Intruders-Alert

My bike runs good, and I'm not finding any battery charging issues but I do have somewhat of a strange occurrence. If the bike is idling normally and I push over the emergency flasher button, the bike will immediately stall. No issues if the engine speed is modestly higher...such as giving it slight throttle or if up and riding. And once the flashers are running then the bike can also idle normally without stalling. I don't know if the action of turning on the flashers is putting a "load" on the engine and thus stalling it, or if the immediate electrical draw is such that it prevents the coils the ability to fire the spark plugs. I thought the first time it happened was just a fluke, but I've repeated this several times. Any ideas?

Don't turn on the flashers when the bike is idling, problem solved.
You probably have the idle set too low, give it a little more, Intruders do not like a low Harleyesque lope.


[emoji41]

I don't think my idle is too low, and of course during choke the idle is quite a bit higher. And yeah, not putting them on is a way to prevent the problem...lol. Just seems to me that it shouldn't kill the engine....and was wondering why it does.

You could have a partial short to earth or mashed wires somewhere usually in the loom under the tank.

[emoji41]

Spacecoast wrote:I don't think my idle is too low, and of course during choke the idle is quite a bit higher. And yeah, not putting them on is a way to prevent the problem...lol. Just seems to me that it shouldn't kill the engine....and was wondering why it does.

If you don't have a tach mounted, find a hand-held one and check. Idle should be greater than 1000 rpm, or you have other problems, too, like poor oiling of the top end.
If you have checked the rpm, then, yes, there is an excessive load when all four signals are on, or the wiring needs a good cleaning, including the end of the main ground at the engine/frame.

I'm going to clean up the battery ground wire going to the engine block. I never done that, but the battery connections were cleaned up when I purchased the bike back in March. Are there any other ground connections that I need to clean, or is that the major one? Also, are you saying that I have "excessive" draw when I activate the emergency flashers, or that the flashers themselves are simply a normally excessive draw? Turn signals work fine (emergency flashers work fine too) except I can barely see the instrument light, and I don't have any stalling issues with the individual turn signals, only the emergency flasher system.

Edit: Ok, I pulled the negative ground engine block bolt and cleaned the wire terminal and bolt. Can't really say it would change anything since the bolt looked brand new and the terminal looked good too..but I put 600 grit paper to both. I wouldn't think I had a ground issue anyway since my starter functioned strong and never had a start issue. I just hope my charging system is functioning properly.

Should check with a meter.....Should be around 13 V at idle & up to about 14.6 when revved.

When I said 'excessive', I meant greater than normal. Each bulb should be around 21W, or about 85W total, which is about 6-7A; if it is higher than that, it could lower the Voltage to the ignition, due to losses in the wiring. If the contacts at the fuse box are clean, that drop shouldn't be enough to cause the engine to stall, unless the current is somehow a lot higher than 6-7A. Or, if the idle is low enough, the generator won't output enough to keep the battery high enough, and the drop from twice the flasher load pulls it too low; that's why that's usually the first thing mentioned for problems like this.

If you have a Voltmeter, connect it to the AUX terminals at the fuse box, observe the Voltage at idle, then turn the signals on, one side at a time, followed by the 4-ways.

Do a poor man's load test, start the bike, let it idle and very quickly and in unison turn on the headlight, press the horn and apply the front brake. This will load the system, if the bike stalls then the problem is with not enough amps being supplied, if not, the problem is in the emergency flash circuit,
[emoji41]

Lechy wrote:Do a poor man's load test, start the bike, let it idle and very quickly and in unison turn on the headlight, press the horn and apply the front brake. This will load the system, if the bike stalls then the problem is with not enough amps being supplied, if not, the problem is in the emergency flash circuit,
[emoji41]

Thanks...I'm aware of doing a load test and the bike doesn't seem to have any issues except with the flashers. I've increased the idle just a tad, and monitored the voltage...all seems well now.

Just for a check, I fired up my 750, turned the idle way down and activated all 4 flashers. The machine never even skipped a beat nor did it even slightly bog. I would strongly recommend you check the wiring for mashed cables.
But, it's entirely up to you.

[emoji41]

Thanks. After moving the idle up a bit I didn't encounter a stall when activating the flashers. They seem to work normally, and I haven't had any fuse issues. I went over the bike in detail right after my purchase and didn't see any wire issues except for an unrelated clutch kill switch mod. My individual blinkers work normally too. Thanks for the help.