use during my discussions ), but I suspect I will find many things to fix ha!

Do you need to splice the hot wires in order to get a reading on them? Thanks again for all the help everyone!

- Tyler

 

Ok I went and got the multimeter - are there any good HOW TO find shorts on a motorcycle using a multimeter guides online? I printed out the wiring diagrams and have them taped to the wall next to the bike. Ready to learn how to figure this **** out!

 

My youngest son taught himself to play the piano, guitar and write music using YouTube videos. I haven't done any regular maintanence on my bike yet that doesn't have half a dozen how to videos on YouTube. To begin you only need to learn three things on the meter: continuity checker - tests a wire, check that is not cut inside the plastic, Volt meter set to about 20 volts - to help find where power should be and shouldn't, Ohm meter - might be extra credit for this job - tells you the resistance of a wire or a connection.

I was able on my dyna to take the switches out of the housing fix them and put the the entire thing back together. It was a bitch, and I have a lifetime skills from sound equipment, building computers , and even model trains. A thought enough about just buying new switchs that I looked up all the parts on Ronnie's.

Make sure you YouTube soldering and shrink wrap if you don't know how to do that. Use short pieces of shrink wrap so you can get everything back into the housing. Be methodical, diagnose each circuit leg individually. Once you understand everything you have to fix you will be better able to make a fix/replace decision.

 

Measurements Taken:

Ok so - The running lights always on - when I hit the turn signal the running light blinks off. The turn signal element never turns on. Thought Id put that out there.

So I took the voltage readings at the socket. The running light hot in the socket gave me a solid 12V. The Turn signal gave me intermident voltage when the turn signal switch was engaged. Was like 3v 8v 10v 6v 4v 8v 12v as it went on and off. I test the turn signal that is functioning properly and I got the same results.

So then I tested the voltage above and below the turn signal wires that appeared crimped/slit/pinched, and found the same results above and below that spot, so I do not believe that area is of concern.

I then took the Ohm reading at both turn signal hot locations, and got a .8 at every location.

My dad, who was sharing his fatherly wisdom as he taught me how to do all of this, said perhaps it was the turn signal relay. Now I know the Sportsters have a turn signal module - is this the same thing? And if that was the root cause, wouldn't it affect the right ( functioning ) set of turn signals as well? I figure I have to diagnose this before searching for the main root short - which Im hoping was my tail light socket when the bulb had become lose, and I believed was arching - which caused the socket to melt out.

Any and all help appreciated.

 

Without taking anything apart, how many of the measurements can you take on the right side. I think it would be useful to see what the difference between the working and non-working side is.

 

Hey Kokemill - Thanks for asking. I got the very same measurements on the right side.

I went ahead and took apart the left switch assembly and found this ugly ****:




So I went ahead and re-soldered and then taped her up. I believe this is where I may have been getting my short that was popping my accessories fuse found on a previous thread. Perhaps it could have been affecting my left turn signal as well. She looks much prettier now:





Upon re-assembling the left switch assembly and bolting everything back on the bars, I lost the left turn signal completely. I was still get 12v at the running light HOT, but was getting nothing from the turn signal. I also lost all light, including the running light.

So then moving down the wiring to the harness, I was pulling on the wires to make sure everything was connected up and BOOM the left turn signal HOT wire pulled right the f**k apart at the shrink tube tape, and the GROUND was f**king disconnected almost completely ( we had wrapped the wires, and then heat shrieked them with the supplied Burly Brand heat shrink tube which was said to contain a solder esc material on the interior) :




Upon taking the tank off, and unwrapping the electrical tape we had put around the three wire assembly, the running light HOT pulled right out as well, and so here is what I am left with:




My diagnosis is that the 12 inch kit ape kit was not long enough, as I had cut the pins off the wires in order to wrap/solder them. When we were putting the left switch assembly on the bars we really had to pull to get it into place, which must have loosened up that ground wire. Not sure if that was enough to not give me the function of illuminating the turn signal element in the dual element bulb, but once I extend and re-solder these wires, Im confident that I will at the very least restore power back to that left turn signal.

I still have not located what I believe the be the initial ground that popped my roasted my tail light assembly socket. My HOPES is that it was caused my a loose bulb that melted it up. When I noticed I wasn't getting any running light or break light at the rear, I opened it up and pushed the bulb IN to see if it had come lose, and that illuminated my running light for me, as well as giving me a constant break light. Im hoping that it was shorting inside that socket. I went ahead and replaced that socket and all is functioning correctly now.

I will continue to search for that ground, and I am going to follow up on this thread once I take care of this left turn signal wiring to fill you all in on if that resolved my issues.

Thank you all for the help! Im certainly learning a sh*t ton as I troubleshoot my way through this.