Left hand switch woes

[Michael March]

My turn signal switch keeps going on the blink, and no one has a new one anymore. I am in a bidding war on ebay for one, but I doubt I'll get it, the one that sold today went through the roof. Last year I took the switch apart and cleaned it up, and the signals began to work again. Oddly enough, a couple of times when they stopped working, I could hit the horn and they would work again. This year they stopped again, so I took it apart and cleaned it again and they worked for a day. I hit the horn and they worked for another hour. So I took the switch apart again and cleaned it up again and it worked for three days. Now it's kaput again. Has anyone had this problem and is there a fix, seeing as how I probably won't be able to find a new/used one? It's a 1981 LH.

Thanks for any advice you can give--

Mike

[skids]

It must be a bad ground connection.

[Michael March]

I don't think it's the ground, because as soon as I take apart the switch and jumper it across it works instantly. I think it's a contact in the switch itself.

[Deni]

Mike,
When I bought my 79F last fall, the turn signals also worked intermittently. I took it apart (=opened) and cleaned, but problem still there. What I found was that there was a wire that came off one of the contacts. You couldn't see it until you took it completely apart inside. Those wires are held to some contacts with blobs of solder. I guess one was a cold joint that came loose. I soldered it back on the right way (heated properly) and now fixed for good. So, take the inside apart completely where the turn signal wires connect to the switch mechanism and gently tug on the wires. The solder joints should be solid. It is a simple open mechanical switch so there's not much else that can go wrong besides being dirty or bad wire joints. You've already showed that the bike wiring beyond the switch is OK by using the jumper. This problem took me a little while to find because the wiring clamps keep the wires held tight in the switch housing (=intermittent contact), so you can't tell a connection is broken until you completely disassemble that part of the switch. Hope you have a soldering iron.
-Deni

[Michael March]

Great suggestion and it sounds quite probable. I'll try it today and let you know. thanks!

[prometheus578]

cold joint?

Ok, this is about the third post I've read today that mentioned "Cold Joint" in reference to soldering.
Deni... can you explain the term for me?
Is it something like having the solder hot enough to melt, but the part you're soldering to isn't hot enough for the solder to properly stick?

[pathfinder]

You answered that one yourself

[Deni]

prometheus578,
Yep, you got it. To solder a joint properly, the soldering iron tip should be touching both the wire and the contact on the switch and it should be held there long enough before solder is applied so both things come up to the right temperature. Then, the solder should be applied to the wire and contact (not the iron tip), and should melt freely over everything. The margins of the solder should taper down to be very thin. You can spot a cold joint because it will look like a rounded blob at the end of the wire, which is what mine looked like. This means the second surface never got hot enough to melt the solder and have it really stick. It's most likely from having applied the solder to the tip of the iron instead of the things you are trying to solder together.
-Deni

[Michael March]

Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Well all's well that ends well. Took the switch apart for the fifth time, resoldered all the joints, it worked fine, then quit again!! BUT this time I decided to try the other end, that was it. It was the #@$*& breaker board. The clip that holds the fuse in was so weak it came apart in my hand while I was trying to figure out if the problem was there. I cut off the wires, soldered them to a spade fuse holder, and now I'm good to go. Thanks for all the help and advice, I guess just messing around with the switch and improving that end got enough just juice through there to start it up again. Don't know why pressing the horn helped for a while, but I THINK I've finally fixed this bugger. Now on to the seat and some cosmetics and I'm ready to go.

Mike

[John]

Originally posted by Michael March
Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!

It was the #@$*& breaker board.
Mike

Michael...Such language!

[TopCatGr58]

Funny you should mention language....I just mistyped the word
S*H*I*'tee' when talking about "shifting", and the automatic moderation program typed in **** for my mistyped word!!

Glad you found the problem....should have replaced your fuse block FIRST!!
T.C.

[John]

TC

Mike is a preacherman!

[prometheus578]

Thanks, Pathfinder and Deni.