Help, turn signal relay melted?????

[ksnyder]

My 1995 R1100RSL has 99600 miles. Last night the turn signals did not work while riding home from work. I figured a fuse had blow so I wasn't too concerned. At home I discovered the fuses were fine. I have had a Signal Minder in for the last 70000 miles and it has worked fine. I thought maybe the Signal Minder had died. I pulled the signal minder and installed the original relay. The turn signals did not work. I touched the relay and got burned. When I pulled the relay apart the inside was melted. I figured there must be a short. I pulled the bike apart. I removed all the light bulbs and started looking for a short. I checked each wire with an ohm meter and could not find a short. I checked the operation of each switch and they all appear to work properly. I don't know where to look next. Does anybody have any ideas?????

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[deilenberger]

My 1995 R1100RSL has 99600 miles. Last night the turn signals did not work while riding home from work. I figured a fuse had blow so I wasn't too concerned. At home I discovered the fuses were fine. I have had a Signal Minder in for the last 70000 miles and it has worked fine. I thought maybe the Signal Minder had died. I pulled the signal minder and installed the original relay. The turn signals did not work. I touched the relay and got burned. When I pulled the relay apart the inside was melted. I figured there must be a short. I pulled the bike apart. I removed all the light bulbs and started looking for a short. I checked each wire with an ohm meter and could not find a short. I checked the operation of each switch and they all appear to work properly. I don't know where to look next. Does anybody have any ideas?????

Thanks,
Kurt

Kurt - the RS models are known to have tie-wraps near the steering head/ignition switch that were put on WAY too tight by Otto in Berlin (it must have been after the 11AM beer break..) These eventually can cause the insulation in the wiring they tie down to break through and short. You want to do short tests between the terminals on the bulb sockets, and from the center pin on each bulb to ground on the engine. You then have to do the same on the switches.

Somewhere you have a short. The trick will be finding it.

 

[ksnyder]

I did all those tests. At least six times. no short was found. That is what is driving me crazy.

 

[deilenberger]

I did all those tests. At least six times. no short was found. That is what is driving me crazy.

Something was missed. The relay won't burn up by itself.. it's drawing too much current from someplace.

What parts in the relay burned up and melted? The coil? The contacts?

 

[ksnyder]

The chips on the circuit board fried. The contacts are clean. I'll recheck everything this evening. I was working on the bike until 01:00 this morning. The worst part is the sun is shining and it's in the 70s.

 

[ksnyder]

I 'm not sure what happened but the issue is in the connector that plugs into the turn signal relay. I removed the plastic housing to get a better look at the internals of the connector. On a whim I plugged it into the fried relay and the turn signals and four way flashers work. If I put the plastic housing back on it doesn't work. I'll have to look at the connector with magnification. I don't know how the fired relay can function but it does. It will be replaced tommorrow.