1984 fj1100 flasher relay

[TexasDave]

Great picture Alan. It appears the reed switch is oriented in the right position for the magnet in the wheel to pull the contacts together from a normally open to a closed circuit for the logic level micro controller in the flasher relay. Seeing how small and delicate this switch is, it is more likely to fail from vibration than use. Clever of them to glue it in place. Securing a voltmeter to the two wires and slowly turning the speedometer to check for continuity would tell you if it was still good. Getting to the back side of the speedometer would be more trouble. The one in the picture appears to still be good. If it was bad would expect to see one or other of the legs loose inside the glass tube. I am still convinced the failure of this reed switch is one probable cause of failure to flash. However I have no proof. The other is the logic level micro controller. I think problems with this system is why Yamaha decided to delete it altogether on later models.

Dave

[rlucas]

FWIW, the self cancelling feature on my '86 suddenly started working again after Randy rebuilt my carbs. Go figure. 

[Firehawk068]

The pictures are of my spare cluster. I didn't test the circuit but it would be easy to do with the cluster out of the bike. The wiring diagram shows that the reed-switch is connected to ground, so whenever the bike is in motion there is a "ground/no-ground" signal from the flasher relay logic circuits.
Since the cluster is rubber-mounted, I would guess the reed-switch is most likely still functioning properly. Yes, Yamaha glues them in place. I would tend to agree with you in that the failure of the cancel feature is most likely inside the logic of the flasher relay. Yamaha must have been concerned with vibration, cause the flasher relay is mounted inside a rubber strap which slides over a tang on the frame up under the fairing.

On my '90 the self-cancel feature quit working years ago. The flasher still worked normally. I just had to manually turn it off. The other day on my way home from work it quit flashing the bulbs altogether. I'm pretty sure something shorted inside the flasher relay, as I could still hear a rapid clicking from inside with the key on. It was no longer sending power to the left/right handlebar switch however.

Back when the self-cancel function still worked, it was very intermittent. Sometimes it would seem to work normal, sometimes it would cancel in the middle of my turn, and sometimes it would not cancel at all.
I was glad when it finally quit canceling, and it just became habit to turn it off manually.

[Charlie-brm]

Yesterday after reading what was posted here up to that point, I got more curious and found a thread for a XS650 group and there were some points lifted from the Haynes manual that were interesting.

From the Haynes manual, page 162, (28):

"The purpose of this system is to turn off the turn signal automatically after a period of TIME or DISTANCE. At very low speed, the signal will cancel after a distance of 164 yards has been covered. At high speeds the signal will cancel after a time of 10 seconds has elapsed. When traveling in the lower range of speeds the signal will cancel after a COMBINATION of both time and distance."

Uh huh. Got it. Then my eyes glazed over and I thought, how does anyone come up with this in 1984 terms of design (and before that with the XS650) without an Arduino?

One take away tip: Some guy corrected his signals failure by re-flowing the solder connections of the wires at the junctions with the ends of the reed switch. They were imperceptibly corroded and intermittent. Problem solved for him.