Stupid MKIII signal light question.

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Aug 14, 2006
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I bought my MKIII in late November 2006. I've been putzing around with it and finally got the new battery in ect.

I was going through to make sure the lights worked, warning lights turned on, blah blah blah.

The turn signals just light up brighter when selected and dont blink. Are'nt these things supposed to blink??

There is also 2 wires not connected to the big blue capacitor and I am unsure what is up with that.
 
Coco said:
The turn signals just light up brighter when selected and dont blink. Are'nt these things supposed to blink??

= Yes -but often they don't, or flash (blink) slowly even with a fully charged battery and it is normally the original old flasher relay that is the problem. And if you have disconnected the warning light then that will also slow the flash rate a bit.

Once the engine is started there's generally a bit more voltage in the system and the flashers start to work normally.

Coco said:
There is also 2 wires not connected to the big blue capacitor and I am unsure what is up with that.

Maybe nothing?
 
Poor grounds and corroded bullet connectors will also cause low voltage and the turn signals to not flash.
 
I checked everything. I was stumped why they would not work, so for giggles I put a trickle charger on the battery and voila, they blink.

I seriously can not wait to upgrade the ignition and charging system on this thing. Too many gremlins.
 
Maybe you already are hip to this but some others may not know. The female bullet connectors in your harness are old and are breaking. There are singles, doubles, triples and four way commons as well as four ways that are all separate electrically. A quick count with some spares added is the best way to get things working well. Adding some rubber safe dielectric grease to the new connectors will help them last. I have bought them at http://www.britishwiring.com When you pull the bullets from the female plugs grab the hex backing of the bullet with needle nose pliers so you don't break the wire inside the housing just behind the bullet. this job is a pain you will get tired, cramps in your hands and all but it pays you back.
 
norbsa48503 said:
Maybe you already are hip to this but some others may not know. The female bullet connectors in your harness are old and are breaking. There are singles, doubles, triples and four way commons as well as four ways that are all separate electrically. A quick count with some spares added is the best way to get things working well. Adding some rubber safe dielectric grease to the new connectors will help them last. I have bought them at http://www.britishwiring.com When you pull the bullets from the female plugs grab the hex backing of the bullet with needle nose pliers so you don't break the wire inside the housing just behind the bullet. this job is a pain you will get tired, cramps in your hands and all but it pays you back.

Good to know. I plan a whole rewire next winter anyway.
 
Coco said:
norbsa48503 said:
Maybe you already are hip to this but some others may not know. The female bullet connectors in your harness are old and are breaking. There are singles, doubles, triples and four way commons as well as four ways that are all separate electrically. A quick count with some spares added is the best way to get things working well. Adding some rubber safe dielectric grease to the new connectors will help them last. I have bought them at http://www.britishwiring.com When you pull the bullets from the female plugs grab the hex backing of the bullet with needle nose pliers so you don't break the wire inside the housing just behind the bullet. this job is a pain you will get tired, cramps in your hands and all but it pays you back.

Good to know. I plan a whole rewire next winter anyway.

Better yet bag the bullet connectors altogeter and solder every connection or use those Posi-Loc connectors. I solder everything but have been wanting to try the Posi-Locs. They look pretty good. Has anyone tried them?

If you are going to completely rewire the bike, don't bother spending 100 bucks on a stock wiring harness if you are installing electronic ignition, voltage regulator etc. You will have a ton of wires left over with the stock harness. Make your own harness from marine-grade 16 gauge wire like CNW does. You can buy marine-grade primary wire in several different colors. If you want to keep everything stock, British Wiring as mentioned above is a great place to buy a harness, bullet connectors etc. Good people to deal with.
 
tpeever said:
Coco said:
norbsa48503 said:
Maybe you already are hip to this but some others may not know. The female bullet connectors in your harness are old and are breaking. There are singles, doubles, triples and four way commons as well as four ways that are all separate electrically. A quick count with some spares added is the best way to get things working well. Adding some rubber safe dielectric grease to the new connectors will help them last. I have bought them at http://www.britishwiring.com When you pull the bullets from the female plugs grab the hex backing of the bullet with needle nose pliers so you don't break the wire inside the housing just behind the bullet. this job is a pain you will get tired, cramps in your hands and all but it pays you back.

Good to know. I plan a whole rewire next winter anyway.

Better yet bag the bullet connectors altogeter and solder every connection or use those Posi-Loc connectors. I solder everything but have been wanting to try the Posi-Locs. They look pretty good. Has anyone tried them?

