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**mack** · 03-25-2012, 09:02 AM

There are much

smarter electrical savy members than I who will jump in I'm sure, but if it were me, I would start simple and swap out the flasher and clean up the left handlebar control internals. Them make sure the handlebar and the control contact surfaces are clean and make good contact with each other. You have a short there someplace so if it's not in the control, or flasher, move to the grounding lugs and make sure they are all clean and tight.

**natemoen** · 03-25-2012, 09:51 AM

Do you still have the glass tube fuses in there? They can look good and still be bad, or still pass current bit cause problems. Best bet would be to swap that out for a new atc fuse block first and start cleaning electrical conections.

**jpnd317** · 03-25-2012, 10:06 AM

the switch looked ok when I opened it and cleaned it. I guess for now I can use an automotive 2 prong flasher and see if that eliminates the short? If I take this in there will they know which one I need? I'll go ahead and just replace the glass fuses till I get the new fuse block that I'll order this week sometime. I also noticed that my brake light is stuck on. The rear brake doesnt feel like it's working right, already rebuilt the mc and cleaned the caliper and replaced pads and had it working fine last year.

**natemoen** · 03-25-2012, 10:46 AM

Any 2 prong electronic flasher will work, don't bother asking at the auto parts store cause they won't have a clue.

The board administrator TopCatGr58 (also known as TC) sells a replacement fuse block for something like $11. Send him a pm and he can hook you up.

Check the brake light switches on both the front and the rear and see if they are sticking and keeping the light on.

When you worked on the rear brakes did you remove the seal around the caliper piston and clean it out?

**crazy steve** · 03-25-2012, 12:27 PM

Originally posted by jpnd317 View Post

...At the end of last year the turn signals started flashing really slow for a few days maybe a week and and eventually the whole bike died while sitting at a traffic light. I'm finally getting the time to work on it. I've had the battery removed but I noticed when I hook it up the main fuse gets very hot. The headlight is the only thing that comes on. I'm also pretty sure this had something that controlled the light to only come on when the engine is running and that has been bypassed. I've tried to find a broken or shorted wire but haven't found anything. Also, when I remove the turn signal flasher the fuse does not get hot anymore but still no power except to the headlight. Does that mean the short is between the flasher and a light bulp? Any ideas? Is there something that could have gotten burnt up because of the short?.

When say you tried to find a 'bad' wire, was that with a meter or just 'looking'? Trying find an electrical issue without a meter can be fruitless...

First, read this: http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35337 to get an understanding of the system.

Next, you need to localise the problem; which circuit is causing it? Does the problem start the minute you hook up the battery? Is the key on or off? If you have a short, you should get a spark when you put the second battery cable on between the cable and the battery post. Try removing all the fuses, then hook up the battery. Did the spark go away? No, the problem is in the main red wire from the battery to the main fuse, so that's where to start looking. Yes, it went away, then install the main fuse and try again. If it came back, the problem is in the red wire between the fuse and the ignition switch. Perform both tests with the key off. The headlight shouldn't come on, if it does your harness has been hacked and you'll have start tracing wires to find out where.

Problem still not found? Good news, you've eliminated the main power feed as the problem, but you still need to look further. Next check, install the battery and the main fuse only, then turn on the key. Your taillight should come on (and front running lights if the bike is still equipped with them), if no taillight then you'll need to trace this out and find out why. Check for voltage at the fuse clips with the brown wires connected to them (the top ones). Got voltage at all three clips? No, the problem is in the main brown power wire from the switch and you'll have to split the harness to find the bad spot. If you have voltage at any of them, turn off the key; if you still have voltage, you also have a problem at the ignition switch. Voltage goes away, that part of the circuit should be good. Again, the headlight should remain off.

You have more than one problem. With the battery and main fuse installed (but not the other fuses), try installing the ignition and headlight fuses only one at a time. Install the ignition fuse first, and check for power at the TCI; no power, more tracing. Same test for the headlight; install the fuse, the light should come on if the relay is bypassed. If everything has tested good up to this point, the bike should start/run, you just won't have turn signals, horn, brake light, or oil/neutral lights. If it won't, you probably have dirty/corroded connections and you'll have to go through and clean them.

