[Superchuck]

Strange headlight problem: I replaced my burnt out 7" sealed beam with a generic reflector, lense, and h4 bulb today. It worked great when starting my ride but within 30 min I noticed the bulb was out. Stopped to check it out and it wouldn't light on the low beam or high beam switch setting, but when I pulled the little yellow trigger that flashes the light, it lit up. Got some tape and taped the trigger down then rode for the rest of the night.

I'm assuming it's a wiring issue and I'll have to troubleshoot it with diagram and multimeter but has this happened to anyone? Any ideas where to start?

Thanks! Ps the bikes running great with the new chain and sprocket!

Chuck

[boggy]

Chuck,
The same behaviour happened on my AVL, but I hadn't swapped the bulb.  The red wire connected to the the bulb was frayed.  It routes out the back of the nacelle and is exposed and I think the elements took their toll.  The blue and green one route inside the nacelle and are wrapped in sheath, so maybe they are better protected.

Take a look in there and follow that red wire.  See if it's been chewed up a bit.  If you turn your handlebars to the right, you should be able to see the red wire on the left side, but you will probably have to pull the headlight off.

Boggy

[Superchuck]

Great thanks for the pointers!  Also the h4 bulb sticks further back which causes the wires to interfere a bit with the speedo cable so this friction could be part of the problem.

Thanks again!

[Chasfield]

On my Classic, before I rewired it, the headlamp flash was wired to work off the battery, engine off, for safety reasons. Let's say that you need to alert a reversing truck that is about to run you down while you are parked at the kerb.

The in-motion headlamp power feed came off the separate AC lighting windings of the alternator. So you can lose the driving lights yet still be able to operate the headlamp flash.

I went all DC with the rewire , so all of my electrical system is live with a stopped engine.

[Superchuck]

Very interesting... I don't think my avl is wired that way but I'll check it out. Haven't had the chance to dig into it yet but that's a good second strategy if it's not just the red headlight lead.

[Superchuck]

Went to fix this the other day but my multi meter was on the fritz. Then i thought my short fixed itself but it was because the bike was getting rained on and the water drops completed the circuit. Thinking it might be the left hand switch mechanism. Might just need a new dab of solder. We will see.

[Superchuck]

Finally got around to fixing this!

In the left hand switch control, there's a yellow wire with a red stripe which supplies power to the high/low beam switch.  There's a different solid yellow one which provides power to the trigger button. That one was working.

Traced back the yellow-red wire through a few couplings, and sure enough back under my seat there's another rats nest. One yellow-red wire wasn't pushed in all the way to a multi pin coupler.  Pushed this in so it made contact and now my headlight works!

Something tells me this is a temporary solution and some solder would do me good but at least I know where to look now.

Cheers all.

[DanB]

Nice work superchuck!