light indicator

[oldyam80sg]

My light in the instrument area that indicates the -reserve lighting device- does not work.Bulb is good.I think this is supposed to glow but doesn't.What could be the cause of this?Does it work only if the headlight was to burn out?Just curious.

[planedick]

Only

When one element of the headlight burns out the reserve lighting unit will switch to the other element and then the indicator will light.

[oldyam80sg]

Gotcha- So that means that the light wont go on even when starting it up unless one of the filaments have burned out- then the rlu is supposed to work.

[egsols]

I recall somewhere deep in the recesses of my cranium that the light is supposed to glow very, very slightly to indicate that all is functioning. I think my does but it's only noticeable in a very dark environment. If you disconnect the head light and fire the bike I think it will come on, as a test.

[HiGuy]

I am having a heck of a time with the whole headlight indicator system. The PO had a clipboard with a switch that would cuase the headlight to strobe and along with the he had made some modifications that I still haven't figured out. He did however take out the headlight relay and when I tried to put one in from a 1980 G XS it was blowing fuses, causing the head light to be pretty dim and causing the head light indicator light to flicker depending on the rpms. Low RPMS it would come on then go off and later come on again as it approached 5000 or so, it would also kinda flicker when it was on the high beam setting (head light was dimmer than the low beam setting still). So I went back to the way the PO had it which was bypassing the headlight relay (fuse to light). Bike starts fine but for some reason the low beam is higher than the high beam while the high beam is low and the head light indicator light comes on brightly. I tried changing out the reserve lighting unit but it did the exact same thing as the original and I would have tried swapping the light checker unit but I didn't know where it was.

Any suggestions please let me know.

[egsols]

If I understand the RLU correctly, me thinks its supposed to kick the high beam when the low beam fails, but at a lower intensity.

You say the high beam comes on dim and the warning light is on. To me, this would suggest that the RLU is not sensing the low beam and is in "reserve mode".

It could be that the power for the low beam has bypassed the RLU and perhaps the original feed is now touching ground which could account for the relay blowing a fuse. Just a thought.

[HiGuy]

thread completion

Just to complete the thread I will explain what was messed up. The PO had a headlight flasher hooked up and I had the most horrible mech in the world take it off and all he did was cut the wires which broke the circut and that is why the headlight indicator was on (It's good to know the reserve unit works). I still don't have a headlight relay which would be nice but one thing at a time. If any body has an extra one for a 79 sf let me know.

[XSPastor]

The indicator will light if you remove the headlight bulb too. You can do this to check if the indicator bulb is burned out...