PianoMan

Nitrous
Joined
Apr 1, 2006
Messages
1,244
Location
Overland Park, Kansas USA
I turned off the beast last night after an hour ride. I usually do that by putting down the kickstand. That way I never get off and watch it fall! :eek: It takes a couple of seconds to reach the ignition and turn the key to off and then over to wheel lock . In that time I heard what I thought was just the fan running since it was medium pitched.

This morning I turn on the ignition and hear an identical tone and realize it was the same thing I heard last night. The engine's cold so I know it's not the radiator fan. It only happens when the ignition is on. It sounded like it was coming from under the seat. The next part we've all been through with taking anything to a mechanic. I drove to Engle and guess what........ it wouldn't make the noise even once.:mad:

This is when I evoked Schwartz's Only Law: MURPHY WAS AN OPTIMIST!

Dave suggested that when it happened again, start pushing on each button on the handlebars until the sound went away. Sure enough, it happened several times this afternoon and it was always because of the turn signal control. It's as though I had hit the turn signal release button but the slider didn't come all the way back to center. Later this evening it would make the noise when I turned on my right turn signal...... but this time both the right front and rear signal didn't work. Left side was fine. I'll call tomorrow and see what we can do. They thought it might be a relay?

Just wanted to bring this potential failure to your attention and I'm working on not taking so much space to say it!;)
 
My first thought was the relay. They can be persnickety. I have many relays(ice cubes) controlling various things in my poultry barns. Sometimes a good couple of bangs against something hard will solve the problem, either by breaking the dang thing forcing replacement or loosening the crud on the contact points a tad. Unless of course its digital.....
 
Just a little off of the subject.... but I had a guy come in recently in a car that had some lighting problems. If he turned on the headlights both of the little turn signal arrows in his instrument cluster lit up. If the headlights were off and he turned on the turnsignals the backlighting in his instrument cluster flashed, as well as the parking lamps.

It turns out that both of his front turn signal bulbs had burned out over a period of time and he decided to replace them. These bulbs were combination turn signal bulbs and parking lamps... a dual filiment 1157 bulb. He paid no attention to that and replaced them with single filiment 1156 bulbs. The base of these bulbs made contact with both contacts in the sockets thereby connecting the turnsignal circuit with the parking lamp circuit. I love these guys...
 
Anythings possible... but the turn signals on the Rocket don't do double duty as parking lamps. Just do a light check and make sure all your turn signal bulbs front and rear are working and they are the same brightness. If you have a bulb that is only half as bright as the others or is burnt out it could play with the turn signal relay as it works off of a certain amount of load. If the load is wrong things can go wiggy...

The best time to check the turn signal bulbs is when it is acting up and making the strange noise...

BTW, wiggy is a highly technical term...:D
 
Don't know the effect you're talking about ... but a likely cause is the systematic use of either the kickstand or the kill switch, as opposed to the ignition key, to switch the engine off. For some reason, it causes engine electronics or relays in there to go berserk. And, for some reason, that advice of mine has remedied the problem in 4 cases out of 5. Worth a try?
 
Jamie had to go to a Mensa meeting....

wilbur knows what I'm talkin' about :D... I smashed my wobblin' shaft just this afternoon... it took 8 stiches:mad:
 
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