Neutral light and rear brake light blinking instead of left turn signal

[Acton67]

Hey guys, Ive got a 92 VS800 that I recently had a new motor installed into. The original wiring harness is off the 92 model. Everything has been working fine for the last month. Some of the connections from the controls on the handlebars for the front brake caliper to the brake light and turn signals have become disconnected once or twice, but all I had to do was remove the tank and reconnect the wires to fix the issue.

Went out to dinner last night and noticed my turn signals weren't working again, so I went out this morning to fix the issue and couldnt start the bike. The battery was drained so I charged it up and the bike started up fine. Went to go reconnect the turn signal wires and the signals still wouldnt work. Checked the fuse and it was blown. Threw in a new fuse and now when I turn on the left turn signal my rear brake lightdimly blinks, neutral light blinks brightly and the left turn signal very dimly blinks. Something happened that drained the battery, blew the fuse and Im not sure what. I didnt switch around any wiring, just put the 2 wires that were disconnected back together. Any advice?

[navigator]

You either have a loose connection at the wires you fussed with, chafed wires going to ground (which will blow the fuse), or most likely a bad ground at the lamps or the switch box.
Also check the ground connection from the negative battery cable at the frame (above the oil fill)

[Acton67]

When you say switch box do you mean fuse box or the switches on the handlebars?

[FallenAngel]

A dim light generally suggests a poor ground
I might check that first
Why your brake light blinks when the turn signal is turned on (is it both sides or just one side that makes the brake light flash) suggest that the they are part of the same circuit possibly getting power from the same power point or maybe sharing a ground that is now restricted and the circuit is grounding through the power side causing the light to blink.
Sounds wrong but it does happen

The power draw could be related to these problems but I don’t think so
Disconnect the battery give it a good charge let it set for a couple hours and load test it
While the battery is out with an Ohms meter check your grounds concerning the turn signals and brake light


Which fuse is blowing??
Also check for any wires that are pinched and or chaffed or rubbing against the frame or engine
It isn’t all that uncommon to pinch a wire when swapping engines causing a live short

Hopefully the neutral light will also be taken care of when you locate the ground problem

[WintrSol]

Or, the fuse blowing could be a symptom of too much current drawn through the signals, causing the Voltage to the other lights to drop. I'd find out why that fuse blew in the first place; maybe test the current through it with an Ammeter.

[FallenAngel]

I can see that.
As compact as these thing are and with the information lights,head light , front clearance lights and ignition being routed to and then out of the headlight bucket its possible the short is low voltage short

I just need more answer's

The bike has been running fine and everything seemed to work for the last month with the exception of the turn signals connection coming loose. Now the problem is a blown fuse and a battery drain
I think he is looking at 2 problems caused by related problem.A harness that needs repaired from getting pinched causing the battery drain or he needs a new battery and a poor ground
He also mentioned that sometimes the brake light and turn signal connection would come loose and he had to reconnect the wires. If the system was energized that could blow the fuse. Assuming that turn signal Brake light fuse is the fuse that is blowing. Or the fuse could blow when the harness disconnected and after replacing the fuse now they dont work and other lights are flashing

He mentioned he had a 92 and The original wiring harness is off a 92 .
Questions:
Is the harness original to the bike or is it off of a donor 92??
Do both left and right turn signals do the same thing with the neutral safety light and brake light?
Dos the brake light work when the front and rear brake is applied ?

[Acton67]

Hey guys a lot of post here to reply too, I really appreciate the advice. Instead of replying to them individually I'm going to post an update on what I've done today to give more information on this problem. First I'm going to attach images of the wiring diagram for the 1992 Suzuki Intruder VS800 from the clymer manual.






Specifically off the left handlebar controls I've mapped 10 wires.
1. Yellow/Green: Clutch Switch in
2. Yellow/Green/Red: Clutch Switch out
3. Black White: Ground (See Below)
4. Sky Blue: Comes off turn signal switch and connects to negative side of turn signal relay
5. Green: From turn signal switch to right front and rear turn signals and right turn signal indicator
6. Black: From turn signal switch to left front and left rear turn signals and left turn signal indicator
7. Black/Green: From Horn Switch to Horn
8. Orange/Red from Headlight fuse to dimmer switch
9. White: From dimmer switch to headlight
10. Yellow: From Dimmer switch to high beam indicator light and head light

So with a 15amp fuse in the turn signal fuse spot the neutral light blinks and the rear brake light blinks. The rear brake light comes off the controls on the right handlebar controls. The neutral light wire colors are orange and blue, the brake light colors are brown/black, black white and white and black. I also noticed that the neutral light is on the same fuse as the turn signals. . .