If you are going to completely rewire the bike, don't bother spending 100 bucks on a stock wiring harness if you are installing electronic ignition, voltage regulator etc. You will have a ton of wires left over with the stock harness. Make your own harness from marine-grade 16 gauge wire like CNW does. You can buy marine-grade primary wire in several different colors. If you want to keep everything stock, British Wiring as mentioned above is a great place to buy a harness, bullet connectors etc. Good people to deal with.

Thanks Tobin, those are good suggestions. I am not keeping anything stock on this bike so a factory wiring harness will be out of the question. I am going to attempt to a lot of internal wiring and integrate the turn signals into the rear tail light that a custom Harley guy is making for me. I would like to go with the most up to date connections ect to make life easy.

I am pretty scared to attempt wiring so I might pay someone to do it, but I will try first and see what happens.
 
I am pretty scared to attempt wiring so I might pay someone to do it, but I will try first and see what happens

You can do it!! I don't know s**t about automotive wiring and have managed to rewire three old Britikes on my own. And they all run just fine!! All you need is a good wiring diagram like the ones in the back of the workshop manual for your bike. If you go the electronic ignition, solid state voltage regulation route, the wiring is greatly simplified. Good generic wiring diagrams are available with the Boyer ignitions and as pdf files from most of the dealers like Old Britts, British Cycle etc. With one of these diagrams and the original wiring diagram you can figure it out.
 
tpeever said:
I am pretty scared to attempt wiring so I might pay someone to do it, but I will try first and see what happens

You can do it!! I don't know s**t about automotive wiring and have managed to rewire three old Britikes on my own. And they all run just fine!! All you need is a good wiring diagram like the ones in the back of the workshop manual for your bike. If you go the electronic ignition, solid state voltage regulation route, the wiring is greatly simplified. Good generic wiring diagrams are available with the Boyer ignitions and as pdf files from most of the dealers like Old Britts, British Cycle etc. With one of these diagrams and the original wiring diagram you can figure it out.

Excellent. I've installed my own car stereos, but that is about it. I've got the manual and looked at the wiring diagrams and thought it didn't look too bad. Maybe there is hope for me and my wiring skills afterall.
 
Now my horn quit working. WTF? :cry:

I hooked up the two mystery wires back to the blue capacitor and now the horn is dead. Not sure if it was pure coincidence or maybe that is why the two wires were not connected in the first place.

I'm an electro-retard so trying to trouble shoot electrical problems for me is a total nightmare and I would rather chew off my own thumb than deal with it.

I do have to get the bike inspected before I can plate it here so this is something that has to be done. I'll try disconnecting those wires again and see what happens. I do however, suspect those two wires have something to do with the charging system.

Now where did I put my shop manual....................................... :roll:
 
Coco said:
I hooked up the two mystery wires back to the blue capacitor and now the horn is dead.

Could you give a little bit more information? Wire colours?

The wires to the capacitor should be brown/blue and red, and need to be connected to the capacitor the correct way. And you don't actually need the capacitor connected to run the bike (as long as the battery is charged) so possibly better to leave it disconnected if you are not sure how to check it.
I don't see how connecting the (correct?) capacitor wires could affect the horn (unless the capacitor is causing a heavy current drain?)
 
L.A.B. said:
Coco said:
I hooked up the two mystery wires back to the blue capacitor and now the horn is dead.

Could you give a little bit more information? Wire colours?

The wires to the capacitor should be brown/blue and red, and need to be connected to the capacitor the correct way. And you don't actually need the capacitor connected to run the bike (as long as the battery is charged) so possibly better to leave it disconnected if you are not sure how to check it.
I don't see how connecting the (correct?) capacitor wires could affect the horn (unless the capacitor is causing a heavy current drain?)

The horn thing is a mystery.

My battery is on the way out but is charged. I recall when I first started charging the dead battery, the horn didn't work and just gave a little bit of noise. Once the battery was charged the horn worked great.

Now, the lights work and are nice and bright, the starter can kick over the motor, the blinkers are woking but now nothing from the horn.

The wires I connected back to the capacitor were there but simply not attatched to the spade connections on the capacitor.

The wire colour is 2 red wires to one connection, 2 brown/blue to one connection, and a single brown/blue to the remaining theird connection.

Everything seems as it should. Hopefully things will work themselves out once the new Sparx alternator and ignition system I ordered shows up.
 
Coco said:
L.A.B. said:
Coco said:
I hooked up the two mystery wires back to the blue capacitor and now the horn is dead.

Could you give a little bit more information? Wire colours?

