Troubleshooting Dead Turn Signals & Battery

[eDan]

Symptoms: Dead turn signals, dead battery, must kick start
Solution: Replace flasher relay

Last summer I noticed the turn signals began working intermittently. It seemed, though, that the longer my rides the more stable the blinkers became. So, I figured the battery was dying and the long rides were recharging it.

That bothered me a bit since the battery was just over a year old, and my first replacement battery. My Buddy is an '06 and the original battery lasted for six years without doing anything to it. I never recharged it with a trickle charger and I left it in the cold during its winter hibernation. I will say that when I rode, it was WOT for 20+ miles, so I figured I was always topping off the battery.

With that past performance in mind, I was disappointed that the Sears Diehard replacement had less than two seasons on it. I wasn't riding much last year, but was still tired of hand signaling and kick starting.

So this year I figured I'd replace the battery. I was in the middle of jump starting the Buddy a few weekends ago for the first time this season with another battery when I noticed that I only got a click when hitting the starter. The horn worked, the brake light worked, but not the blinkers nor the starter. Then I smelled something odd...and the jumper cables were getting hot! There must be a short.

I studied the wiring schematic. I used my multimeter and looked at the fuse, each bulb, wiring to each bulb and the turn signal switch. I even opened up the wiring harness to look for bare wires. Nothing. I then bypassed the Buddy's wiring and sent power directly into the circuit and got the bulbs to light up. That meant everything after the flasher unit was fine. I then tested the resistance on the flasher unit. I didn't find any specs online, but I expected one circuit to be open and read infinity and the other to read some value. Well, I got values for both circuits. That told me that the unit was shorted out. This would explain the dead battery, and I forgot to mention that no matter how long I left the trickle charger on, the battery never held a charge. And like a good CSI investigator I shook the flasher and I heard debris rattling around inside. Time to buy a new one.

Here's what I bought:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VTTDYY/

I installed it and the blinkers worked right away even though the battery is still too weak to start. It was super easy to install. I can now replace the battery.

So, the takeaway is if your blinkers are spotty, there's trouble starting and the battery isn't holding a charge, check the flasher unit first. It may save you some time.

P.S. I wonder if Tiddy14 had the same problem?
viewtopic.php?t=16871

[OldGuy]

Good job on the troubleshooting and the write-up. This is good information.