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Turn Signals???

Old Feb 16, 2012 | 03:20 PM
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Default Turn Signals???

Im new to the forum and forum's in general. So i apologize if this isn't in the right area. I bought a 1999 FXSTS from my uncle a few years ago. He removed the front and rear turn signals, the wires were cut so they are still accessible. The problem i'm having is...I'm trying to hook up the rears and leave the fronts off, in turn when the rear turn signals are hooked up they don't blink but they do light up. After reading a few things on the forum I've read that the fronts need to be hooked up for the the rears to work. I'm some what savoy on this kind of stuff and i've read that i need to tie something into the front signals(wire them to a resistor) or something. I'm not sure where to get a resistor but i would assume radio shack sells them or i could buy them online. My problem is what type of resistor to use and how to install them. On the front turn signal there is 3 wires unlike the rear there is only 2. The front has 1 blue, 1 black and a purple. What type of resistor should i get and what wires should be tied into it? Thanks for your help
 
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Old Feb 16, 2012 | 03:40 PM
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You may need a load balancer? Though I believe that would cause them to blink faster than usual, not light steady. Might be a wiring issue on the rear, or they are setup as run, brake, turn and the turn filaments are blown. The fronts have 3 wires because they are set up as turn and run lights from the factory.
 
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Old Feb 16, 2012 | 03:56 PM
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Not a softail, but I cut the front turn signals off my old Dyna Wideglide and the rears worked fine. Didn't have to add anything to make them work.
 
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Old Feb 16, 2012 | 05:54 PM
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Harley took a page from the Ford playbook and set them up so they wouldn't blink if a bulb blows out.
Its a quick and easy way to let you know a bulb needs to be replaced.
In your case you need to add a resistor (one for each side) that matches the resistance of the turn side of an 1157 bulb.

They sell the right kind called load equalizers on any site that sells LED replacement bulbs.
I don't have a wiring diagram for your bike so your going to have to either find one or play detective with a meter (a spare bulb works too) to figure out which pair of wires is the running light circuit.

To do it just turn the bike's lights on and see if you can read 12V between the black wire (ground) and another wire.
Whichever it is will be the running light and the other and the black ground wire will be the turn pair and the resistor needs to go across those two.

Do that to both sides and the rear turns should operate as if there was a bulb in front.
 
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Old Feb 16, 2012 | 09:32 PM
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Had to put both back on my softail to get them to work on the front wires one is ground one is turn sig the other is a running light they will work without running light
 
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