I saw OWL's latest reply and since I had time, decided to tackle the turn signal switch. It got a little hairy.
First, ignore the instructions. They show two switch types, neither of which are the R3 switch. Also ignore the part where they tell you to loosen the Allen bolts. You don’t have to loosen the Allen bolts that hold the switch/clutch/handgrip assembly to the handle bar. Instead, remove the Phillips head machine screw on the back of the switch housing and the one directly underneath the switch housing. Note that you have to unlock the handlebars and straighten them out to get the bottom screw out. Also the bottom screw is shorter. Don’t mix it up with the longer screw for the back.
This is what the inside looks like…
I removed the screw holding a brass plate that keeps the wire loom in place for the headlight switch. It’s not shown but the empty screw hole is visible upper left corner. On the lower left is you wire loom. You will need to cut the zip tie holding the loom in order to maneuver around in there. (This gave me the opportunity to install a black zip tie upon reassembly, and since we all know black is the fastest color, this is a good thing!) Dead center in the pic is the back of the horn switch. I removed the screw holding the horn button, which also holds one end of the turn signal switch beneath. Be careful when you lift up the horn switch, there is a cone spring in there. That little round brass nipple on the lower right is the horn button contact. When you reinstall the horn switch, remember the small end of the spring goes towards the button (down) and the wide end towards the switch. Be warned that while you are working in there, the horn button will come out. Better to remove it and put it someplace safe, then reinstall it just before you button things up.
Next I removed the other screw holding the turn signal switch. You can’t see it in the above pic but it would be behind the loom on the left, under the zip tie. There is a third tab with no screw in it on the turn signal switch. It is just visible in the top of the picture, beneath the rainbow of headlight wires and the triangular brass plate. While there is no screw, you need to be aware of the tab, because you have to lift the turn signal switch and angle that tab out from under the headlight loom. You could also remove the headlight switch I suppose, but there are enough loose things in the assembly at this point without making this needlessly complicated.
Well after I got the turn signal switch out, I noticed that there was no easy way to disable the latching mechanism that locks the switch left or right. The instructions recommend inserting a foam plug or spring in the gaps between the left and right switches and the housing. Not an option.
So seeing no option I decide (in retrospect, unwisely) to open up the turn signal switch housing itself. I expected a few loose parts to come out, but I was not as ready as I thought. A bunch of tiny springs and at least two ball bearings flew out, along with one copper contact.
As you can see, these are some tiny parts. My curiosity had killed the cat that had opened a Pandora’s box that my ham hands could not close. I defeinitely saw one micro ball bearing fall on the ground and despite crawling around on my hands and knees with Neo magnet, I couldn’t find that sucker. I did however find that the average makeup of debris on your patio is iron filings. Lots of them. In addition, when all of the parts flew out, I didn’t see how they were oriented. So basically it was like a little grenade going off, throwing out springs, copper contacts and tiny ball bearing shrapnel…and you had to figure out where everything went. I was f*cked.
Here is what the assembly looked like when I had it apart.
The problem was I only ever saw those copper contacts lying flat, so I tried several times to put everything together, with the contacts lying flat. Also note that I thought the ball bearing went on the ned of the springs, like a ball detent.
After several times, I kept thinking about those dark lines, and eventually I figured out they were from the copper contacts sliding back and forth, on edge. The “Hâ€Â
