Evening,

Noticed tonight that left rear turn signal was not flashing..smacked once it worked for a while but stopped. swapped bulb from rt side didnt work but bulb did work left side....

left front turn signal goes a bit brighter no flashing....
rt side ok...
98 sportster

hate to have to pay to get this one fixed... so late in season..

riding dreamr

 

I have had this happen before with my Fatboy. Remove the lense, remove the bulb, check that the bulb socket has not loosened up from the shell (that is a ground point and must be tight). The sockets have a tendancy to loosen up over time due to vibration. You can fix this on the bike by using a drift punch and a hammer and backing up the housing with your leg. Just line up the punch on the riveted areas and tap with the hammer to make them tight again. Be sure to back up the housing with your leg though so you don't break it off. Check with a meter to make sure the socket shell is grounded and also check the center contacts to see that you have 12 volts. If you have no power there, then follow the wire to find the problem. Could be a flasher problem if all else fails, but try the socket first.

 

Took off passenger pad and removed seat. left turn signal was kinked & twisted... unplugged them and switched rt rear and left.. both worked...

put left together. tested and worked. played with cable.. signal worked until i bent it about a foot in by where the rear seat pad went... appears there is a short in that section under seat... straighten it up reassembled seat. it is working...

appears that i will need to replace the left wiring from connector to signal eventually. would it be better to replace the whole cable or repair the weak piece? any suggestions?

thanks
riding dreamr

 

I'm not sure I understand why you have a turnsignal wire under your passenger pad. That doesn't seem right to me. Usually those wires are running under the fender so they don't get squished and shorted out by the seat moving on top of them. Is this a custom set-up? Can those wires be relocated so that the seat/pad is not setting on top of the wires? In any event, I would cut out the bad section and splice in a new piece of wire. You need to use the same guage wire, solder the joints and use heat shrink tubing over the finished splice points. If you have enough room, cover the wiring with a split loom to protect them. I always keep wire joints tight, sealed, and protected from mechanical damage. Sometimes a previous owner/owner will try taking a turnsignal off by screwing (rotating) it and not realizing the internal wiring is twisting at the same time thereby damaging it.

 

it was one them pad extensions with strap held by end of stock solo seat and ties into fender..

looks like when it was installed the connectors werent placed under the plastic holder under seat the tail light, rt signal all pass through there..

The wires travel along the side of fender under the chrome fascia(not sure exactly what it is) to the signal.. kind of strange it is able to fit perfectly but was not put back..

It had a heat shrink around outside but was not shrunk... looked newer compared to other side (cleaner) and different.

This leads to me to believe that cable was changed along with stock turn signal (other side amber plastic cover is sun bleached)... smells like dealership...

will take your advice, cut out both cables and replace soldering joins and heat shrink each cable them both together...

looks like maybe 18 gauge or 20? will wait until bike is parked for winter