I have a few electrical and mechanical issues after working on my '02 project.
1) The blinker indicator only works for the right side and is fairly sticky when trying to turn the blinkers off. Any ideas? I cleaned the switch off.
2) The front brake does not toggle the rear light. The wires are connected. Is this a bulb or some sort of wiring issue? The back brake works okay.
Thanks!
bump
1) I took this piece apart this evening and worked on it a bit. The switch is now wrong- the left side triggers the right blinker and visa versa. Idk wtf is going on. The part off the '04 has a different harness plug which would be a pain to cut off and resolder but could be done at last resort.
2) I pulled off the switch, cleaned the connections and reattached it with no result. I tried a spare part and it also did not work. Are these little switches prone to failure? The wiring seemed okay.
1) the wires are switched somewhere. Most likely in the left hand switch or inside the headlight bucket.
2) Try jumping the 2 wires together (since that is what the switch does). If the 2 ends make contact and the light doesn't work, then there is probably a break somewhere in the wiring.
Do you have a multimeter?
right on. the bike had a busted headlamp from an accident so I will have to go check the wiring.
I have a multimeter but the batteries were dead. Now it has a 500ma dead fuse inside that I need to get from radioshack tomorrow. I'll try jumping the switch together. Am I just looking for 12v with the meter?
The two wires going to the brake light switch just complete a circuit to the actual light bulb. Since you said the rear switch makes the light work, we know it's not a problem with the bulb. If you search around a bit here, Adidasguy has posted a pretty nice wiring diagram a few times (if you don't have one). Assuming your bulb doesn't light up by connecting those 2 wires, then check for continuity at each end of the wires.
Front brake light switch could be bad.
Short the 2 wires from it. If the brake light comes on, bad switch. Replace the switch. The switch plunger comes out when the brake lever is pressed. That is, the brake lever presses the switch when NOT pulled in to turn off the light. If the plunger for the switch is stuck, the brake light won't come on so replace the switch.
Short the 2 wires from it. If the light does not come on, you have a break in the wires somewhere. You'll have to trace it and fix it.
If that is the case, you could do a hillbilly fix. Run 2 wires from the rear brake switch to the front brake switch. That's all it is - 2 switches in parallel that light the rear brake light. Pretty simple. Then, adidasguy really does love to play with electricity!
Thanks for the info. I will give it a go this evening and report back.
No luck shorting the wires for the brakes. I was hoping for a simple fix.
I didn't make any progress on the blinkers either- I wasn't able to trace the wires.
The front brake wires go to the right hand control wiring. There is a connector where all that plugs into the wiring harness. Follow that and look for a bad connection. Possible a wire was pinched somewhere. If an older bike, all wiring goes into the headlamp bucket. That can be a real nightmare, but it is all crammed into there so remove the headlamp and check in there.
Quote from: adidasguy on December 01, 2011, 07:27:25 PM
The front brake wires go to the right hand control wiring. There is a connector where all that plugs into the wiring harness. Follow that and look for a bad connection. Possible a wire was pinched somewhere. If an older bike, all wiring goes into the headlamp bucket. That can be a real nightmare, but it is all crammed into there so remove the headlamp and check in there.
The majority of the stuff that should be in the headlight bucket is stuffed under the frame for some reason; it is an '02. The switch has black/red and blue/red wires IIRC and they seemed fine on the harness connection.
Time to trace wires. One wire is +12. The other wire is parallel to the rear brake switch and goes to the tail light.
Check for +12 on one wire and then continuity from the other wire to the tail light.
So here is the deal. I followed both wires to the intersect by the battery and it must not be sending power to the connection at the brake lever. I jumped the switch at the brake and ran a lead to the battery and the tail light lit up. I'm guessing the switch could be okay but somewhere there is a disconnect between the front control and the intersect. My brain is fried so I might just put this one back on the to do list.
Good job. You've isolated it to one area.
Probably the +12 is disconnected at the connector in the headlight area. Go to the connector from the controls. Most likely the connector is dirty or a wire in either end of the connector is broken. +12 goes lots of places in the front of the bike, so my guess would be the connector.