DEcosse to the rescue again - and the errant turn signals

Last fall, the turn signals went haywire on my Touring.

I was concerned - having just finished replacing the valve cover gasket for the third time (and it still leaks by the way) and in the process having tugged and pulled on the wiring harness for clearance - that I had really messed up something. To add to the mix, I had installed various electric items and used a good number of PosiTaps for the triggers and or power.

I would not run the bike for fear of making things worse.

Winter arrived removing all motivation to go in the cold garage and work.

I posted a sequence of PMs with @DEcosse who was so gracious as ever with copious advice.

Last week, with my budding electrical engineer daughter home from school, and input from @Rocket Scientist, I purchased several small space heaters from Lowes, warmed the garage, handed my daughter a copy of the message exchange with @DEcosse along with a volt-ohm meter, and she set to work.

In the end, the flawed design of the OEM indicator light housings was the culprit.

The ground contact in particular, is apt to get caught by the insertion of the bulb, and bent out of the way. When this happens (and upon thorough inspection, three of the four sockets were in this condition from when I took delivery of the bike new), there are three possibilities: 1) the contact will still contact the ground, and only the ground, and the bulb will work; 2) the contact will be bent out of the way making no contact - and the bulb will not work; 3) the contact will be bent in such a way as to touch the power contact creating a short (please note -- this is a misnomer, as the bulbs are not polarized and Triumph did not bother to check which tab was power and which tab was ground - but one contact is inside the cylinder of the receptacle for the bulb base, while the other contact is at the bottom of the receptacle for the bulb, and once the bulb is inserted, provides spring tension).

Over time, a bent contact could vibrate between all three possibilities above.

In any case, my daughter corrected all four sockets -- found I had one burnt out bulb -- and I'm back in business.

I will be ordering replacement sockets -- and doing this myself -- will carefully insert the bulbs to maintain nominal performance.

Joesmoe said:

Triumph did not bother to check which tab was power and which tab was ground .

Click to expand...

I would go as far as to say that (on the rear of non Tourings) it may even be deliberately reversed. The bit of me that shrieks "conspiracy" thinks it is to stop home maintenance - "Visit your local dealer". Sadly for Triumph we have brains.

Oh and BEWARE the Chinese copies of indicators. The "Spring" contacts are often NOT springy at all.

Gald you got the brains of the family to sort out the problem.

Cheers Chris

Thank you @Joesmoe and your wonderful daughter for being able and willing to figure this out and posting here! AND being willing to brave the cold!

Joesmoe,

It's great to read of your success with the needed repair, and I tip my hat to your daughter for her knowledge!
Just for clarification, it appears to me your name "Paul" is at the bottom of the opening post. Am I seeing that
correctly? Thank you!

I'm sure I didn't do much more than just help to stimulate the thought process between you & your daughter - congrats on getting it all sorted out though!

Valve cover is a real pain. will post a video when i do mine. Last cover has over 20,000 miles and no leaks.

Good information Paul.

On the leaking valve cover, did you put it on a piece of glass to see it is flat or might be warmed a few thousandths? It doesn't take much. I keep a small window piece in my shop to check such things. A classic/vintage Triumph and Harley mechanic friend used to check engine case and side covers like that and if they indicated any type of warpage, off they went to the machine shop. There it had what looked like a giant sander that milled the cases down until they were flat.

@Navigator That is a great suggestion ! No, I didn't think of that, though should have.

A definition of insanity is doing things over the same way and expecting different results.

Thank you.

Navigator said:

A classic/vintage Triumph and Harley mechanic friend used to check engine case and side covers like that and if they indicated any type of warpage, off they went to the machine shop. There it had what looked like a giant sander that milled the cases down until they were flat.

Click to expand...

I have my grandad's engineers glass plate on my work bench. Black Glass.