Flasher Relay installation - might have done something bad...

[R-Razor]

Just installed an aftermarket flasher relay to slow down the blink rate of my LED indicators. Everything worked fine until I (stupid as I was) wrapped the two connectors together in the same piece of insulation tape. The result was that the blinkers lighted up permanently when blinking (no fuses blew.) Have I done something really bad to the bikes electrics or did I just bypass the flasher relay? (which would explain why the blinkers lit permanently.) I put the original flasher relay back in and everything seemed back to normal (fast blinkers.) I'm a little uneasy trying to connect the new flasher relay again until I've got a clue about what happened...

[Spanner Man]

Good morning.
As your flashers are functioning normally, apart from the flash rate, it's safe to assume that you have done no damage to the bikes electrics.
Put the new flasher relay back on, carefully insulating all connection individually. If it works ok, then all is well. If it doesn't, then you have probably knackered it, so you will have to buy another.

Cheers.

[R-Razor]

Thanks for the quick reply :) I'll try to hook up the aftermarket flasher relay again later today.

[jambo]

If the flasher unit is toast, you can usually slow the flashing down again using some cheap resistors from maplins rather than a new relay. All you need to do is get the reistance for the new indicators up to the same level as the old ones. A multimeter will help you out on this.

[R-Razor]

Happy ending :D Put the relay back on and everything works :)

[Spanner Man]

Evening all.

Jolly good show! Glad it's sorted.

Cheers.

[Quiff Wichard]

good news-

nice to hear-
i have fiddled with my bike and lived and learned so I know that sinking feeling.

pleased its all fine

[R-Razor]

Everything is working perfectly and I'm really fond of my new blinkers :cool: There is one small thing that puzzles me though. When the blinkers are activated the lights in the dashboard don't go on/off/on/off etc. like they used to with the OEM relay - they go on/dim/on/dim etc. The blinkers themselves go on/off fine like they should. This behavior was there even before I made the mistake with the wire-wrapping so it has nothing to do with that. At first I suspected some kind of grounding problem but everything is connected correctly. The new electronic relay has its own ground wire going to battery minus. Since there are no other odd electrical problems with the bike, I'm really coming to the conclusion that this is just a "feature" of the new electronic relay... does that sound reasonable?