Help!?

[JerseyJon]

I can't tell you how grateful I've been over the years to you guys. But now I have a little bit of an emergency. I'm stuck in Jersey City, my SG is running beautifully, but the headlight and gauge cluster won't go on. It's nighttime. I still have the old fuses, and I replaced each one in order. The light didn't come on. I know the headlight stays off until the alternate her is generating enough juice. But I don't think that's the issue here. Any thoughts? suggestions? I carry the standard set of handtools.

[JerseyJon]

By the way

Which one of the four old style Fuses in the old-style fuse box is the fuse for the headlight engage cluster?

[bikerphil]

It is probably your headlight relay that bit the dust. It can be bypassed by unplugging it and jumping the blu/blk and the red/yel in the harness connector. By all means check the 10A fuse first, not sure where it would be located in the original fuse block though.

[JerseyJon]

Thanks

I checked the 10 amp fuse. That doesn't seem to be yet. Could you describe where the headlight relay is? I hate to be such an ignoramus. But you know.

[bikerphil]

It sits above the ignition coils under the fuel tank, front center, unfortunately the tank has to come off to access it. It has a 4 wire connector on it.

[JerseyJon]

Ok.

Lemme give that a try

[bikerphil]

Yep, when you find the small square unit, just unplug it and jump the red/yel + blu/blk wires and your headlight should come on with the key on position. GL

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Jon,

You're probably busy working on it right now, but hopefully you'll check back here before hitting the road to get home. IF you get the lights working, I would suggest finding a service station, or even a WalMart and get a voltmeter just to check to make sure that your charging system is still working, getting ~14 or so volts at 2500+ rpm at the battery. IF so....then you know the bike shouldn't die on you on the way home by draining the battery running the bike/headlight! Yes, Good Luck!

T.C.

[JerseyJon]

Made it!!

You guys never cease to amaze me with your generosity and knowledge. Here's what I did:

I didn't have a socket wrench, so I wrestled for about 10 minutes trying to get the seat off with an adjustable wrench. I could tell I was going to ruin something. So I gave up on that. I did, however, have one of those connectivity testers. You know, the little probe with the alligator clip that you hook to a ground so you can tell if a wire is hot. I opened up the headlight bucket and used that to find a hot wire and I just used some spare wire to jump from one of the two large brown wires going into a four prong connector to the green wire going into the headlight plug. I taped it up with electrical tape so that it would hold for the 30 mile ride home. And it did!

The highbeam didn't work, I assume that's because the highbeam runs off the yellow wire that goes into the headlight plug. Tomorrow, I'll check the wiring diagram to see what exactly I did, and I'll fix it.

Once again, Phil, TC, and everybody else here, I'm so grateful. Thanks again.

[bikerphil]

Good thinkin' there Jon, glad you made it there safe.

[TopCatGr58]

To paraphrase a prominent commercial,

"What's in your bike's toolkit"? The OEM one provided both a spark plug wrench, and I think it also fits the long seat nuts. BTW, there's also a MOD in the tech tips about converting the seat lock down nuts to bicycle/fold over pinch levers or whatever they are called so that you don't have to have a wrench. Glad you were able to shed some light on the problem, and was able to make it home safe and sound.

T.C.