Hey guys,
I just bought my first bike!! It's an '89 gs500e and I am having some electrical problems. None of my turn signals work, only the oil light comes on when I start the bike the other ones dont light up, No low beam but the high beam works, and the horn works. I am not sure where to start troubleshooting. The headlight is new and so are the turn signal bulbs. Is there a common ground or something?
Does the oil light come on when you turn the ignition to the 'on' position, or when you start the engine itself? It's normal for the oil light to go on once you've turned on the ignition but before you're started the engine - it should, however, turn off once the engine has been started.
It turns off when the engine starts, but it's the only light thats seems to work. I have also replaced the tsr with a new one #552 but that didn't seem to help the turn signals.
Quote from: Unoriginal1 on May 15, 2011, 12:38:58 PM
Hey guys,
I just bought my first bike!! It's an '89 gs500e and I am having some electrical problems. None of my turn signals work, only the oil light comes on when I start the bike the other ones dont light up, No low beam but the high beam works, and the horn works. I am not sure where to start troubleshooting. The headlight is new and so are the turn signal bulbs. Is there a common ground or something?
There certainly is a common ground... the (-) battery terminal. (okay i'm done being a smarty)
The headlight should use the same ground for hi/lo... so that shouldn't be a ground problem there.
The gage backlights use the same ground as headlight.
The other devices ground themselves through a switch (ie: the oil switch grounded to case, through switch, to light)
etc etc.
But my guess is a dirty ground.
My reasoning is that:
The high beam is drawing enough current that it is 'making' through the dirty ground, whereas all the other loads are smaller, and not making through that same dirty connection.
A wiring diagram: http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.USEKModel (http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.USEKModel)
(check the wiki if i grabbed the wrong one at: http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.WiringDiagrams (http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.WiringDiagrams) )
I would start with checking that both battery terminal connections are clean.
Quote from: gs500e on May 15, 2011, 04:33:07 PM
Quote from: Unoriginal1 on May 15, 2011, 12:38:58 PM
Hey guys,
I just bought my first bike!! It's an '89 gs500e and I am having some electrical problems. None of my turn signals work, only the oil light comes on when I start the bike the other ones dont light up, No low beam but the high beam works, and the horn works. I am not sure where to start troubleshooting. The headlight is new and so are the turn signal bulbs. Is there a common ground or something?
There certainly is a common ground... the (-) battery terminal. (okay i'm done being a smarty)
The headlight should use the same ground for hi/lo... so that shouldn't be a ground problem there.
The gage backlights use the same ground as headlight.
The other devices ground themselves through a switch (ie: the oil switch grounded to case, through switch, to light)
etc etc.
But my guess is a dirty ground.
My reasoning is that:
The high beam is drawing enough current that it is 'making' through the dirty ground, whereas all the other loads are smaller, and not making through that same dirty connection.
A wiring diagram: http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.USEKModel (http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.USEKModel)
(check the wiki if i grabbed the wrong one at: http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.WiringDiagrams (http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.WiringDiagrams) )
I would start with checking that both battery terminal connections are clean.
I second that.Even if the battery terminals look good,clean them anyway.Replace the bolts if they're rusty.You need all the surface area you can get between these connections.
Quote from: Unoriginal1 on May 15, 2011, 12:38:58 PM
Hey guys,
I just bought my first bike!! It's an '89 gs500e and I am having some electrical problems. None of my turn signals work, only the oil light comes on when I start the bike the other ones dont light up, No low beam but the high beam works, and the horn works. I am not sure where to start troubleshooting. The headlight is new and so are the turn signal bulbs. Is there a common ground or something?
Umm, have you tried replacing the indicator bulbs? (or being sure it's in neutral, as far as that one lighting up or not)
If it's the same colors as the 90-96 diagram that's out there (IDK if it is), black/white is the ground, light green is right, black is left. But if you have high beam from the headlight, the black-white up there is working. Don't confuse black/white and white/black (brake)
Well I have a small update. I bought a new battery and used a wire brush to clean the wires before installing it, pretty sure thats not the problem. It's actually the low beams that work not the high. And weirdest issue is that I was testing wires to the rear left turn signal and the tester lit up when touching the positive terminal on the battery to either wire. It did this both with turn signal switch on and off. I was just trying to test the ground but it looks like ground is going through both wires.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/whanso1/electricalTheoryOfAnOpenSwitch.jpg)
So it makes sense that you saw power between battery+ and both sides of the bulb with the switch off.
With the switch ON... does not make sense.
Diagnosis: something is keeping power from getting to&through the switch.
Check for power to and from the switch. edit2: since (i assume) the corresponding front blinker works).... check wherever the front rear + is spliced together. edit friggin 3: since none of them work according to original post... check power to/from the blinker switch, and to/from the blinker relay.
edit: the low beams working... but not the high beams.... that changes everything (i would no longer expect a dirty ground to be main problem).