If the bike will run after the above checks, post back and I'll go through the checks for the turn signals...

**jpnd317** · 03-25-2012, 06:35 PM

thank you very much everyone. I do have a multi meter. When I said "bad wire" I just looked at every wire I could see easily with the tank and seat off and the tail light cover off and the headlight bucket off to see if any wires were pinched or broken and touching metal.

I did take the seal off the piston on the rear caliper and clean the piston and all really good because it was sticking. Haven't messed with the brakelight switches yet.

The harness has definitely been tampered with pretty much all over.

Now, one problem I have is that the ignition is stuck in the on position so I won't be able to do those tests with the key off. What I did notice is that the headlamp fuse was bad when I checked all the fuses.

Now, there has been no spark when hooking up the battery until I hooked the headlamp up. The headlamp is always on when the battery is hooked up even when the headlamp fuse was bad.

I pulled all the fuses out. no headlight, no spark but the tail/break light comes on.

I put the main fuse in and I get spark when hooking up the battery and the headlamp comes on. Still no turn signals and the engine doesnt crank.

So does that mean the short is in the headlamp circuit?

Is the breaklight switch shorted since it comes on with the fuses out?

Also, I replaced the flasher with a 2 prong automotive flasher

**crazy steve** · 03-25-2012, 07:05 PM

Originally posted by jpnd317 View Post

I pulled all the fuses out. no headlight, no spark but the tail/break light comes on.

I put the main fuse in and I get spark when hooking up the battery and the headlamp comes on. Still no turn signals and the engine doesnt crank.

So does that mean the short is in the headlamp circuit?

Is the breaklight switch shorted since it comes on with the fuses out?

Also, I replaced the flasher with a 2 prong automotive flasher

You've got major problems.... With the main fuse out, nothing should work. When you install only the main fuse, then only the taillight should come on. So the PO has been at the wiring, wiring around stuff, connected to who-knows-what. You've got two choices; if you're pretty good at electrical, you can go through and troubleshoot what you have in spite of any modifications to make it work. It will be all-but-impossible for anybody to help you long-distance. Second choice will be to get a stock harness and replace what you have to get back to stock.

You may be able to 'save' what you have if you follow the 'overview' I linked to, as that is a semi-complete description of the electrical system on these. But you'll have to trace everything out to find where the PO modded it....

**jpnd317** · 03-27-2012, 10:59 AM

I worked sunup to sundown yesterday so hopefully i get home a little earlier today. I'm probably just going to buy another harness. There's one on ebay for a 79 that's $85. Can I use a harness from a 78? I think I saw one that was cheaper for that year. the only bad thing is that this harness is for the full dresser and i doubt if I'll ever find an exact replacement. Basically, if i find a bracket and decide to put the fairing and bags back on, which I want to do eventually, I'm gonna have to wire it up. I am ok with electrical but not great. Do you think it would be easiest to get the new harness and worry about wiring up the fairing and bags later? thank you for the help everyone.

**crazy steve** · 03-27-2012, 11:34 AM

There's no difference between the 78 and 79 standard harnesses... ok, maybe one, but it won't matter. The 78 bikes all had a 'lights on/off' switch on the right handlebar control, this was deleted on some '79 standards, and was never fitted to any of the other models. If your bike lacks the switch, you'll simply have two 'extra' wires in the main harness that won't be connected. This doesn't affect your headlight, that switch was only meant as a manual 'override' for if the headlight relay failed. The relay normally is what turns your headlight on when the bike starts. The switch on my '78 never did anything, so apparently Yamaha installed some that weren't even hooked up...

As far as any harness wiring differences between a 'bagger' and naked bikes, there shouldn't be any. The fairings were designed to plug into the stock harness after the stock headlight and turns were unplugged. Sometimes the installer cut the OEM plugs off, you can probably salvage any parts needed off your harness or as a worse-case buy new ones. Main thing to check for when buying a harness is to try to make sure it hasn't been hacked too...

