Headlights (SOLVED!) By nalrac (Read 75,570 times)

[JR]

I've got a written out copy of it somewhere that's bigger and Sprocket has a good idea but the wires on my Bali are all crimped no soldier and they are very poor at that, I soldiered every one of mine.

JR

[JR]

Adam not trying to smart or anything but this info you read eslewhere is totally wrong:

Obviously, not all scooters are going to be wired the same. However, a couple generalizations can be made here regarding this issue. A lot of GY6 scooters are wired with the headlights and many of the other "up front" lights wired into the yellow wire of the stator. That wire is AC and regulated to 12v through the regulator/rectifier (R/R). The yellow lights up with power when the stator starts spinning and then the headlights come on; my 1500cc motorcycle operates in the same fashion. If you unhook the yellow from the R/R the voltage will escalate way past 12v and probably blow some lights or melt something. If your R/R is not doing it's job the same thing can happen. The tail lights are DC and run off of the battery through the ignition switch 100% of the time as far as I know. This is part of the circuit that activates the starter and why you must pull in a brake handle. When you turn on your ignition switch the tail lights come on and are not dependant on the engine starting like the headlights. So in answer to the last question, yes, the headlights and tail lights can be two seperate systems and operate independantly. Rich

Don't be confused by the tail lights as the rear lights are two seperate circuits as in "brake" lights and tail lights.

On the Bali and on about 95% of all Chinese scooters the head/tail lights are run off of the stator and are a rectified AC/DC voltage, simply put if the scooter isn't running no headlights or tail lights.

The brake lights which are in the same loop as the starter as in the scooter will only start with the brake handle pressed are ran off of the battery along with the horn, turn signals and accessories and occasionally the instrument lights too.

Now on about again 95% of Chinese scooters the CDI is AC and on the Bali like most scooters if the stator and all are good you can throw away the battery and start the scooter with the kick starter as just like on a simple lawn mower the voltage needed to run the engine is produced by the stator with the engine running, don't believe it start your scooter (makes it easier after warming up) and then unhook the battery and kick start it.

The voltage output on the Bali is weak and can be helped a lot by converting to LED lights. Once my wifes Bali had a stuck brake light switch and we made a long ride pulled up to the gas pump and it wouldn't start due to a almost dead battery, the two "brake" light bulbs was too much on all the time even with it running. She said what are we going to do now? I simply filled it with gas and kick started it and home we went found the switch problem and then converted to LED's put a better battery on and no more problems.

So it's possible that you do have a bad R/R on the head/tail light side but it's again very unusual as 99% of the time when one goes bad it's bad entirely and the battery will not charge.

So again fire her up and take a voltage test at the battery and read the voltage on the head/tail light circuit. You can also pull the tail/brake light bulbs and take a battery test the bulbs to see if they are any good same with the headlight bulbs.

There is one more possibilty since again you said it all flickered and then went totally out and that's the stator wires themselves coming out of the engine, where they come out they are ran through a little rubber plug to insulate them from the engine block and this has been known (poor Chinese rubber) to run through and short out, has happened to many a person so check this area too.

JR

[nalrac]

Hey JR,

This is all extremely helpful information. I'm sorry for the short reply but I have just a couple of minutes to reply and plan a more detailed response tomorrow. However, I just wanted to let you know that I tested the battery terminals while the scooter was running today and got a reading of 25vDC. I also tested the green wire at the headlights and tail lights and got a reading of 0vAC. So, what do you think? Bad R/R?

- Adam

[JR]

Green wire = ground will have no voltage unless you touch other probe to a voltage source. 25 volts at the battery? Yes something bad wrong here? Are you sure you had the meter set at DC voltage?

Adam you need to take your volt meter and if you have the scooter apart enough to get to the tail/brake lights or the head lights you need to test the yellow wire that plugs into the head and tail lights. At the rear above the muffler you'll see a quick connect plug that is the wiring plug for the tail, brake, turn signal lights.

