Wiring & Lurching Help

[hungn]

Finally got all parts on the bike (thanks to Tiger & Lou for supplying), and it's up and running again.  But now, I've got a couple new problems that I'm hoping to get some help with.

Problem 1 - I'm pretty sure I labeled all of the wires correctly when I replaced stuff behind the headlight, but now, my front right (from the bike's perspective) blinker-light is out.  So when I signal to make a right turn, the rear one lights up and stays on, but the front one doesn't come on at all.  I've checked the bulb, and it still looks good.  What I did: there are two wires coming from the blinker light (black and brown).  I have the black one, along with another black wire from the headlight, forming the top end of a "Y".  The brown one forms another "Y" with two green wires.  Anyone know if I've done something wrong here?  The kicker is that I'm wiring-diagram-illiterate, so I've stared at it (from Lucky's cd) for hours, and nothing.

Problem 2 - I've been riding it the last few days, and it lurches more than before (even in 3rd & 4th gears, where it didn't lurch before at all).  The engine actually died on me while on my way to work this morning; I was going around 40 mph, in 4th gear, when the engine sputtered and cut out.  It started right back up, but it still didn't feel as smooth as before.  Any ideas on how to tackle this one?

Thanks in advance!

[Night Vision]

problem 1 - well, since I can't read wiring diamgramese either.... I can tell you that on my 82 parts bike, two wires come from the front right blinker... black and green

black wire goes to the (black) Y (upper or lower shouldn't matter since it's a Y)
green goes to a single green wire (connector)

someone may have put a rear blinker up front so the green/brown might be synonymous.

you might try keeping the bucket open, and swapping wires around, also clean all connectors / sockets  and try a known good bulb

if that helps.. great, if not... I defer to the wiring diamgramese literate :-\

Problem 2 has a lot of possibilities.... lets start with.....

have you disassembled, dipped/cleaned the carbs?

[dj]

From what I have seen on these bikes if you have a bad (or dirty) connection in your lines then it causes to much resistance and the blinkers will come on, but wont blink.  I had this same problem on my left side blinkers.  Cut out the bad connections and redid the connections and all was well in the blinker world again.

The second problem could be just as simple as the carbs being dirty/not synched properly.  Have you checked for any vacuum leaks at the YICS or in the pipes?  If the carbs have been cleaned and synched then I would remove the YICS and make sure the ports are plugged off very tight and test.  Another thing to try is to run the bike at idle and while not touching the pipes put your hand around each of the connections on the pipe and see if you feel air coming out where it shouldn't (tip: you should only have air coming out the tail end of the pipe).  If you feel any air coming out other then through the end of the pipe then you have an exhuast leak and it needs to be fixed.

Exhuast leaks can cause similair problems to a vacuum leak as it changes the back pressure that the engine is seeing and it will kill your power when trying to excellerate.  Every engine is desinged to work of a set amount of back pressure and when it changes it can reak havoc on the way the engine runs.  Just think of all the Harley's that you see at stop signs that have to keep reving their engines to make it so they don't cut out.  It is because they have those stupid staight pipes without baffels and the back pressure is all fucked up.  And they wonder why they need engine work every 30k-40k miles. ::)