Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Turn signals blinking too fast

Has anyone installed these turn signals? Triumph Acessorie Retro They have one hot wire and are supposed to ground to the bike. I just installed them and they are blinking way to fast. These signals are not LED. Does anyone no how to fix this?

Are both (front and rear) flashing quickly?

Unless one of the bulbs is out the only other reason i know of is the same problem with the LED's where the load is too small. Maybe since they are such small lights the bulbs are much smaller? If so maybe they aren't pulling enough current and need a load resistor like an LED even tho they aren't LED's. Just a guess. Do you have a meter? You could measure the resistance of a bulb across the ground/hot and if it's up at around say 50 ohms or more (approximate guess) that could be it. then a 25 watt power resistor of maybe 10 ohms from hot to ground on each bulb should do it. You may have to experiment with resistor ohm rating tho.

I just measured some bulbs and some small ones measured as much as 150 ohms while bigger ones were as low as 10. So that could be it, tho i don't know what they wouldn't tell you that.

Hey Dale

Quote:

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Unless one of the bulbs is out

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That's what I was getting at.
My knowledge of electrics just about extends that far

I had an intermitent problem recently with a rear indicator not working.

Cure most faults by swearing at the bike / faulty part.
It's suprising how often it works!!

Thanks guys, IKJ, I think I will give the resistors a try. Out of curiosity, are there any aftermarket turn signals that do no require load equilizers or resistors?

Most of them shouldn't. As long as they take the standard 1157 (dual filiment for double use as running lites) or 1156 (single filiment) they are fine. Most have one of those standard bulbs, but i assume some of the smallest ones don't because theres not enough room.I just bought a set of these and also some smoke lenses and amber bulbs for them at about $100 total...


They have the proper mounting, IE:wires coming thru the mounting hole for rears and thru a seperate hole for fronts. A bit of fabrication may be necassary but it should be easy enough. I'll know when i get them.

Thanks again, can you tell me where you got those?

i got them at phatperformanceparts.com, but you might find them cheaper elsewhere. I bought them there because they also had the smoke lenses at $2 each and amber bulbs at a buck. (as i said they come with bulbs and lenses as in the pic, but not in the colors i wanted) A set of smoke lenses like that and the bulbs on ebay were $25, so since i didn't see anyone with the suignals much cheaper i got them there so i could get the whole batch of stuff on one order.

Cool, thanks. They sound like a lot less hassle then the ones I got.

No problem. However, if you are considering them you might also wanna consider waiting till i get mine and install them then PM me and i'll let you know what the mounting involved and whether there were any pitfalls that made them not worth the trouble. Plus any things that i might find that make installation easier.

I installed those same lights last week. I spliced a new wire onto the existing ground wire, then used a spade connector to ground it to the stem of the light. It works fine, and it blinks just like the stock units.

Tom:
Before you start messing with resistors etc., make sure you have a good ground. I had the same problem when installing mini bullets - remedied simply by a correcting a poor ground on one light.
Palmer

I had the same problem when I installed my Kellerman signals from Brent. IKJ is right about the resistors. You can also install a mechanical flasher instead of the electric one. I left mine flashing faster. I feel it makes them more noticeable.

First off, a big thank you to everyone for the help.

I tried to attach the ground with a spade connector and that didn't work, they were still blinking too fast.

I went and bought a 10 watt 10 Ohm resister, and that fixed the problem. Again, thanks to everyone for their help!!

glad to hear it. However i would recommend that you turn the signals on and let them run a while and feel the resistor to see how hot it gets to be safe. they recommend a higher wattage and while i don't know how you hooked it up, if it's across the hot/ground then they will get hot. possibly too hot which could burn it out and also could melt whatever it's touching/attched to. Just feel it and see how hot it gets after the max amount of flashing you'd ever have to do at on time. If it does get real hot go get a 25 watter. Or even higher if you want to be dead safe. After 25 they usually come encased in a brass housing and are more expensive. But in any case i'd be sure to check it to be safe.

IKJ, I let them run for about 3 or 4 minutes and I could still touch the resistor. I was warm but it wasn't realy that hot. I ran the resistors parallel.