Unplug this plug and the input side of the harness you will have these colored wires:
green
green/yellow
yellow
blue
orange

On the other side of the plug toward the tail lights you will have the same wires except the yellow is brown which is the tail/license plate light and they will only burn when the scooter is running.

Plug your volt meter into the yellow and green on the plug from the engine side, start the scooter and take a reading. Read DC volts.

Now if it's absolutely 0(zero) then you've got a broke wire in this area or a totally blown R/R at least on the one side that feeds this circuit and if you do indeed have 25 volts on the battery with it running then that is possible but again if it's totally zero I'm still saying bad wire? But I've been fooled before and again my suspisicion is fueled by the just quitting after it flickering a time or two, bad R/R just don't do this but I've been fooled before.

It is also possible that one side of the stator is bad but let's do this test and then we can test the stator easily enough if you find nothing.

This gremlin is being a pain but hang in there we'll find it.

JR

[nalrac]

Awesome, JR. I can't thank you enough. I drove her to work this morning so, hopefully, I can test this tonight and get some final answers to this puzzle.

PS - In an unrelated bit of news, I had posted in another thread that it was "running, but not fast". I posted earlier that I had found a disconnected vacuum hose on the carb. Well, I drove it the first time today after getting it back together and I'm now wondering how long this hose had been disconnected or loose. It's running amazingly well. I could easily reach 50mph at 3/4 throttle. and over 60 at WOT. Now, if I can just get the lights to work I'll be a happy camper

- Adam

[nalrac]

OK Fellas,

I believe that we have this one solved. I popped the seat to test the voltage coming to the battery with a new multimeter and was surprised to find that it said 12v exactly. Then, I walked to the front and the headlight WERE WORKING. I wiggled and moved wires to see if I could get them to go off again so that way I would be able to narrow down where the bad wire was. I couldn't find anything so I turned it off and when I attempted to restart the battery was dead (at least that's what I thought).

So, once again, I looked at the battery and noticed a HEAVY amount of corrosion had covered one of the wires on the positive terminal. It was the smaller wire with the fuse. So, I took the entire thing apart, stripped, and rewired. Afterwards, I charged the battery for about 6 hours and, when I started it up, the lights were still working. That was 3 days ago and they've been working ever since. They (dash and headlights) DO seem to randomly fade dim to bright. THAT seems to be caused by the dimmer switch.

Either way, I feel rather foolish for not cleaning the terminals in the beginning. I'm just glad that we've got this one solved!

Thanks for all your help!

[JR]

Thanks Adam! We'll add this to the "look for this gremlin list". Did you re-test the voltage with it clean and a fully charged battery?

Also be sure that the brake light aren't on all the time this wil, eventualyl drain the battery even with it running. Simple way to know is just turn on the key if they burn then yoyu've got a stuck in the closed position brake switxch.

Good find Adam.

JR

[sprocket]

FYI.. a fully charged battery with all good cells should read 12.6 volts with no load...12 volts on a scooter is OK, but 8.5 volts is just marginal for starting...

[eddie]

How did you get your headlights on because I'm having the same problem I have no head light and tail light but I have brake light and both turn signals. I have a 2008 roketa motorcycle

[cyborg]

Start a new thread please

[davidlynnmclemore]

Here my question I have a 2016 49cc Tao Tao scooter I put a brand new starter, starter solenoid,CDI box, spark plug boot,spark plug and a voltage rectifier in last couple of days and I have a brand new battery. I noticed last night when I was riding my dash and my headlight and front blinkers were running dim but my rear brake and blinkers were run fine. I brought this a couple months ago used. I also noticed when I put the new voltage rectifier on there was a couple of wires that had blue painters tape wrapped around a couple of cut wires that have been trusted back together, also my scooter will not start up with the electric ignition start button but will start up just fine kick starting.

[eddann1212]

JR can you explain to me how you got your lights working I have a roketa 150cc with the same issue?
Can I run just take all the clips off and run straight original wire?

[eddann1212]

nalrac,JR,sprocket
I have the same issue as Jr but I have a roketa 150cc and I was wandering can I just take all the clips and plugs off and run straight wire to get the lights working?