QuestionI have a 1973 honda ct90. The person before me put a 12V flasher in. I bought a 6V flasher because of the 6v battery. When I turn the key on the blinkers have a dim light on the right and left as I have two in the front and two in the back. But with the 6V flasher they don't light at all. Checked grounds,will check switch again tomorrow,battery was fully charged. Why am I getting a very dim light with the 12V but no light with the 6V?
AnswerShirley, flashers are made in varying degress of current capacity, so it may be that the current draw in your system isn't enough to trigger the flasher, if it is some kind of heavy duty unit. The OEM Honda units are about the size of a sugar cube in some of these applications and are current matched to the application. If you are using some kind of VW car flasher, it probably won't work correctly.
Do be sure that the t/s switch on the handlebars has clean contacts and that the grounds inside the lights and to the chassis are all clean and tight. If there was a 12v flasher, maybe there are 12v bulbs in there too! Check them all to be sure.
A "fully charged" battery has to be able to sustain the voltage under load. If you charge it up and turn on the power and the volts drop down to 5, then the battery may have volts, but not the current capacity to run the system.
Best to do the lights on with the engine running, to help out the battery under load.
If the battery is holding charge under load, you may have to hunt around with a 6v test light or volt meter to see if the power is consistent throughout the system. Any dirty contacts/connectors will cause problems when you have so little voltage to work with..
Current flow is: Battery-Fuse/ign switch/power in to flasher and out to t/s switch/t/s switch to L & R side lights, to ground.
Bill Silver
