I'm just getting into the checking and debugging that seem to accompany any old Harley, and sure enough, the indicators are "on the blink"

Bike was MoT three or four weeks ago and they must have been working, because faulty indicators are a fail. They worked when I picked the bike up ten days ago.

Now the left side work fine, the right rear stays on continuously until pressed a second time and the accident lights (all four) don't operate. Sounds to me like a blown front bulb, any other suggestions or things to look for?

My Evo Sportster has a long history of ****ling problems of this sort, which I attribute to the amount of tampering its wiring harness has underhlne.. I hope this bike will be different..

 

What year is the bike? Different years have different indicator systems.

 

Agree, and before calling the turn signal module bad, check for bad connections, bad grounds, mismatched or unequal amp draw on the bulbs, dirty bulb base/bulb socket.

All of those things can affect how the turn signal module works.

 

Bike is a 96 Ultra Classic

I've now checked the front right bulb. No obvious sign of damage, socket clean but fitting another bulb produced a clear, steady light, front and rear when the switch was activated. No response from accident flashers

 

So, now I have fixed the problem although I'm none the wiser. I swapped the bulbs between the front indicators and the original LHS bulb worked both sides. The original RHS bulb won't work either side. It was labelled 12V 21W, which was what I'd expect; I put a new 12V 21W bulb in the LHS from my workshop stock, and it worked fine. The same bulb doesn't work on the RHS.

So now the Electra Glide is working.

I put the original LHS bulb in the Sportster and it worked there.

So I guess there is a minor corrosion problem causing a bad earth in the RHS front indicator housing AND the original bulb is maybe starting to fail?

Oh and woo-hoo, the courier just came and dropped off my new-to-me Clymer manual. According to that, the bike should have those twin-filament bulbs with running lights. UK bikes don't have them because here, running lights at the front must be WHITE.