Strange Electrical

[oseaghdha]

Took the bike to the wash booth today.
I tried to stay away from the electrical, but...........

Started up ok. However, no headlight. Tail light works, blinker works.
When I put it in gear, it dies.
I barely got it to start in gear and limped home on two cylinders.
Something involving the neutral light I suspect.
I barely got it home. It would hit every now and then, made for a fun ride. Good thing it's only two blocks. Think about lighting the burner at random intervals!
When its in neutral it idles and revs normally.
Any ideas?

[81xsproject]

This has come up quite often for memebers. I don't remember if it was ever completely diagnosed though.

[Ken Talbot]

That sounds like what happens with a broken pick-up coil wire. Maybe you got a bit of water inside the cover and that shorted out one side. Running on two cylinders, it will sound pretty normal and it will rev up okay because there's no load. Taking off and riding with two cylinders is a whole different story as you seem to have discovered.

[oseaghdha]

The ignition problem seems to have cured itself.
I did a search on wash and problem/trouble/starting/etc, and it does seem to be a frequent issue.

Still can't get the headlight on tho. Maybe unrelated.
I have volts at the red on the relay, but nothing on blue or yellow.

Back to the search page.............

[John]

Dan

Have you checked the Reserve Lighting Unit to see if there is any power is on the blue or yellow wire there? It may have taken a dump on you. I Have a couple if you should need one.

[jimboreeno]

clean yer connections

If you haven't done it already, pull your tank and, one at a time, unplug and wirebrush each male plug. Put a little dielectric grease on and replug. I can't tell you how much this helped the overall performance of my bike.

I am going to do the pick-up coil wire check next l as I have the water aversion as well.

[81xsproject]

I have never had the post washing problem. Luckily I read about it when it came up last time and washed my bike at my house avoiding overspraying of water. However, when I moved at the begining of the summer, one of the last things to go was my bike. I decided it would be easier to ride than move. I got caught in a hellish rainstorm for the last two hrs of the ride. My after about an hour in the rain, it was definately not running as well. The water did something, but I don't know what. I made it home and that was fine by me.

[randy]

oseaghdha;

You might have gotten the plug wires/caps wet. Maybe time for new wires/caps? Are the wires brittle, caps have their 'booties' on?

[oseaghdha]

Dunno, bad karma?

The ignition problem went away after the bike dried out, still no clue what got wet.
The headlight relay blew taps at the same time, so I can't say the problems were related.

Suspect the RLU plug as it was under the fat harness wire and right above the carbs. The blue/black wire also goes to the neutral light per the crappy schematic I am looking at. Think it's Clymers. Maybe a connection, as it were.

[missinglink]

You should check out the pickup coil wires. I had a similar issue when I rode in a heavy rain. Found out that I had to do the pickup coil wire fix......works good now, rain or shine.