Turn Signals not working - Broken Ground.

[ChiTownEngineer]

So Gents (and ladies), I thought I'd share an experience for your reading pleasure and hopefully it helps someone down the line.

I've been dealing with a series of electrical (related) problems lately. I took the Uly to Sturgis and before I left I had the voltage regulator quit. No big deal, swap in a new one and be grateful it didn't happen in Sturgis. While in Sturgis my turn signals stopped working. Again, not a big deal, I just figured I'd swap the flasher when I got home. Then when I got back (like, the next day) the fuel pump died. I barely made it back home. So, long story short, I swapped in a new pump and she's running like a champ again. I then swapped in the new turn signal flasher unit assuming that was the quick easy fix. No go.

After consulting the wiring diagram and poking around with my meter, I determined the ground for the flasher had failed. Look for a broken wire, everything looks good. Finally found the problem:

Uly Broken Ground.jpg

This is the ground bolt behind the headlight assembly. I know a broken ground repair seems pretty mundane but I thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention for two reasons:

1 - It wasn't visually obvious. Even tugging on the wire at first didn't knock it loose. The conductors had broken inside the insulation which made the failure difficult to isolate.
2 - This connection flexes when the bars are turned. With normal road riding this may never be a problem. However, if you turn the bars lock to lock on a regular basis as when doing slow off road stuff, this ground may become a problem for you too.

I didn't identify all the circuits that ground at this location but if you've got a pesky electrical problem in the front end of your Uly (and probably other models) you might want to start by checking for a broken wire at this spot.

Hope this helps someone down the road.

[user_deleted]

hey chris: nice post. i posted up pics and repair procedure for that pesky headstock ground situation a year or so ago on here. one of the things i noted on that post is if you start to experience headlights dimming, one or both beams going out, gauge cluster getting wacky, key switch inconsistent, or turn signals acting weird....it's that ground cluster. nice post.

[Outlaw]

👍

[ChiTownEngineer]

hey chris: nice post. i posted up pics and repair procedure for that pesky headstock ground situation a year or so ago on here. one of the things i noted on that post is if you start to experience headlights dimming, one or both beams going out, gauge cluster getting wacky, key switch inconsistent, or turn signals acting weird....it's that ground cluster. nice post.

Thanks John. I missed your post when you originally posted it. Found it though. Good read. Wish I read it a year ago...

[Tbone]

Thanks for the reminder.

[Jonliving]

Thanks for posting this with pictures. Saved me some chedder and was able to fix it.

So Gents (and ladies), I thought I'd share an experience for your reading pleasure and hopefully it helps someone down the line.

I've been dealing with a series of electrical (related) problems lately. I took the Uly to Sturgis and before I left I had the voltage regulator quit. No big deal, swap in a new one and be grateful it didn't happen in Sturgis. While in Sturgis my turn signals stopped working. Again, not a big deal, I just figured I'd swap the flasher when I got home. Then when I got back (like, the next day) the fuel pump died. I barely made it back home. So, long story short, I swapped in a new pump and she's running like a champ again. I then swapped in the new turn signal flasher unit assuming that was the quick easy fix. No go.

After consulting the wiring diagram and poking around with my meter, I determined the ground for the flasher had failed. Look for a broken wire, everything looks good. Finally found the problem:

Uly Broken Ground.jpg

This is the ground bolt behind the headlight assembly. I know a broken ground repair seems pretty mundane but I thought I'd bring it to everyone's attention for two reasons:

1 - It wasn't visually obvious. Even tugging on the wire at first didn't knock it loose. The conductors had broken inside the insulation which made the failure difficult to isolate.
2 - This connection flexes when the bars are turned. With normal road riding this may never be a problem. However, if you turn the bars lock to lock on a regular basis as when doing slow off road stuff, this ground may become a problem for you too.

I didn't identify all the circuits that ground at this location but if you've got a pesky electrical problem in the front end of your Uly (and probably other models) you might want to start by checking for a broken wire at this spot.

Hope this helps someone down the road.

[Pushr0d]

Yep - it's called ground "#4" on the wiring diagram in the manual. Very common failure.

I put some heatshrink tubing on each lead, and then soldered a ring terminal to each of them, and put lock tight on the bolt.