Neutral Light won't turn off?

[CatatonicBug]

I'm sorry if this has been addressed in previous posts, but I looked and couldn't find an answer.

My "new" '81 XS is coming together, and I managed to get the tach to work after cleaning the connectors from the alternator. All the lights work perfectly, except for the fact that the Neutral Light won't turn off when I shift out of Neutral. There is one red wire in the headlight dome that is not connected to anything, but there does not seem to be anywhere to connect it to.

Any hints or suggestions would be helpful.

[randy]

The red wire is probably an accessory wire. The neutral light lead may be pinched somewhere, grounding to the frame. OR, the switch itself could be bad. Remove the connector at the switch and see if the light goes out. if it does, replace the switch. If it doesn't, you'll have to trace the neutral wire back through the harness to find the short to ground. Have fun with that.

[fredintoon]

First check the switch

Hi 'bug,
it works like this;- a Tan colored wire feeds power to the neutral light. A sky blue wire grounds the light to the neutral switch. The neutral switch only grounds the sky blue wire and lights the neutral lamp when the tranny is in neutral.
So first, remove the sky blue wire from the switch and check the switch with the Ohms setting on your multi-meter. It should only show a reading when the tranny is in neutral. If it shows a reading while in a gear the switch or the cam that works it is hooped. Now check the wiring, touch the sky blue wire's end tag to the crankcase. It should light up every time it's grounded but not otherwise. If it lights up and the tag is not grounded, look for a short circuit.

[CatatonicBug]

Thanks! The next trick is locating the switch...

[DiverRay]

Thanks! The next trick is locating the switch...

Check the left side of the engine, just below and in front of the shifter. It's a single wire, going to a switch that is about 17mm bolt size. The wire comes out of the bundle of wires going to the pick up coils. HTH

[randy]

CatatonicBug;

You DO have a service manual, right? If not, get one.

[barberad]

look at the pictures on the bottom of this post. it shows a pic of the neutral sensor on the bottom of the bike.
Dan

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...threadid=19544

[CatatonicBug]

Originally posted by randy
CatatonicBug;

You DO have a service manual, right? If not, get one.

Yes. I have the manual. Unfortunately, it doesn't have very good pictures. It doesn't tell me where in this spaghetti this sensor is located. That, on top of the fact that there have been a few previous electrical mods done so far. You should see the amount of electrical tape on this thing!

[CatatonicBug]

Originally posted by barberad
look at the pictures on the bottom of this post. it shows a pic of the neutral sensor on the bottom of the bike.
Dan

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread...threadid=19544

ok.. If what I found is what is in that picture, no wonder I couldn't find it! There is no wire connected to that screw! Now I have to figure out how to wire it correctly.

[John]

The wire should be right there in the harness that leads to the pick up coils. It is held in with a small screw.

[CatatonicBug]

Well, there is no extra wire hanging down anywhere. Forgive my ignorance, but I don't even know what a pickup coil is. I know the coil, which is mounted next to the fuse box, but I have never heard of a pickup coil. I looked it up in the manual, and all it gives me is a schematic - once again, no pictures with arrows telling me where to find these items... I'm getting frustrated

I did notice that the emergency flasher was not working, and that the flasher relay is a 2-prong type, plugged into a 3-prong plug (one wire not conected to anything). I assume from things I've read in other threads that I need to locate a 3-prong flasher relay, right?

[CatatonicBug]

Ok... Now I feel a bit dumber than before... The "coil" I mentioned is the starter solenoid. I'm not used to that item being located away from the starter. I think I located the coils, just behind the fork tube, under the gas tank - right?

Still though, there are no extra wires hanging down from them - at least not that I have found yet. I'll keep looking though.

[bikerphil]

p/u coil wire harness

The pick up coils are located under the round left side ignition cover. If you look to the rear of that cover towards the bottom, you should see a wiring harness running from it, along the inside of the left lower frame tube. The neutral switch is under there too. This harness runs back behind the engine and up behind the fuse panel behind the right hand side cover. If you pull that harness out, you should be able to locate the broken/missing wire, fix and re-attach it to the screw on the neutral safety switch. You said you have the manual, so you should be able to identify the correct color for the wire. If the wire is missing altogether, run a new one from the connector end of harness to the neutral safety switch. HTH

[CatatonicBug]

The wire that runs from the neutral light is sky blue. I have searched all over and the only sky blue wire I have found leaving the wire harness runs to a lighting relay, just behind the turn signal flasher relay, mounted to the frame tube by a rubber loop on the left side of the frame under the seat.

I am done for tonight... I will try again tomorrow when I can focus a bit more.

[CatatonicBug]

I have determined that the neutral switch is actually broken. I removed it, and the post has been broken off (evident by the teeny, tiny, rough-edged post that's left) and the proper wire is grounding somewhere inside the wiring harness... I now have to figure out how to trace the wire through the harness to try to locate the end that is grounding where it shouldn't.