Slow blinking rate - Stock

[jeero]

Hello all.

I personally have an R6 but my gf has a 2005 GS500F which is bone stock. I rode it a lot last year and it's a pretty fun standard bike!

Lately we have been noticing that her turn signals are blinking extremely slowly.
It doesn't matter whether she turns on the left or right signals it does the same thing both sides.

When the signal is engaged, the lights of the respective side turn on, stay on, stay on, stay on, turn off and on quickly, stay on, stay on, etc..
They stay on for about 4-5 seconds before doing a single blink.

Another thing I have noticed is when we're at a red light waiting to turn, sometimes it doesn't blink at all. It will just stay solid.
Blipping the throttle or bringing the revs up to 2500-3000 seems to help get the relay going for a single blink. Unfortunately holding the revs up at a red light is not the greatest idea on a air-cooled bike so I told her not to do that regularly.

I know it's not the bulbs, all 4 lights work.
Could it be the turn signal relay? I'm having a hard time finding a replacement part number for that, do I just buy a generic one from a car parts store?
If it's not the relay, is it her regular/rectifier that isn't pumping out enough power? How would I go about testing the R/R? I have a regular voltmeter but am not an electrical savant so I barely know how to use it haha.

Cheers and thanks for any help!

[Watcher]

If the rectifier isn't doing it's job it would affect much more than the turn signals.

I was having a similar problem, where my signals would blink faster as my rpm rose, to the point where at highway speed it would spaz out and was unusable as an indicator.

Changed the flasher out, problem was cured.


Not sure what yours uses, mine had one of those cylindrical 2 prong electrical flashers.  Bought a new one at Auto zone for $5 and plugged it in to the existing wires.

If its a relay, pull it off and take it to the store with you.  Find one with the same specs, buy it, plug it in, enjoy.

[Worm]

+1 on the relay.

[jeero]

Not sure what yours uses, mine had one of those cylindrical 2 prong electrical flashers.  Bought a new one at Auto zone for $5 and plugged it in to the existing wires.

If its a relay, pull it off and take it to the store with you.  Find one with the same specs, buy it, plug it in, enjoy.

Ok cool. Good tip, thanks. I'll give that a try.
Can I ask what year GS you have?

[Watcher]

Its a 1996.

Its very well possible they changed some things out as technology changed, but then again I'm fairly certain that my bike was rebuilt as some point so it might just be different depending on if the mechanic cut corners or ghetto-rigged anything.


If you are unsure where your flasher/relay is, have someone flash it on and off while you listen/feel around.  You can hear and feel the action of it powering on and off.

[jeero]

Its a 1996.

Its very well possible they changed some things out as technology changed, but then again I'm fairly certain that my bike was rebuilt as some point so it might just be different depending on if the mechanic cut corners or ghetto-rigged anything.


If you are unsure where your flasher/relay is, have someone flash it on and off while you listen/feel around.  You can hear and feel the action of it powering on and off.

I know where it's located, the service manual does a good job at pointing it out. Unfortunately it doesn't list any part/model numbers for it nor have anything in their troubleshooting section for "slow blinking" signals.

I'll rip it out of her bike later tonight when I get home from work and go to parts stores to see if they have something similar.
I will update this thread as well if it does solve it, for anyone in the future to make reference to. Not much on Google about slow blinkers for a GS500.

[jeero]

OP here to deliver an update.

I took out the stock relay and brought it with me to parts store. There were two different 2-prong 12v Flasher relays available. One at 5$ and the other at a whopping 8$.
Made the gf splurge and buy the 8$ one because it seemed to have a better build quality and also it has a transparent casing; will be easy to see if something burned out in there in the future if the issue comes back.

Below is a quick album to show the differences between the one I bought and the stock one.
The relay I found had the prongs in the exact position we needed so it was literally plug and play.
It took longer to loosen the right tail fairing to get my hands in there than it was to change the part. 

Blinkers work perfectly as intended now.
Hope this helps someone else in the future!

Album: http://imgur.com/a/AR1EN


Cheers,
jeero

[Watcher]

Glad to see everything was as expected and the problem is fixed.

Safe riders are happy riders