I have an 79 XS 750 special. This is what is happening:

1) Turn signals turn on (Front/Back) but do NOT flash.

I have tried replacing the flasher relay, but that did not seem to help.

Does anyone have any suggestions in what I can try and or what is wrong?

THANKS!

Same thing happened to me, however only the front light would turn on, rear wouldn't, and no blinking.

The problem was in the frayed wires and lack of a consistent ground. So I took the rear blinkers off, completely rewired them down to the sockets. All my connections were soldiered, wrapped, heat shrink tubed. Doing this fixed one side of the bike but the other still had issues. I traced it to the seam between the blinker housing and extension rod. It was loose and since the grounding runs through the metal housing itself, I was getting poor conductivity. A small stitch weld, on the bottom of the blinker, joining the 2 parts of the assembly fixed that right up. Cosmetically it is unnoticeable. I'm not concerned as I have bigger plans for the rear of the bike anyhow.

Also, when you engage the blinkers, can you hear the relay clicking over. Maybe just one loud click?

Same thing happened to me, however only the front light would turn on, rear wouldn't, and no blinking.

The problem was in the frayed wires and lack of a consistent ground. So I took the rear blinkers off, completely rewired them down to the sockets. All my connections were soldiered, wrapped, heat shrink tubed. Doing this fixed one side of the bike but the other still had issues. I traced it to the seam between the blinker housing and extension rod. It was loose and since the grounding runs through the metal housing itself, I was getting poor conductivity. A small stitch weld, on the bottom of the blinker, joining the 2 parts of the assembly fixed that right up. Cosmetically it is unnoticeable. I'm not concerned as I have bigger plans for the rear of the bike anyhow.

Yes.... when I flick the turn signal switch I can hear the relay click! Is that good? I will look into the grounding issue.

Yes.... when I flick the turn signal switch I can hear the relay click! Is that good? I will look into the grounding issue.

a clicking relay tends to be a good thing more times than not. If it's one click and then nothing I'd put money on it being a wiring short somewhere along the line. The power wires tend to fray right where they bend to go into the hollow threaded rod. The lack of a ground can happen anywhere in the circuit. I'd check the ring terminals that attach to the bolt, sometimes they can pull loose and separate.

Like I said before, I rewired the whole rear end just to be sure I found all the shorts. nothing worse than fixing it now and than having to fix another spot in a week.

Keep us updated.

I'm actually having the same problem with my bike. 1978 XS750 s. I was about to buy a new flasher relay but wasn't exactly sure where to get one. This is my first bike and the electrical problem I am having are really starting to get me frustrated. So I'm wondering if I should buy the flasher relay or go through the painful process of rewiring the entire bike. Both the front and back signals will turn on and stay on, however they won't flash.