The Good and the bad.

The good news is that yesterday I went and checked the valve clearances and they were in allowance which stoked the crap out of me and I was able to cannibalize the vacuum gaskets out of the petcock on the virago and fixed that on the maxim. Put on new intake manifolds and put the carbs back on and hooked up to air box and trickle charged the battery and installed a new exhaust after i got the old rotten one off. Its like an entire different bike, Its almost a little scary compared to how it performed before.

The bad news- none of my blinkers work, I was wondering if someone could let me know what I should do to start finding the problem, all are hooked up but I know with that self cancelling thing it gets a little complicated and I know nothing about the lights but then again I knew nothing about the bike when I started this project.

Thanks, Teddy

 

Is your fuse box good? For instance, does your brake light work (same fuse as turn signals)?

The stock flasher (with self-canceller) works like this:

It uses a relay with an NC contact and two coils on the pole piece (one about 100Ohms, the other about .2 Ohms). There are also a 1200uF cap and 150 Ohm resistor, but these are actually just to ensure that the turn signals aren't on when the ignition is first turned on. There is no bimetallic element. The stock flasher has three terminals labelled B, C, and L.

Its operation goes like this:

1. The handlebar switch has a two pairs of contacts in each direction. One pair switches conductivity between the Br/W of the flasher and the selected turn signals and leaves it there, the other momentarily connects Y/R and B to the cancelling unit, enabling it.

2. Once enabled, the cancelling unit, which had been holding +12V on the C contact (Y/G) of the flasher relay, lets this contact float. This deengergizes the 100Ohm coil allowing the relay contacts to close.

3. Once closed, the relay contacts provide 12V through L (Br/W) to the turn signal pair selected by the handlebar switch. The current to them flows through the heavier coil and opens the relay. Once the relay is open, current flow stops, so the relay can now close again, and we have a flash cycle, based largely on the magnetic field build up and collapse time of the heavier coil of the relay.

4. Eventually one of two things happens:
a) the cancelling unit's counters expire and it puts 12V back onto the C contact, energizing the 100Ohm coil and locking the relay open (no more flashing), or
b) the handlebar switch is cancelled, which opens the contacts between the L contact (Br/W) and the turn signals (no more flashing)


The upshot of this is that if you disconnect the cancelling unit, the system will operate like a standard turn signal system without self-cancelling. This will quickly tell you whether the cancelling system is part of the problem.

 

Here's more good news. Your hands work to signal a turn, so you can still ride it 'till you fix the problem!

 

you are definitely correct, thats awesome news, I forgot about the ol hand signals and the brake light does work I think something might have went bad in the relay