The first thing I suspected after doing some basic research on the internet and youtube was that I had a ground issue. Very similar issues have been identified as grounding issues. Initially I thought the black and white wire being the ground was the issue here. I made an extension between the male and female bullet connectors coming from the turn signal/horn/dimmer/clutch switch controls to the main harness and I added an inline ground right to the main ground the battery is grounded out too. This did not change anything. I also replaced the 15amp fuse with a 10amp fuse and it blew right away. I thought perhaps the black/white wire was not making good contact on the control side. I re-soldered the wire to the contact and that also did not fix the issue. I noticed at that point that the black/white wire also completed the horn circuit back to negative.

Looking at the wiring diagram the only thing I haven't really laid eyes on at this point is the turn signal relay itself. I've disconnected the sky blue wire from the main harness and both blinkers stop work. Looking at the diagram the other wire coming out of the turn signal relay is orange/green and that ties into the orange and green wire coming off the signal fuse. The orange and green wire also goes to the stop light switch, the front brake light switch the horn and the neutral light. The other wire coming off the signal fuse is orange and comes from the ignition switch.

Obviously current is passing through the switch itself when its turned on for the left blinkers, thus the neutral/brake light blinking inappropriately so the switch itself works. I'm not sure if this gives anyone the information they need to diagnose the issue. The color of the wires seem to correspond to the wiring diagram I have found, so I'm fairly certain the wiring harness itself is stock. I'm thinking at this point the turn signal relay itself has gone bad because the wires for the turn signals keep disconnecting and maybe damaged the turn signal relay. . . ? These symptoms seem to be classic grounding issues though, but I've tried everything I can to ground out the circuit. The front and rear turn signals have seperate wires that ground them. The black/white wire that comes off the left controls specifically just completes the circuit for the horn, which confused me because its also the same color wire that grounds out the turn signals.

Could a bad turn signal relay also cause a short that would blow the signal fuse? Where do I locate the turn signal relay on a 1992 suzuki intruder vs800? I'm going to go ahead and buy one now just incase this is the problem. Looking at the wiring diagram its clear the front and rear turn signals tie into the main ground circuit in the main wiring harness at different places, if this was truly a grounding issue then why would only the left signals not work? I feel like I'm definitely missing something. . . .

[Acton67]

He mentioned he had a 92 and The original wiring harness is off a 92 .
Questions:
Is the harness original to the bike or is it off of a donor 92??
Do both left and right turn signals do the same thing with the neutral safety light and brake light?
Dos the brake light work when the front and rear brake is applied ?

As far as I know yes the harness is the original.
No only the left turn signal causes the neutral light to blink brightly and the brake light to blink dimly.
The brake light does work when the front and rear brake is applied.

[FallenAngel]

i would have started with a volt ohm meter
your grounds should have close to 0- 5 or 7 ohms resistance Check with the battery disconnected
I would turn on left turn signal and do a wiggly test , yes that is a real test.
With the left turn signal on wiggly and move your harness and any viable wires
Also the contacts in your light may be defective they do ware out in time so check that with the bulb out
And turn on your left turn and see if the neutral safety and brake light flashes

I have removed the older 1156 and 1157 bulbs with broken alignment pins that had a bad connection and would get hot and melt the lead contacts

Do you still have a battery draw??

[Acton67]

I did do the wiggly test. I made sure the contacts between the controls and the main harness made good contact. I tried manipulating each wire with no effect. I paid close attention to the black wire since that wire comes off the turn signal switch and provides power to the front and rear left turn signals. Tomorrow I will check continuity through the sky blue line going into the turn signal switch and the black line coming out of that switch. I also took the turn signal controls apart themselves and re soldered the black/white wire back onto the contact. I tried moving around the wires and it was hard to tell but I think I could barely make out the front left turn signal starting to blink very dimly, but noting on the rear left turn signal. I noticed on the wiring diagram the the forward rear turn signals have two paths to ground; the black/white circuit and the grey circuit which goes to the taillight fuse. The taillights are actually labeled as the meter lights on the wiring diagram which should not be confused with the brake light itself. It may be these "meter lights" that I'm seeing blinking instead of the brake light. The rear turn signals tie into the same ground circuit that the rear brake light has. The path to ground for the front and rear turn signals are completely different which is why I'm stuck here. Both the front and rear left brake lights aren't working correctly.

