800 Owners

[CDNRatMan]

  Well I am positive you can  not afford to have me detail your Drifters. I have enough plans for the spring, I am going to make a salsa garden out back, will be able to remove the old lilacs from the front, but the major project will be to rebuild the upper rear deck.
March 27th I will be forced into retirement and am going to find a real job for the first time in 40 + years.......well ok a part time job to make my funds for Drift In.......or have my severance pay do that if it comes in on time.......

[greenbarn]

Only 2 projects left to do over the winter now, and one is awaiting for parts, and the other till Mar, because the bike needs to be outside for that.....

So time to clean and detail the parts.......

Then in 30 (or so) more days, you'll be DONE with work, DONE with your projects, SNOWED IN, and NOTHING TO DO.    So I suggest you travel to Sunny Warm OHIO for a "VACATION" for a week or two.    I'll put you up in the plush Greenbarn Resort and you can spend your days relaxing, and cleaning and detailing 2 more Drifters...      I'll even feed you...     Average Temperatures are about 40 DEGREES warmer ( that's -30 (C) to +10 (F) 

[CDNRatMan]

   Thank you Sir.

I have gone ahead with my mod and it is now finished, I have rear marker lights and signal lights and thanks to really Troll, GB and 49, who I had pestered with a few pm's I got it working and the bike has not caught fire, I have not blown any fuses, so all is right and all is good now.

That is what makes this place such a cool place to be a member of, people helping you even with the "dumb" questions, but how do we learn.

Only 2 projects left to do over the winter now, and one is awaiting for parts, and the other till Mar, because the bike needs to be outside for that.....

So time to clean and detail the parts.......

[gdrudd13]

Finally got my bike back with a new front tire. As a side note, 32°F (0°C) is way too cold to be riding a motorcycle, especially when the sun goes down and without full fairings. That was a really cold ride on the highway. But now that it is back, I checked the tail light, and sure enough, with the bike off the plate light does pulse with the turn signal flashing. It's not a lot, but if you look it is noticeable. I didn't notice the actual tail light fluctuating though. I do think that it is more noticeable with an LED tail light/plate light just because it is so much brighter than what was on there before. I am also still running the stock turn signals, the only LED's are the tail light assembly.

[CDNRatMan]

 your correct John and it is not enough to look or make a person think it is an indicator, in fact I will be most people do not even see it. I saw it because I was working on the lights and was interested in what was going on. At first I thought it was because I had been looking at the signal lights flashing without the lens covers. As of now i am not going to worry about it.

I did trace all the wires back from the major connectors to the flasher unit and looked for broken or wron wire, I also moved and flexed the wires to see if there was an internal broken wire. Some one suggested a new flasher unit, or a digital one, but at this point I am going to wait till Spring and once the bike is outside start it and see if it is still there. Thanks.

[John Hopkins]

Just a quick thing from me..

When you switch the indicator on the rear light pulses in time with the indicator.. If I understand you correctly it actually brightens at the time when the indicator is off ie: in between indicator flashes and when the indicators are not drawing current.. Is the rear light flash enough to be mistaken for an indicator, if not I wouldn't worry too much..

You say you checked all the wiring, a poor ground wire could cause this type of thing but it could be at the flasher unit, did you check there..

John.

[CDNRatMan]

  Yes at -40 it is the same, and we do not ride our wheeled Drifters then we ride our track Drifters in that weather.

I will wait to see what happens when you try your bike if the results are the same as everyone else.

[greenbarn]

We are under a "Winter weather advisory".   Supposed to get 1-3, 2-4, or 3-6 inches, depending on which weather liar you listen to.   I remember when we would be supposed to get 3-6" and the forecast would just be "There is a chance of snow - 3-6" possible"....   NOW, it's a "WEATHER ADVISORY".

However, it is supposed to be really cold, though (for here).  Dipping below 0 F for several nights in a row this week, and probably won't see above 20 until the weekend.  Like gdrudd13 said, it wouldn't be too bad, except for the wind.  It's been blowing pretty hard.....

[gdrudd13]

I would appreciated you letting us know because so far it seems to be in all the bikes, if they are not running, just turn the key on and then turn on a signal light and watch your plate light. Thanks

The -35*C was at 0730 when I went out to start the truck. But it has warmed up some since then, for your scale at present it is -10*F but the winds from the west at 5 mph and the temps feel like -21*F. I have about 6 kids in the block outside playing street hockey right now, who will be going inside before the Russian Canada game at 2000.

What tire are you putting on the front?

I'll take a look at it once I get it back. I'm even more curious now.

I put a Michelin Commander II tire on the back and was waiting for the matching front to come back in stock, so I'll have a Commander II up there. I didn't get to ride much with the new rear, but the little I did do was great.

Saturday morning the windchill was pretty far into the negative here too. It was blowing like 20ish, gusting to 30ish if I remember correctly. Temp was around 14° or so without the wind. Temperature wouldn't have been bad, but it's almost always windy here. Makes it pretty brutal.

[greenbarn]

The -35*C was at 0730 when I went out to start the truck. But it has warmed up some since then, for your scale at present it is -10*F but the winds from the west at 5 mph and the temps feel like -21*F. I have about 6 kids in the block outside playing street hockey right now, who will be going inside before the Russian Canada game at 2000.