The wires to the capacitor should be brown/blue and red, and need to be connected to the capacitor the correct way. And you don't actually need the capacitor connected to run the bike (as long as the battery is charged) so possibly better to leave it disconnected if you are not sure how to check it.
I don't see how connecting the (correct?) capacitor wires could affect the horn (unless the capacitor is causing a heavy current drain?)

The horn thing is a mystery.

My battery is on the way out but is charged. I recall when I first started charging the dead battery, the horn didn't work and just gave a little bit of noise. Once the battery was charged the horn worked great.

Now, the lights work and are nice and bright, the starter can kick over the motor, the blinkers are woking but now nothing from the horn.

The wires I connected back to the capacitor were there but simply not attatched to the spade connections on the capacitor.

The wire colour is 2 red wires to one connection, 2 brown/blue to one connection, and a single brown/blue to the remaining theird connection.

Everything seems as it should. Hopefully things will work themselves out once the new Sparx alternator and ignition system I ordered shows up.

Sounds like bad connections somewhere. Probably something got wiggled loose!
 
The Norton (9H) horns are notorious. They reside in a spot that gets dirt and water thrown up at them. I have taken quite a few apart (drill out the rivets) and cleaned up the points to get them to work again. Put them back together with pop rivets or small bolts.

A simpler fix is to get a better horn, like the Fiamm, and mount it away from the rear wheel. Use a relay to keep it supplied with a full 12 Volts.
 
tpeever said:
Coco said:
L.A.B. said:
Coco said:
I hooked up the two mystery wires back to the blue capacitor and now the horn is dead.

Could you give a little bit more information? Wire colours?

The wires to the capacitor should be brown/blue and red, and need to be connected to the capacitor the correct way. And you don't actually need the capacitor connected to run the bike (as long as the battery is charged) so possibly better to leave it disconnected if you are not sure how to check it.
I don't see how connecting the (correct?) capacitor wires could affect the horn (unless the capacitor is causing a heavy current drain?)

The horn thing is a mystery.

My battery is on the way out but is charged. I recall when I first started charging the dead battery, the horn didn't work and just gave a little bit of noise. Once the battery was charged the horn worked great.

Now, the lights work and are nice and bright, the starter can kick over the motor, the blinkers are woking but now nothing from the horn.

The wires I connected back to the capacitor were there but simply not attatched to the spade connections on the capacitor.

The wire colour is 2 red wires to one connection, 2 brown/blue to one connection, and a single brown/blue to the remaining theird connection.

Everything seems as it should. Hopefully things will work themselves out once the new Sparx alternator and ignition system I ordered shows up.

Sounds like bad connections somewhere. Probably something got wiggled loose!

I'm hoping that is the case. That MKIII of mine sure does shake at idle. It probably needs a tune up.
 
Ron L said:
The Norton (9H) horns are notorious. They reside in a spot that gets dirt and water thrown up at them. I have taken quite a few apart (drill out the rivets) and cleaned up the points to get them to work again. Put them back together with pop rivets or small bolts.

A simpler fix is to get a better horn, like the Fiamm, and mount it away from the rear wheel. Use a relay to keep it supplied with a full 12 Volts.

The bike has been sitting in my shop here at work so no water or dirt has been kicked up into it. One day it worked, the next it didn't.
 
Now the headlight gets brighter when the horn button is pushed. I am an official electro-retard.

More troubleshooting!
 
Coco said:
Now the headlight gets brighter when the horn button is pushed. I am an official electro-retard.

More troubleshooting!

Are you sure you are not accidentally operating the headlamp flasher (850 MkIII) when you press the horn button, -which is also the headlamp (main beam) flasher button if pressed upwards?
 
Coco-If you can hook up a surround sound,you can re-wire a British bike.

If it were me,I would remove the blue capacitor altogether. It only really serves a purpose if you are going to run the bike with no battery. And, chances are,it's shorted out internally,which is why is was disconnected to begin with. Those things do have a shelf life. You will need to maintain a strong charging system,and fully charged battery,to power the electronic ignition you plan to install,so the capacitor is superfluous.

Go to Carquest,and get some Freeway Blaster horns(Fiamm).One high tone,and one low. They look good,and will make your Norton sound like an 18 wheeler(at least the horns!):lol:

All Commandos shake like a paint mixer at idle. The Isolastics take over from about 2500 RPM on up,depending on how tightly they are set up. At highway speeds,they are as smooth as a Gold Wing.

Don't worry.Be happy. :D

Cheers,
Bruce
 
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