The Turn Signal

Before                                                      After


So I have to say right now I am SO proud of myself, but first the story:

This last fall there was a day when the wind was blowing harder than the big bad wolf. I was at work feeling the building shake a little. When it was time to come home I was pulling into my parking space when I realized that something was already in my spot. I park both my car and my motorcycle there. I have a cover that I put on my motorcycle to preserve the poor thing through the weather (until I get a garage or a shed, hopefully sooner than later). In this case it was what gave the poor thing enough surface area to allow the wind to blow it over. Trying to avoid the four letter words that were screaming around in my head I got out of the car and went to survey the damage. The cover was still tightly strapped on so I stood the poor thing up and immediately saw chunks of plastic on the ground. I pulled the cover off and noticed right off the bat that the poor right rear turn signal had had it. It's flexible but not that flexible. Luckily I had turned the handle bars the the left and it fell to the right so not much else was hurt. The right foot peg was flexible enough to avoid to much damage and had pretty well saved the rest of the bike from scuffs and scratches and the cover was ripped in a place or two but not too bad off (I paid $90 for it and it's held up pretty well under the abuse). The handles bars were a little bit bent from the initial plunge to the ground but it didn't look too much the worse for wear. I wasn't happy but it wasn't totally destroyed either. I threw the cover back on the poor thing and parked it and parked the car and fumed on the way inside knowing that if I wanted to ride it in the spring that I'd probably have to do something about the turn signal.

Well today was that day. I've never been a big mechanic. I can do things here and there. I feel pretty good when I change the oil in the car or give the things a car wash. I poked around on the internet and noticed a turn signal on eBay for twenty seven and some change. So I ordered one of them and awaited the shipment. I looked around here and there to see if there was anything on how to replace a turn signal online. There wasn't a whole lot other than a little on the wiring. I figured that I'd have at least a couple of bolts to remove and I'd have to take the seat off to get to the wiring. After I got off work I raced home today knowing that the signal had arrived. I had just reinstated the insurance on the thing so today is the day! I opened the mailbox and discovered my package awaiting patiently. I tore into the package and ran up to grab my tools and begin the surgery.

Amazingly the signal still worked but the bulb wouldn't last very long in the weather so I had to replace it. I pulled the cover off the motorcycle when I got to it and began removing bolts hoping that I wasn't going to totally mess this up (I have done things like this before with less than desirable results). I monkied around enough to get the seat off and loosen the bolts on the light, but the way the wiring was it was holding the light in place and the wire was also run through some plastic tubing to keep it neat. After playing around enough I got the wire out of the tube and pried the old broken light off (I only ended up slitting my wrist once this whole ordeal which is pretty good considering I usually rip myself up pretty good). I got the new light on and even slowly weaseled the wire in through the plastic tubing and hooked everything up and then realized that I needed to thread the bold through the wire so I could bolt the thing on again. So I pulled the wire through the tube again and put the washer and bolt on and tried again. I managed to get the wire back through after messing with it for about ten minutes. I rerouted the wires and tubing back where they came from and plugged everything back in. I put everything back together and put the key in. I tried the left signal first to make sure it still worked. I'm happy to say that it did. then I tried the right signal and much to my surprise it worked! First try and everything! This is such a rare moment that something worked on the first try that I almost didn't believe it.

Anyway there you have it. I was so happy that I took it out for its maiden voyage. I filled it up for a whopping six dollars. The handle bars are still a little goobered up but I'll get them bent back into shape and it'll be almost like it never happened.

I know that this really isn't that big of a deal, but it is to me. It's something that my dad would have done and me being able to fix things like he did just really makes my day.