-35*C, now that's pretty cold...    Now, When it gets down to -40*C...   I guess it's all the same at that point, eh?     (-40C = -40F)   

[CDNRatMan]

  I would appreciated you letting us know because so far it seems to be in all the bikes, if they are not running, just turn the key on and then turn on a signal light and watch your plate light. Thanks

The -35*C was at 0730 when I went out to start the truck. But it has warmed up some since then, for your scale at present it is -10*F but the winds from the west at 5 mph and the temps feel like -21*F. I have about 6 kids in the block outside playing street hockey right now, who will be going inside before the Russian Canada game at 2000.

What tire are you putting on the front?

[gdrudd13]

I know at idle my tail light brightness fluctuates some anyways. Never paid attention to it with the turn signals on. I'd go look since I'm curious now, but the bike shop finally got in my front tire so it's there having it put on.

-35°C? That's pretty impressive. Is that a high temperature for the day or a low at night?

[CDNRatMan]

  Don't know and will not till spring because the bike is in the house. Now someone who has theirs in a garage or it is not -35*C outside can check that . And please don't tell me to move south.

[pcarrell]

I noticed that this test was done with the bike not running.  As you only have battery power on it, it makes sense that it might pulse as you only have a finite amount of power to work with.  Does it still do it with the bike running and the stator supplying power?

[CDNRatMan]

  Yes it was more noticeable because the LED light was brighter, and therefore it was more noticeable.....but that being said it is still a very faint pulse, but enough to see if you look for it.

[greenbarn]

... it was just that the LED bulb let me see it, never noticed it before.

You mean b/c the LED is brighter, right??

[CDNRatMan]

There is no issue really it was just that the LED bulb let me see it, never noticed it before. Now this might be a good thing in making the cage drivers behind me aware that I am doing something.

[kw-retrorider]

Ratman: So what's the issue....the LED bulbs accentuate the pulses?

[CDNRatMan]

ok I am going to post a few pictures to show my reason for spotting this........

wit the 1157 bulb it was not noticeable till you looked really close, but when I switched the 1157 bulb to a LED plug and play.......now please don't be like GB this is not a vid it is still pictures do not look for the pulsing........lol......Before anyone asks I checked with the company and they said that the LED is not the cause, and it only comes in amber or red......those pictures are also with the covers off.

and sorry for being such a pain.......

[kw-retrorider]

Ratman: Understand about the marker light....making the rears like the front directionals, which are on, even when they are not blinking.

Now, let me retract my earlier statement. Based on Greenbarn's comment, I looked closer and shielded the turn signal while I looked at the license plate light, because the clear lense is easier to see changes in. At idle, the pulsing is so slight I didn't notice it the first time I looked. So I will say there is a pulsing, but again, so slight you have to look for it, and even then....

Then, I ran it at a fast idle (over 40 degrees here today in MD)....I believe the pulsing is still there....but I am father away from the light because I have to work the throttle.

So nice exercise....but can't say it really matters unless you have the tail lamp assembly obviously blinking like a turn signal. So you may have gotten your mod right. I for one would not be doing any trouble shooting based on the minimal and let me say again....minimal pulsing I think I have seen on my machine. So there's another data point, as they say.

[CDNRatMan]

  kw, never did anything to the lights prior to this. The only change I wanted to do was make the rear lights also marker lights. So took a set of Drifter front signal lights (3 wire) and remove the guts from the front to the rear pods, the reason is the metal mounting posts on the rear are longer then the front. At first I thought I had wired the marker lights incorrectly.
I removed all the guts this weekend from the pods checked all the wiring and the grounds, I tried running a separate ground like 49/GB told me to do. The pulsing is still there.
mikeakaFred also has the pulsing. So now to try it with my optimizer hooked up and see if that makes a difference.

But then how many of us have watched the back end of our 800's as we are riding down the road. I know the first time I followed my Brother-in-law riding my bike (he was rising such a whine he wanted to ride a real bike and not his big bad a$$ H-D) but the amount the rear fender moves is amazing....but I never watched the signal lights or brake lights....lol.....

[greenbarn]

I tried mine- I do have some "pulsing" of the tail light when the turn signals are on.  Specifically, every time the turn bulb comes "on" then the tail light dims ever so slightly.   I had never noticed this phenomenon before.

After seeing it in person, I suspect it's just from the very slight voltage drop caused by the additional 2 bulbs (2 A ea) since the bike isn't running and there's limited power there.  Try it with the bike running over 2,000 RPM - wait, your bike is in the living room.... Try it with extra battery capacity added - either a jumper box, battery charger --  Or maybe pull the Jimmy up to the closest window and run the jumper cables through the window....   

If I'm right the dimming will become less noticeable, or go away completely.

[kw-retrorider]

I have a stock lighting set-up....No pulsing of license plate or running light when either directional is on....sorry.

Didn't you rewire your back lights to be like the latest Harleys?  If so, sounds like you have a running light circuit making contact with the flasher relay circuit.

[CDNRatMan]

      calling all 800 owners, need a favour, I would like you to go to your bikes and turn the key to the on position and then turn on a signal light, either one, then take a close look at your plate light and brake light, are they pulsing? Thanks.....
Any amount of pulsing........