headlight relay

[graybird78]

so me and the wife went for a ride last night . during ride was light out . getting dark noticed no gauge or headlights.checked the obvious, no problems.thank god for driving lights.sopulled the gas tank,found the headlight relay.relay has battery voltage and ground.just no power to the latching side of relay.if you apply power lights work as they should.so i assume the diode died.right now relay is bypassed.where is diode located and what size is it

[CaptonZap]

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2036270

Under the tank is a portion of the loom that is on the left side. There is a fork in the loom, which goes down to the alternator, and just behind it is where to start the split in the covering. split it back about 10 inches and loosen the wires so that you can see all of them. One of them, a white one, should have a piece of what looks like shrink wrap about three inches long covering a portion of it. Feel the component inside, and if it feels like a diode, or a lump, cut the shrink wrap and there you are. Be sure to note the bar mark on the diode, since they only work one way. The end with the bar, (stripe) must go back in the same way that the original was positioned. Solder a new one in, and be sure to put a new piece of shrink wrap on before you solder it in. Tape the new shrink wrapped diode to the other wires to provide some mechanical support to the diode.
CZ
All of the above was where it was located on an 80G, so check a wiring diagram for your bike, if in doubt.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Gray,

It may be too late, but before you go tearing into your harness, did you check to make sure the system is actually CHARGING?? You said you had battery voltage at the relay, but no power in the latching wire side. You also said you had AUX driving/aux lights. Not sure how far you had to go to get home so you may not have noticed if they were getting dim?? And have you tried to start the bike since you got home???

I would throw a voltmeter on it, fire it up and rev to 2500 and see if you're getting the 14.5 or so volts. If still 12 or less, then the diode may not be bad, but you have charging problems to research! Good Luck!

T.C.

[graybird78]

well i started the bike tonite.head light came on.volt meter only shows 12.75 volts .so now it would seem i have charging issues.alt is not working .bike is fast becoming a money pit. no clue how to diagnos charging system

[bikerphil]

A good place to start is to check the connector plug for the alt. behind the fuse panel for corrosion/melting. 12.75V is pretty much normal unless you rev it up to 4K.

[graybird78]

bikerphil the plug behind the fuse panel melted down long ago.rewired that.earlier this year had issues with plug going to r&r.red wire melted.fixed that. found plug got hot again. have been reading on here how to diagnose .seems i have some testing to do.when i fixed the red wire i was charging at 14.0 volts at 3k. now i cant get above 13 volts at even 4k. this will drive me insane i really hate electrical. going to need help with this.

[bikerphil]

If you are getting 13V that means the alt. is working and most likely not the problem. You might want to re-check your connections first, one of the alt. wires can fry and it be running on only two which will cause a low charge symptom. Also, these regulators can have a mind of their own when they go bad, they can over charge or under charge. Best bet is to get your hands on another regulator. Although not perfect, that almost 13V you are getting should get you down the road for a bit as long as your battery is in good shape. GL

[graybird78]

well it seems i had a bad r&r.swapped it out with another one i had ,and we are charging.the old one could only reach 13.0 volts at 3000rpm.only the gauges and headlight wouldnt work.tach and eveything else was ok.all connections were good.just the latching side of headlight relay not working.so one pole of the r&r must be weak or bad.

[graybird78]

good call bikerphil.

[bikerphil]

Glad you got it sorted out.

[rover]

I haven't heard if Geezer is finished making parts. If not, get one of his regulators (r&r), they will solve your charging issue, gives more charging amps at a lower speed. That is, providing all the connections are up to par.

[graybird78]

i guess i should feel lucky. 15 yrs of ownership this bike has never let me down or stranded me either. it really has been one Xcellent bike. i think it should just run forever. but alas 46,000 miles later i guess things are bound to break. never had any carb issues other than sticky floats.did fix pu coil wires, and replace ign coils.still has original clutch and trans gears. just maint for all these years.

[graybird78]

seeems a geezer regulater and rewire is in order this winter