[navigator]

Some basic info for you:
The b/w wire is common ground throughout the whole bike.
The flasher is a small square unit located under the left side cover near the fuse box.
The horn switch breaks the ground side of the circuit, not the hot side as you would expect.
I have had signal wires compromised where they wrap around the neck, from constant flexing.
Also check for chafed wires under the tank where they pass over the front carb diaphram cover.
And as FallenAngel suggests, swap out the bulbs and check the bulb / socket interface.

[Acton67]

Just went out to check on the bike as I had it on the charger. Thought I toasted the battery when I was re-soldering the black/white wire to the contact in the left side control unit and left the running lights on. I was working on the bike with a buddy and didn't realize he put the keys back in to test the lights after making a change. Thankfully the battery was okay after a few hours on the charger. Now the front left blinker blinks but not as bright as the left, its dark out now though so it seems like it blinks fairly strongly. Neither of the rear blinkers blink at all now and neither does the horn work. I had to put the bike back together quickly and move it since I had other plans today with the wife. The first thing I'm going to check is continuity on the horn switch circuit to make sure I soldered the wire back onto the contact correctly.

I installed new handlebars on last year and now run the wire harnesses outside of the bars, instead of running the harness through the neck I go right under the tank. It was next to impossible to re run the whole harness back through the bars and then through the neck. I had a really difficult time removing the whole harness from the old stock buckhorn handlebars.

I will check the bulbs, all my blinker bulbs are new last year. If I bypass the switch and run a bypass wire from the sky blue wire coming off the switch assembly to the black/green wires on the main harness I should be able to check to see if the bulbs are working right? This will bypass the switch altogether I figure. I did the same thing last year to bypass the clutch safety switch, I've had no problems with it since.

[hillsy]

I installed new handlebars on last year and now run the wire harnesses outside of the bars, instead of running the harness through the neck I go right under the tank. It was next to impossible to re run the whole harness back through the bars and then through the neck. I had a really difficult time removing the whole harness from the old stock buckhorn handlebars.

Maybe you did some damage to the wiring when you did this? Possibly shorting on the new bars?

[Acton67]

I installed new handlebars on last year and now run the wire harnesses outside of the bars, instead of running the harness through the neck I go right under the tank. It was next to impossible to re run the whole harness back through the bars and then through the neck. I had a really difficult time removing the whole harness from the old stock buckhorn handlebars.

Maybe you did some damage to the wiring when you did this? Possibly shorting on the new bars?

I installed the new bars over a year ago. I may have damaged the actual control switches themselves move recently when I polished the control panel with aluminum polish more recently about 2 months ago but I also doubt that. I could have some sort of short in the switch controls themselves. I opened it up today and didn't see anything but I didn't take it apart completely. I'm concerned if thats the case, cant really find another set of blinker controls for a 92 VS 800 online with the bullet connectors. Not sure what I will do if it turns out the controls themselves are the problem if I cant repair the controls themselves. . .

[hillsy]

If it's shorting in the switchblocks it's most likely going to be exposed wiring and not the actual switches themselves. You can check the wiring continuity for each switch with a multimeter.

[FallenAngel]

I have a few 800 parts
I think I may have a set of bars with the switches still on them
I look tomorrow and get back to you

[Acton67]

If it's shorting in the switchblocks it's most likely going to be exposed wiring and not the actual switches themselves. You can check the wiring continuity for each switch with a multimeter.

But will a continuity check rule out a short? All the switches on the switchblock work to some degree.

[FallenAngel]

If it's shorting in the switchblocks it's most likely going to be exposed wiring and not the actual switches themselves. You can check the wiring continuity for each switch with a multimeter.

But will a continuity check rule out a short? All the switches on the switchblock work to some degree.

Yes
A continuity test using an Ohms meter is how you test circuits with no current or power

[navigator]

If it's shorting in the switchblocks it's most likely going to be exposed wiring and not the actual switches themselves. You can check the wiring continuity for each switch with a multimeter.

But will a continuity check rule out a short? All the switches on the switchblock work to some degree.

Yes
A continuity test using an Ohms meter is how you test circuits with no current or power

Simply use the ohm setting and test each suspected lead end to end, and then to ground.

[WintrSol]

And, if you are looking for a short to ground from, say, a turn signal, remove all the bulbs first, as they will look very like a short to an Ohm meter.