**jpnd317** · 03-28-2012, 04:27 PM

Thanks a lot for your help Steve. I'm about to buy that harness off of ebay right now. Just curious, what do you think the odds are the bike will run when I install the new harness? Is there a chance that relays or something else was burnt up?

**crazy steve** · 03-28-2012, 07:53 PM

It's possible to have some bad relays, but that wouldn't cause your problems. When you get your 'new' harness, look it over real good for any signs of hacking or damage. Clean every plug and connection you can, 95% of the wiring problem on these is usually a poor connection. I'd even invest the time to make sure the various wires go where they're supposed to with a meter; it's a lot easier to fix a harness when it's off the bike.

Good luck!

**jpnd317** · 03-31-2012, 08:37 AM

Ok I ordered the fuseblock from TC. I almost wonder if it might start when I get it but not getting my hopes up. I haven't ordered the harness yet because I just feel like I'd be getting beat. So I did some more testing and examining. I hooked my meter inline with the negative terminal on my battery, 1 lead on the post and the other on the neg. cable and checked voltage. 12.5 volts with no fuses in. BTW I got the rear break unstuck so the lights are no longer on and at some point the headlight stopped coming on. Before the brake lights went out I was at 11.5V. I proceded to install 1 fuse at a time to see if there was a drop in voltage, none. So then I started wiggling different areas of the harness. When I moved the part going to the fuseblock I would get a huge drop in voltage, sometimes to zero. So I unscrewed the block and pretty much destroyed it removing the wires so I could split the harness open. The connectors were brittle and some just fell apart. I opened several inches of the harness but haven't found any bare wires yet. I also investigated more thoroughly a wire the PO had ran from the starter relay to an inline fuse then split it into 2 wires. One wire was spliced into a brown wire towards the rear of the bike next to the tci. The other end goes toward the front of the bike and was zip tied to the frame along with the horn wires. I don't have the horns because they were mounted to the fairing bracket which I don't have. At first I didn't know those were the horn wires,I thought the PO had just spliced into something else so I cut the zip tie to find out. Well, if they had capped or taped that blue wire it had fell off and the blue wire was held firmly to the frame metal on metal by the zip tie. Also the in line fuse on this wire was blown.

Thats as far as I've gotten right now. I probably need to check my starter relay to make sure it's still good and go farther into the harness to make sure there are no other shorts. The PO also unplugged two yellow wires that are on top of the rear fender and I need to figure out what those are.

Any thoughts? Thanks for the help everyone.

Who thinks I should just go ahead and replace the harness for $88 haha

Some people say I'd be winning if I bought the harnes and the bike fired right up, others say I'd win if I figured this harness out. What I do know is that my xs was getting nearly 40mpg last year if I could stay out of the throttle. My suburban is lucky to get 14mpg. So at over $4 a gallon in 1 week of driving to work, 1hour round trip, the bike would've paid for the harness. ugh

**crazy steve** · 03-31-2012, 11:57 AM

It sounds like you're making progress, so I'd continue checking the existing harness and making sure the wires are going to where they're supposed to. Clean out any 'PO fixes' you find and restore the harness to it's original configuration with the exception of the factory fuse panel. These really aren't that complicated and unless you find a lot of hacked/shortened/missing wires or wires melted together, it's not that tough to fix what you have. The broken/melted plastic connectors are a common problem, those can be replaced. You can find those here: http://www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/

I'll mention that when replacing a harness with another used one, you may be faced with some of the same problems as it will be just as old as the one you're pulling out. That's another reason I recommend fixing what you have; better the devil you know...

**jpnd317** · 04-04-2012, 08:00 PM

Well I have an interesting update. I got the fuse box in and wired it up. Unhooked the wires they had spliced and I still have nothing. I decide to jump the posts on the starter relay because I hadn't tried it yet and got a slow crank on the motor. I took the battery in to put it on the charger for the night and when I went to hook it up I realized that if the battery was installed properly the vent or drain whatever it is, would be on the opposite side as the vent tube is ran. So the battery has been hooked up backwards the entire time I've had the bike, I even rode it like that for a few months. So when the PO spliced into hot wires and ran them to the positive side of the battery they were hooking them up to the positive terminal of the battery but to the ground cable.

What could this have done to the bike?

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