blinkers no blink .. hmm

Bought my 82 XJ650 in winter, and am just getting it going. PO installed some nice little indicators on the bike. They all light up just fine, but don't blink. Where to start?

 

The factory flashers are heat-driven. If your new lights don't draw the same amperage/current as the stock ones, the flasher won't work. There's several threads that talk about replacing the stock flasher with an electronic one that is load-independent to solve this problem.

 

ok, so I found these load equalizers, that will create the necessary load (27 watts or something) to cause the lights to blink. So why cant you just throw a resistor in series with each set of lights?

Basically what I'm asking is whats in that little black box that you need to spend $15 x2 on?

 

Uh... well ... if you've gone to LED indicators or something, then putting those resistors/load equilizers in essentially negates any power savings from switching to LED. Personally, I think its worth it to just replace the flasher with an electronic one rather than thermal.

 

hmm. anyone got a link to a electronic one then ?

 

NAPA should have one , otherwise check out Bosch they make nice ones. Your auto cancel won't work anymore you know.

 

Here's Scrape's post (pics and pinout)

and here be the part

Auto-cancellation does not work with this unit without some modifications.
Here's a post by SQLGuy that explains how to get around that problem, if you like the cancel feature

If you go this route, might I recommend that you do not place the EL13 relay where the old one is mounted. Unfortunately its clear plastic housing is not very heavy-duty, and might melt from engine heat. The pigtail from the wiring harness is just long enough to move it farther back and on top of the frame.


EDIT:
...the latter part is assuming that your flasher relay is mounted right above the engine... if not, never mind

 

Be careful if you use an aftermarket relay that you have the leads going to the right pins on the new flasher. The pin out is not necessarily the same between the original and the aftermarket replacement.

 

thanks.

 

something weird

mt left blinker on my car stops working and stays on went on for a week I replaced the bulbs but to no avail they still did not work,

3 days ago I start my bike let it warm up decided to take it for a short run. get to the stop lights and my left blinker is on and will not blink just a steady light like my car. so I change the bulbs but it still doing it.

ok mybe a wire is messed up I tear down the fork light setup but found nothing. put it back to gether tried it again but no still not working./ went to sit down for a while to think about it maybe an hour or so . went back out started the bike turned on the signal and bingo its working . what the hecjk did I do to fix it?

later that night I go to a friends house in my car get to the stop sign turn on the signal bingo its working .. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

I'll tell you what happened. dam gremlins starting to mess with my car and my bike.

I still don't know what I did or what caused it to happen to both my vehicles.

 

so, do I need two of the electronic flashers? and I can mount them anywhere there is access to the turn signal wires right ? the other two pins are 12V and GND? TIA

 

I don't think some of us are doing this because we want to save power.

LED lights turn on faster than incandescent bulbs in some cases they are also brighter. they last longer as well.