Low Voltage to Headlight - No Headlight

[Prothec]

I've been trying to button everything up on my 82 XJ11 after doing a number of things and no longer have a headlight and low voltage to the headlight connector.

Problem:
1. I'm color (deficient?) blind
2. Two leads to the headlight outlet read 4.2 and 4.3 volts resulting in no headlight.

Everything else works and the fuses read ~12 volts on both sides with the key on.

Here are what I did before trying to button everything up:
1. Removed the headlight bucket, sanded off the rust and painted the inside black.
2. Replaced (almost) all of the bullet connectors
3. Re-routed the wiring harness to avoid wrapping it around the frame.
4. Cut ~1.5 feet of a blue wire out of the left side of the harness leading to the front. The insulation was damaged and I kept cutting it back until I found shiny copper. Soldered my connections and re-wrapped that section of harness with non-adhesive rubber tape.
5. Cleaned any and all connectors in my path and elsewhere on the bike with DeOxit and applied dielectric grease.
6. Cut my turn signal wires back, extended with new wire and crimped on new bullet connectors.
7. Added wiring for the fuel gauge that previously wasn't connected (previously shorted to always read full).

Troubleshooting I've done - needed to have my wife out to tell me wire colors:

1. Searched the forum for ideas.

2. Checked voltage at headlight connector:
Y/Gr = 4.2v
Gr/R = 4.3v
Black = 0v

I don't have the MC level switch connected.
Loose connectors in headlight bucket:
Red = 12v
Gr/W = 0v
Brown (double-connector) = 12v

3. Checked voltage at RLU connector from harness:
Y/Gr = 4.37v
Blue/W = 4.38v
Yellow = 12v
Green = 0v
Blue/Pink? = 0v
Black = 0v
Blue/Br = 0v
Gr/Red = 4.38v

4. Verified fuses and unplugged and re-plugged as many connectors as I could find.

5. Swapped the resistor-looking in the harness near the RLU with one from a spare harness

Out of ideas
I'm new to troubleshooting wiring.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Prothec,

Appears lots of us are not XJ Electrical Gurus either...19 views, no replies!

I've been looking over the XJ's wiring diagram! The y/g(yellow-Green) and the G/R(Green-Red) wires at the headlight plug come directly from the Reserve lighting unit. I can't find a headlight RELAY on the XJ diagram at all compared to the XS's, so I'm thinking they did away with it, or incorporated it into the RLU?? However I can't find the Alternator 1phase/leg tap with a diode that goes to a headlight latching relay on the XS! The only Diode I can see is on the clutch switch circuit?

I'm thinking the RLU is bad. I know there's a bypass for it for the XS, but not sure how to do it for the XJ.

Hopefully this will bump this thread up so others will see and hopefully the XJ or electrical gurus will chime in?
T.C.

[natemoen]

The headlight won't come on till the alternate starts putting out, so if you are only testing with the key on, the the light WILL NOT come on. Start the bike.

[Prothec]

The headlight won't come on till the alternate starts putting out, so if you are only testing with the key on, the the light WILL NOT come on. Start the bike.

That's the way my 650 works - headlight would come on after starting, then off with the key, but my xj11 always had the headlight immediately on with the key.
I did try starting the bike, but only ran for a few moments before my carbs ran dry and didn't get a headlight. I can throw the tank back on and get her started again.

The manual's troubleshooting guide says I should be getting 12v at the RLU on.... one of the wires I was getting ~4v from.

I'm going to get back to it this morning and see if I can't figure something out.

[Prothec]

It just occurred to me the wire colors coming from the harness are different from those leaving the connector to the RLU.

I think this harness is from an XS. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe the later XS's had the exact same harness? Time to compare to the original harness...

[SFerinTEXAS]

natemoen The headlight won't come on till the alternate starts putting out, so if you are only testing with the key on, the the light WILL NOT come on. Start the bike.

Not So on the XJ. Key on, hd lamp on. The biggest problem with the XJ electrical trouble shooting is the computer .I know from recent experience the hd light plug comes out of the cluster itself.

[Prothec]

Not So on the XJ. Key on, hd lamp on. The biggest problem with the XJ electrical trouble shooting is the computer .I know from recent experience the hd light plug comes out of the cluster itself.

Good, so I'm not losing my mind.

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pull the front half of the harness again. I might just pull the entire harness and re-wrap it to get rid of the nasty degraded electrical tape. Time to get intimately acquainted with the wiring diagram.

[natemoen]

Is the harness new on the bike?

[Prothec]

Is the harness new on the bike?

It was a used harness off e-bay that I put on with the new build. Everything worked when I originally put it all together. I still have the original, but it is shredded and a lot of the connectors were destroyed by dogs when I had the frame stored in a friend's back yard. They apparently thought they were wiring pros.

I just checked all the wire colors against the original harness and they are all the same (headlight bucket and RLU connector). I also checked to make sure I put all the right gender bullet connectors in the right place.

[Prothec]

I'm taking the shotgun approach even though I probably just hooked something up wrong. I wanted to re-wrap the harness anyway.

I have now stripped all the nasty tape off the harness. I figure worst case, I'll be looking for another harness, best case I'll be busy tracing and replacing sections and connectors.

I realized the battery neg. cable to the frame should be replaced too.

[Prothec]

Solved

So I unwrapped my harness (which I wanted to do anyway) and did a lot of head scratching. Everything looked good albeit covered in nasty sticky stuff.

It occurred to me that when I hit the starter button, the headlight shuts off, so a quick search brought me to this post:

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showpost.p...32&postcount=6

I know I cleaned out my right-hand controls, but had everything working since I had it apart.

A quick look at the wiring diagram and I was quickly laying out the harness and hooking everything back up... shorted Blue/Black and Orange/Red, lo and behold, HEADLIGHT!!!!!

Now I can focus on re-wrapping my harness, ordering new connectors, rebuilding my rear shocks and finishing up my fuel line routing.

[natemoen]

Glad ya got her figured out!