Strange behaviour of turn signals

[shchuka]

Hi all.  I've got my '97 GS500 a couple of months ago (off eBay, actually).  The seller was very open about everything that wasn't right and the price was good - so no complaints here.  One of the things that was wrong - the turn signal relay - it simply didn't work: the turn signals would light up but not flash.

I was doing a full service anyway, so I asked the mechanic to swap the relay, which he did - and the turn signals worked fine.  Yesterday, I was riding early in the morning in the rain, so I turned the lights on.  Interestingly, after the bike warmed up (I have about 35 miles one-way ride to work), the turn signals stopped working completely: I flick the switch - nothing happened.  Interestingly, when I turned the lights off - they worked again.

This morning I tested the voltage on the relay - both with lights on and off - and everything is fine.  Of course, the bike was cold.  I also noticed that when the engine is turning faster (say, beyond 6.5K RPM), the higher the revs, the faster the turn signals blink.  At about 100 miles an hour (about 9.5K RPM in 6th gear), they are almost permanently lit.

This definitely smells like some sort of electrical problems - but where to start looking? Many thanks in advance.

[Homer]

LEDs? 

[bill14224]

My bike is a 1994 and I can't shut my headlight off, so I don't know what you're talking about regarding that.

However, your flasher behavior is suggesting that your voltage regulator may be bad.  As your rpms increase your regulator is supposed to keep the voltage fairly constant.  A bad regulator can allow the voltage to climb until it's too high, which would make your flashers flash faster and faster.  This will also cause a rash of blown bulbs, if it hasn't already.  If everything's normal you might have slow flashing at idle, but at operating rpms your flashers should flash at more or less a constant rate.  Best of luck sorting it out.

[shchuka]

To Home: no, standard bulbs.

To bill14224: hm, yeah, what you're saying sounds about right.  Will try to check that out.

[shchuka]

Just checked the voltage regulator/rectifier - definitely need to get a new one.
Thanks for suggesting it.

Now, does anybody know of a place to get a cheap one here, in UK?  I guess I can always ask my regular mechanic to order it for me, but maybe I can get it cheaper myself somewhere?

[sledge]

Plenty of em about if you know where to look, depends what you want, or to be more specific how much you want to spend  

a brand new OEM one? about £115 (dealer)
a brand new pattern one about £70 inc vat and del.
a used one? £15-25 (breaker)
a used one with a guarantee? £30-40 (breaker)

Dont chance one off ebay, there are scammers who will sell you a duff one and claim there was nothing wrong with it when they passed it on. Its not worth the hassle.

Personaly I would go with a pattern one for £67.95 all in..... http://www.electrexworld.co.uk/rr17-regulator-rectifier-567-0.html

[shchuka]

Thanks! Just order this one.  Hopefully, will arrive soon.
This is even a bit cheaper than what I've seen in a couple of places (it was averaging around 70 plus delivery).