why are my blinkers acting like flashers when i connect the guage cluster?

[Rawr01]

i just wired up my LED turn signals and everything went fine. getting at the wiring was a pain, requiring the removal of both headlight bucket and instrument cluster, but the wiring itself was straight forward. first i connected the right signal and then tested it. it worked, along with its rear counterpart (Vizi-Tec integrated LED). then i connected the left and tested it, then tested them both, with the same result: everything worked. left signal, both front and back; right signal, both front and back. then i plugged in the instrument cluster...my blinkers have become flashers (front and rear). wtf?? thinking i might have screwed up some wiring, possibly causing a short while "rearranging" things to remount the instruments, i disconnected the harness from the instrument cluster then tested again. no dice. everything worked fine once the instruments were out of the equation. any ideas?

[Rawr01]

okay, this much i know: i haven't done anything wrong. something to do with a relay in the instrument cluster is my best guess? i have to either perform surgery on the cluster, or snap a pin off the harness. i'm sure someone is going to chew me a new one for suggesting the latter, but seriously....can anyone tell me which pin? 

[xcaptainxbloodx]

stay out of the cluster. the risk of destroying that cluster is far greater than the very slight possibility that A) the problem has anything to do with it and B) that if the problem IS in there its something that its something that can be fixed at all, let alone by the home mechanic.

look at everything you did. every connector you touched, every wire you tugged...thats where your problem will be. did you get the polarities right? is anything else affected (high/low, starting, horn,parking lights..). do the LEDs have the needed resistors?



worst case scenario, take it to a shop. it may cost more than you thought but even 200$ to have THEM fix it is cheap compared to say, destroying a cluster and everything that would entail...

[ungeheuer]

Isnt the flasher unit an integral part of the instrument cluster on this model?   Or did I imagine that?

[Mojo S2R]

Don't even understand why in the world you would have disconnected the cluster just to change a couple of signal blinkers.  I am guessing that just maybe you bent one or two pins when reconnecting the instrument gauge cluster.  Disconnect it again and make sure you don't have a bent pin.  Could you have accidentally bumped the emergency flashers button?  Have you checked it?  Sometimes it's the littlest things that you miss.

[Mojo S2R]

Isnt the flasher unit an integral part of the instrument cluster on this model?   Or did I imagine that?

Yep, it's just a big circuit board in there.  No relays.  I only know because I recently changed out my bezel.  I would not mess with it at all unless I was some kind of electronics engineer.

[ungeheuer]

Yep, it's just a big circuit board in there.  No relays. 

Sooooooooo.... since the flasher unit is part of the gauge cluster... how on earth has the OP been able to get his new turn signals to flash at all without the cluster connected   

[Howie]

Sooooooooo.... since the flasher unit is part of the gauge cluster... how on earth has the OP been able to get his new turn signals to flash at all without the cluster connected   

Good question.  or light for that matter.  I'm confuseled.

[Mojo S2R]

Sooooooooo.... since the flasher unit is part of the gauge cluster... how on earth has the OP been able to get his new turn signals to flash at all without the cluster connected   

Good question.  or light for that matter.  I'm confuseled.

He said he connected the cluster back up after testing everything.

i just wired up my LED turn signals and everything went fine. getting at the wiring was a pain, requiring the removal of both headlight bucket and instrument cluster, but the wiring itself was straight forward. first i connected the right signal and then tested it. it worked, along with its rear counterpart (VisiTech integrated LED). then i connected the left and tested it, then tested them both, with the same result: everything worked. left signal, both front and back; right signal, both front and back. then i plugged in the instrument cluster...my blinkers have become flashers (front and rear). wtf? thinking i might have screwed up some wiring, possibly causing a short while "rearranging" things to remount the instruments, i disconnected the harness from the instrument cluster then tested again. no dice. everything worked fine once the instruments were out of the equation. any ideas?

Wait, just got an email from him stating that it is a "2001 Monster 900s i.e. with PC lll and VisiTech integrated tail light".

I was thinking of my bike which is a 2007 S2R800.  I believe the 2001 900 has a seperate blinker relay which is located near the battery.  Maybe the relay went bad?

[Rawr01]

yeah, i found those. unplugging the one towards the rear had no effect at all. i replaced it and removed the frontmost relay and when i operated the signal switch NOTHING worked with or without the cluster connected. by nothing i mean signals or instrument lights. put it back and everything worked again, as in i still have the original issue (4 ways). so yeah, maybe one of these is no good....nope, no dice. i switched these (front to rear), repeated the test with the same result. FML

[JEFF_H]

throw a set of resistors on.
or re-attach one set of bulb signals on left and right (doesnt matter front or back) to test a low-load condition.

AFAIK, 01 doesnt have the flashers controlled by the ECU, there is an actual flasher box.
either way, resistors is probably the fix to what ails ya
also- test your signals with the bike running. sometimes it acts funny just on battery

[Rawr01]

can't run it. pipes are off it. that would be loud. besides, the ECU probly wouldn't let it happen enyways. lol

reattaching the bulb signals wouldn't go so very smoothly either. i finalized everything with shrink tubing.

[Mojo S2R]

Is the ignition key turned all the way to the right past where it says ON?  I think that may be the hazards.  Sorry, don't really know and just throwing ideas out there.

Sounds like it may end up being either the flasher relay as I mentioned before or the need for resistors as Jeff mentioned.  

Are all your signals LED now?  If so, you definitely need more resistance on the current.  If you don't want to do the whole resistor thing, I recall there being relays for your model bike that provide the necessary higher resistance without having to install the in-line resistors.

[Speeddog]

throw a set of resistors on.
or re-attach one set of bulb signals on left and right (doesnt matter front or back) to test a low-load condition.

AFAIK, 01 doesnt have the flashers controlled by the ECU, there is an actual flasher box.
either way, resistors is probably the fix to what ails ya
also- test your signals with the bike running. sometimes it acts funny just on battery

+1

'01 M900 needs a pair of resistors for LED turn signals to operate properly.

Flashers are controlled by a relay, located under the seat, you can hear it clicking.
'01 M900 has flasher in the instrument cluster, just checked a customer bike in my shop. 

Be mindful of how you mount the resistors, they get *very* hot when the blinkers are on.

[Schwanger]

The 01's don't have a seperate flasher relay, it is built into the gauge cluster.  Rawr01 the relays you were messing with are the main and safety relays, that's why nothing worked when you removed it.

I think the issue is that it is back feeding through the indicator light in the cluster, this is something I was warned about when I had my 2000 Dark.  It's fine when you have one set of LED blinkers, it only happens when you swap all of them to LEDs.  I don't remember totally but I think you need to wire in diodes somewhere to keep it from feeding through the cluster light.  Reference the following link on how to wire in the diodes

http://www.triumphrat.net/twins-technical-talk/154473-dash-light-signal-diodes-question.html

You should probably try putting in some resistors first, because you have only a little load from the Vizi-tec taillight and nothing from the front signals.  The resistors may fix the problem, if not buy the diode kit from Kuryakyn and try it out.