Turn Signals and flasher

[ssevy]

I lost my turn signals mid-ride yesterday, and diagnosed and fixed them when I got home last night. Thought I would post the symptoms and solution in case someone has a similar issue in the future.
Symptoms:
I noticed the turn signal didn't work the other day on one turn, and then it was fine for the next. I chalked it up to the heavy cold weather gloves I was wearing, as I couldn't feel the switch very well. The same thing happened a few more times, but again, it would then be fine for the next turn.
Yesterday, it did the same thing, so I pushed my hazard light button to isolate it to the switch, and they came on fine, so I assumed it was the turn signal switch, and intended to clean it when I got home. A bit later, and no turn signals at all, and upon retesting, no hazard lights either.
Diagnosing:
First of all, I think it is time to relocate my fuse box, as per Sin Tiger's post, since the engineers at Triumph decided it would be best if it required four bolts of two different sizes to get at the fuse box, which would be a huge pain in the ass on a fully loaded bike in the middle of a trip somewhere! But I digress...so, I checked all the fuses, and found no issues. I pulled the flasher relay out, and the terminals looked clean with no signs or smells indicating burning, so I reconnected it.
Next was the switch itself, which I opened up and sprayed with contact cleaner, which still did not resolve the issue.
I switched the key on, pressed the hazard switch, and then went back to the flasher unit to wiggle some wires. Eureka! One terminal had a wire that was broken, and the insulation over the terminal end concealed the problem from visual inspection, and held the wire just close enough that the vibrations let it randomly make contact the last day it began working intermittently.
I carefully pulled the terminal out the front side of the plastic connector using some kelly clamps and a small bladed screwdriver to push aside the locking tabs. I then pushed the wire through the connector and out the front, stripped off a short bit of insulation, slid a short piece of heat shrink tubing up the wire out of the way, and then soldered it to the terminal. Sliding the shrink tube into place, I shrunk it tight with my heat gun, and then let everything cool before pushing the terminal back into the connector block.
Reconnected the flasher, and everything worked again.
One note - if the wire for the terminal breaks, you may not have enough length left to insert it through the connector from the back to the front and still have enough space to solder and reattach it. Go ahead and solder the terminal on your bench where it is easy to do with another short wire, and then solder that to the existing one at the bike. Be sure to use heat shrink tubing or some liquid electrical tape to prevent shorting once you are done (if it is tubing, don't forget to slide it on the wire and out of the way BEFORE you solder the two parts together! This is a lesson that has been hard learned over the years).

[bemusedinsojo]

This is brilliant. 

[Lee337]

Had a similar issue with my left front indicator. Admittedly it was a high mileage 2005 Girly, not a Steamer.

I ended up replacing the whole wiring from indicator to the connectors on the main wiring loom as both +ve and -ve wires were corroded so badly.

Ended up doing the same to the right indicator as well as a preventative measure. The right wasn't quite as bad but still corroded so it's just as well I replaced the wires while I had the time.