headlights dim unless brakes applied By godfeast (Read 9,286 times)

[godfeast]

AS per my other post, I seem to be burning through stators.

I just paid to replace one and bike runs fine now, but the headlights are dim to the point of almost being off UNLESS I apply the brakes, then they brighten right up.

The dash lights also seem to be gone, but then again I've had issues with them in the past.

I did have current going into the ground at the stator - checking to see if its there still, but while at the shop they replaced the old RR, so I'm not sure where to start looking electrically speaking.

I need to go to work today (lost two days already and half my last paycheck on mechanic) so I need ideas of where to start looking tomorrow.

I could really use a hand - such as an idea of what wires to start tracing.

[alleyoop]

Start it up and check what the R/R is putting out to the battery. It should be in the 14s if over 14s the R/R is suspect and putting out to much.
Alleyoop

[godfeast]

I had a new RR put in and had a gently used one as backup - switched between the old one and these other two with no variation in the issue.

I just finished pulling the harness and instrument cluster off the scoot. Looking for obvious shorts and crimps before sticking it back on.

Lost another dAY off work too as when I went to leave, I noticed that both my tailights and headlights were no longer working at all and the fuse was still ok.

good times.

[alleyoop]

Just looking at the fuses is not good enough you have to check both sides of the fuse to make sure voltage is going through. Many look good but are not. Same with the R/Rs you have to put a volt meter either to the battery or the power wire coming off of it to see how much it is putting out. The taillights look for the brown wire that carries the juice to the lights and the green and yellow is your stop lights. So get yourself a cheap volt meter, you can pick one up for $10.00 at a harbor Freight store maybe even at a autoparts store or walmart etc.
Alleyoop

[godfeast]

Yeah, I own a voltmeter, test light, jumpers, etc...

I'm just not that good at using them.

Spent all night frankensteining together a instrument cluster just to tighten things up and make sure I know I have no shorts.

Working on harness again, then taillight harness tomorrow - just taking the whole week off and going to try to get this done right hopefully.


What are all the things that could cause an RR to put out too much voltage (and thus shunt a bunch of it to ground)?

Three RR's and all do the same thing, so I'm wondering now.
=======================================


I also ran into an odd thing:


1. Grabbed a instrument dash out of a pile of junk ones at the scooter shop because it looked similar and I needed a hazard button anyways.

This has an in dash mechanical rpm gauge though and , from what I can see without tearing it apart, 3 wires - black, green, and yellow/black running to it.

I obviously cant use it at the moment, but would you or anyone else, happen to know what this likely hooks to and if I can grab the part and make it work on mine?

[alleyoop]

So what where the output of the R/Rs?
Alleyoop

[godfeast]

Dont know. The harness and various wirings are sitting on the floor of my living room atm, making a determination impossible.

-

Sometime tomorrow I'll get it running and test in bike again. I just got really pissy that I spent a week rewiring my harness a few months ago and then came down with some sort of ground issue.

I get frustrated sometimes. lol

[tvnacman]

you have a ground for the brake lights and for the headlights . sounds like a back feed , the grounds are all soldered to one main green wire in the harness . I bet if you trace the headlight ground you will find a problem where it connects to . Connect a frame ground and to the headlight ground problem solved .

John

[JR]

TV hit it on the head and the tail light circuit feed is the same as the head lights. When you push the brake handle you are back feeding the gound side of the brake light to the tail light side.

Also you need to make sure the brake light wire is correct. If you have pulled this harness and worked on it remember brake light wire = yellow/green

Tail lights = brown and ground = green.

On the headlights colors vary but green or in some cases black will be ground. The headlight bulbs will have 3 wires and two of them come from the dimmer switch usually blue = hi beams and white (sometimes pink or purple) = lo beams. The dimmer switch is fed from the yellow wire on the R/R and it'll be brown (sometimes yellow).

If it has what is called a passing light switch it will be fed by a hot wire from the key switch usually black and when activated it sends 12Vdc to the hi beam only.

JR

[godfeast]

Bike had no spark, took it to a mechanic who got me for 150.00 bucks I didnt have and changed out the stator and the RR, which got me spark and running, but I noticed that my headlights were dim unless brakes were applied, but I ran home like this since they wanted more to troubleshoot this problem.

I hadnt had this issue before, and on the way home the running taillight and headlights went all the way out and wouldnt change if brakes applied ( ASSUME I BLEW THE RUNNING LIGHT FILAMENT IN THE TAILLIGHT BU HAVENT CHECKED YET).

... So I stripped off the harness and checked my wiring then replaced connections that looked bad, plus I went ahead and added a ground to the headlights.

Issue remains and I have no tail light or headlights.

I have three RR's (one just bought two days ago at the scooter shop) - checked them all and all had same results:

RR attached (plugged in) and bike running testing for ac volts at plug connection =

1. white 24v

2. Yellow 12v

3. red 1v

plugged testing at connector and running (dc)=

1. white 10v

2. red 13v

3. yellow 10v

Unplugged and testing running =

nothing except 12v DC at red and 37V ac at white



Battery was just charged at auto parts store and has full 12v.

Can anything else be wrong other than a bad RR at this point?


********** I had a buddy with a similar bike who stopped by a minute ago and we swapped out headlight covers - his worked on mine with decent lighting BUT they still got brighter when brakes applied. ****************

I have to presume that I've blown both all my headlights out and taillight partially ( he didnt want me putting my headlights on his and I didnt press the point, so I dont know if they'd work on another bike, but doesnt seem likely).

Headlight wiring is blue, green, white, yellow.

I also noticed that when headlights (either) were pugged in the dash lights would go out only to come back on when headlights removed.

I did just thoroughly g over the instrument cluster wiring last night too - spent over 2 hours on it, but I couldve always screwed something up I suppose.

[tvnacman]

on your headlight switch what color wires are there .

John

[godfeast]

recheck the post above - I was mid edit when you posted.

TY

[tvnacman]

Dec 2, 2012 16:06:20 GMT -6 tvnacman said:

on your headlight switch what color wires are there .

John

on the hi/low flash to pass switch .

John

[godfeast]

gotcha, that would be :


BLUE YELLOW WHITE

*-----------*-----------*

[tvnacman]

ya the voltage is hi on the white wire , the regulator should be pulling the voltage down some can you post a pic of your stock regulator and the replacement ? can you show us a pic of the regulator plugged in ?

John