Electrical light question

[nzemke]

This may be a silly question but nothing asked nothing gained...I purchased some new turn signals (none LED) and put them on and then was puzzled by why they wouldn't blink. After doing the research I found out that you have to have a 27 watt bulb in there and the one it came with was a 23 watt. I spent several hours trying to find the right bulb as well as talking with the guys at the auto shop. Sadly I'm failing right an left on this. So I then looked into the load resister and saw that I would need a 30 watt load for a 36 ohm resistor...which it seems that they only place to get them online is through china which will take another 2 weeks to get here. Sadly when I got the bike it did not come with any of the front lighting so I'm stuck waiting. So a little light bulb, so to say, goes off and I'm stuck wondering if I instead add another bulb in parallel (12V 4watt bulb) could I get her running now?

[tyhodge07]

I'm not sure on the issue, but thought I would offer if you were interested. I have stock 1100 special turn signals for front and rear if you were looking to get all stock stuff on there.

[bikerphil]

If you don't mind losing the auto cancel, get a 2 prong electronic flasher from auto parts, about $10.

[nzemke]

At this point I would like to go with the smaller bulbs/housing for the turn signal and keep the auto turn off feature. But at this point I'm not ruling anything out. Hoping someone will know about the parallel question. It would be nice to have a second light for the blinker placed inside the headlight housing and cut a slit on the bottom of each side to let the light out for more visibility of my turning intentions without adding much more in the term of cosmetics.

[natemoen]

I guess a big question to ask since it really makes a difference in what answer we give you is:

What was your reasoning for going with LED bulbs?

[Dylano*]

I believe he said NONE are led bulbs.

To answer your question, yes you can just wire another bulb in parallel and it should fix your problem perfectly.

[fredintoon]

This may be a silly question but nothing asked nothing gained...I purchased some new turn signals (none LED) and put them on and then was puzzled by why they wouldn't blink. After doing the research I found out that you have to have a 27 watt bulb in there and the one it came with was a 23 watt. I spent several hours trying to find the right bulb as well as talking with the guys at the auto shop. Sadly I'm failing right an left on this. So I then looked into the load resister and saw that I would need a 30 watt load for a 36 ohm resistor...which it seems that they only place to get them online is through china which will take another 2 weeks to get here. Sadly when I got the bike it did not come with any of the front lighting so I'm stuck waiting. So a little light bulb, so to say, goes off and I'm stuck wondering if I instead add another bulb in parallel (12V 4watt bulb) could I get her running now?

Hi Noah,
been down that road, here's the Reader's Digest version:-
The stock flasher needs a 54Watt load to work.
Less than 54W and the signals simply light up and don't flash.
More than 54W and they flash faster.
The flasher don't know or care how many lights there are (2 x 27W, 3 x 18W, 2 x 23W + 1 x 8W, or whatever) so long as the load is right.
Automotive 2-prong flashers (3-prong units are wired wrong inside) work with a lower load, el-cheapos flash rate varies with load, electronic units flash at the same speed regardless.
As Mr Stupid found out by mistaking a black wire for a dark brown one, even when shorted across; 4 clicks and then the fuse blows.
They plug into the bike's 3-prong receptacle two ways, one works, t'other don't.
The stock flasher is the ONLY unit that works with the self-canceller.

[natemoen]

I believe he said NONE are led bulbs.

I guess I glanced over that too quickly!

[nzemke]

I really appreciate the help. I was able to order a bag of 12V 4 watt bulbs. Should have them in tomorrow morning and have them on the bike during "lunch brake". Hoping this allows me to mark one more thing done!

[TopCatGr58]

I'm no electrical guru, but I remember a while back learning that when you put a resistor/LOAD in parallel it actually REDUCES the resistance because with the Parallel current paths, the electricity has 2 paths/pipes to flow...so just like water, it will flow more easily thru 2 pipes instead of just 1.

SO...to get the right load/resistance, you need to wire the extra light in SERIES with the turn signal wire....this will allow the resistances to ADD UP.
You'll need to splice into the wire at the headlight bucket, run the green or brown wire to your extra light (+), then run the (-) from the extra light back into the separated spliced green or brown wire to each turn signal.

T.C.

[Dylano*]

I love dc.

Talking resistance is different than talking load. It is load that the flashers care about. Basically it's like a fuse that blows and reconnects itself. Resistance is ohms, wiring in series will create more resistance, but that isn't what we want. In order for the flasher to go off it has to have a specified volume of wattage passing through it. You can create that additional required load with more bulbs If you want, or you could also wire up a couple 20w (or whatever you need) resisters in parallel to your front or rear blinkers.

[nzemke]

OK, so I got some bulbs but they are just a hair shy on getting the flasher to work.

Tell me if my math is right...a 1250 Ohm resistor would give me enough amperage to add onto the current additional bulb that is 12V .33 amps + 12V 23 watt bulb (plus the back stock one at 12V 27 watt)?

[crazy steve]

A couple of cautions here....

First, putting an additional resistance in series with the light will make the already-dim 23 watt lamps even dimmer.

Second, a 27 watt lamp is a 'standard' motorcycle lamp, available at any motorcycle store; not an auto parts store. If the lights you bought use those 'special' small lamps, be aware that bulb life is poor with these; they don't dissipate heat well. They're not DOT-approved for this reason.

Installing a 40 ohm resistor in parallel with each 23 watt lamp will bump the total load to 27 watts. Use at least a 10 watt rated resistor, and mount it where it can shed heat (and not melt surrounding parts)....

[nzemke]

If you don't mind showing me the math behind that I would greatly appreciate it. Then I would know where my numbers fouled up with 1200 :S

[nzemke]

And it sounds more and more like I'm just going to be stuck finding a set of the original front blinkers