Hello Everyone,
I have been searching every possible resource I can find for the past week trying to get a clue as to what might be going on with my bike. I'll try to give as much detail as possible. I picked up a used FXDWG October of last year, it has some after market parts on it (I will list what I can below), but I haven't done any add-ons.

As listed in the title of this thread, the left side turn signals on my 2003 FXDWG do not work. When I press the turn signal button, the red key light on the dash comes on. The right side blinkers work fine. The left turn signal switch does appear to be working as I hit it with a multimeter and it appeared to show continuity. The left side switch also will shut of the right turn signal when it is activated, and I can activate the 4-way flasher setting, however, only the right side works. The left side doesn't light up (nor does the blinker light on the dash).

I have switch the bulbs back and forth and they all function on the right side, but not the left. The tail lights are LED lights, and they will light up when I press on the brakes.

I traced the wires from the front signal back to the wiring harness (aside from under the fuel tank), and from the back lights to the harness. I didn't see any bent or exposed wires. I also tried wiggling wires to see if that would work. No dice.

A little information on what I was doing when the left side stopped working. I was out riding and I made it to my destination just fine. It was a chillier day, roughly 50 degrees, and had rained earlier in the day. When I left my destination, I saw the key light come on, but wasn't sure what it was. I kept riding and every once in a while the speedometer would drop to zero, then engine light would come on, the engine would sputter, but would go back to normal. After about 25 miles, the bike shut off while I was riding.

The neutral light still worked, as did my headlight, but the bike wouldn't start. I pulled up the seat and poked the wires on the ground post coming out of the frame, and everything came back on. I was able to make it most of the way back with no problems, but about 10 miles from home, I was making a left turn and I noticed the key light come on, and the left side not working.

It turns out one of the loops that attaches the wires to the ground post was broken, and when I nudged the wires, I slipped it back into place and was able to make it home.

I have since fixed that issue, but I can't figure out the turn signals. I am guessing it is the TSSM, but I am not sure. I don't know which part of all the wires under the seat is the data port to trying and figure out what code the bike is telling me the error is coming from.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated as my next step is to head to the dealership. I am more of a mechanical person than an electrical person. I know that I could very well have missed something while poking around, but I am at a loss.

Thank you in advance for any advice, and also thank you if you have taken the time to read this.

Kyle

 

Kyle take a jumper wire and strip it off about half an inch, pull out the bulb and put the jumper wire next to the bulb as you put it back in.
Then put the other end on a known ground and test it.
Do you have a test light or vom?

 

Hello and thanks! I'll give that a try tomorrow. I don't know what a vom (voltmeter?) is, but I am sure I can get my hands on a test light.

 

I gave it a shot. I am not sure if I was doing it right or not, but nothing changed. Key light comes on when the left turn signal is pressed. Left side doesn't blink. I used a fairly thin wire to try to get it into the light socket, but it was difficult getting the bulb in and I am not sure if it seated against the base.

 

Take your trouble light or volt meter and pull the bulb, turn on the signal pot the lead on a known ground and carefully put the other lead on one then the other prongs in the socket being carful not to touch the side and see if you have juice to both running and turn.
Next put one lead on the positive side of the battery and the other side to the side of the light socket.
This will tell you if you have a good ground.
I like using a test light but a volt meter will do the same thing.

 

My guess is I wasn't doing this right. I wasn't getting anything to show on the voltmeter. This seems strange because the running light does work. I'm going to try the second thing you said. When you say the outside of the light socket, do you mean anywhere, or anywhere where the bulb sits?

 

Yes the socket itself, that is the ground for the light, in the base you have a insulated round disk with two metal contacts, one for running the other turn.
I always check my volt meter by touching the red lead on the + and black on -
Make sure it is set for voltage, you should get 12.5 volts or more.

 

Turns out I was in fact using the voltmeter wrong. I just checked and it looked like I had juice flowing to both bulbs on the left side. But the blinker wasn't changing anything when I pressed the switch.

 

OK, both metal contacts in the base are hot, the turn just does not flash?

 

From what I can tell, that is correct. I'll check again tomorrow to see if I can replicate the results of today.