I just noticed this issues this morning and I have no idea how long it has been going on. When I first start the bike, the right front running light does not come on. As soon as I activate either blinker it does come on and it stays on. Any ideas what would cause that?
The right side position light gets power from part of the turn signal switch and the position light relay under the seat on your model year. When you turn on the
right turn signal, the switch removes power from the right side, turning it off, so the flashing turn filament is more noticeable. This makes the right one go off and the left one stays on while you are turning. Once the turn is complete or you manually cancel the signals, the cancel unit removes the ground that activated the flasher relay and also removes the same ground from the position light relay. This allows the relay to de-energize, routing the switch power that is keeping the left light on to go through the normally closed contacts of the relay and back to the right side light. This turns it on as the flashing filament stops flashing. If you use the left turn signal everything occurs the same except all of the right side and left side is reversed. So, when you first turn on the bike and the left side is on, but the right side is not, this indicates the last turn made was on the right side and the position light relay is failing to send the power to the right side. Once you use the signals, you are “exercising” the relay and probably knocking off oxidation on its contacts. Check the bulb connection in its socket first, then I would swap or replace the relay with a new 5 pin relay. If this doesn’t fix it, then it’s a bad connection in the wiring.
