can someone help me identifiy this wire in headlight bucket

[thebottle]

There is a brown wire in the headlight bucket that isn't connected to anything?

It's coming out of the wrap that holds the wiring for the headlight bulb, ignition switch, front brake switch, and what looks like a ground for a few things including the front blinkers.

[MaximPhil]

Hi thebottle,
If i recall correctly it is a Spare power supply. Should have power with the key ON. Note it is a double female "bullet" connector, like some others on the bike, so you can connect two things to it. Check, but should be fused from the right side panel.

Phil

[3Phase]

Adding to what Phil said:

There should be a Green/Yellow (Green with a Yellow stripe) wire bullet connector plugged into one pole of that Brown wire's double-pole connector.

The Green/Yellow wire is for the front brake light switch.

[MaximPhil]

Adding to what Phil said:

There should be a Green/Yellow (Green with a Yellow stripe) wire bullet connector plugged into one pole of that Brown wire's double-pole connector.

The Green/Yellow wire is for the front brake light switch.

Thanks Scott. I knew you would know.

Phil

[3Phase]

Thanks Scott. I knew you would know.

Phil

I am quite thankfully forgetting a lot of this stuff after all these years but that's why I drew up my own schematics.

The OneDrive link for this one is for my '80G and it's the last color schematic I was working on. It has the part numbers and some other info in it but I'm not quite finished with the wire colors for the individual connector poles:-


XS11G_US_With_Part_Numbers.GIF
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlA_igDQ6LzjhNgfjEkuKnXkjpy8Tw

[thebottle]

Adding to what Phil said:

There should be a Green/Yellow (Green with a Yellow stripe) wire bullet connector plugged into one pole of that Brown wire's double-pole connector.

The Green/Yellow wire is for the front brake light switch.

Looking at your wiring diagram, the green/yellow-stripe is correct, it just goes up to the switch, but the other wire that I have coming out of the switch should be going into the brown double-pole on your diagram.

You are all helping me figure some things out... because that other wire coming off the brake switch was going into the red wire in my picture next to the Green/Yellow wire... and that is wrong. That red wire has power all the time, even when the key is off. I changed it to the way it is in the wiring diagram, to the Brown double-pole, and now the brake light works as expected, only when the key is on.

So now I'm wondering what is that red one that always has power for? Now that you helped me figure out the brown wire, this red wire is unaccounted for. The previous owner also had ran that brown wire into the green wire of the headlight bulb for some reason... so there was very little difference between high/low beams.

Thanks for all the input guys. It's been a long time since I've been on here, but I'm going to be refreshing the old beast again and sticking around to chat. That wiring diagram will be extremely helpful in the future. Wow. Thanks.

[3Phase]

The Red wire is unswitched battery power that's live all the time and is fused by the 30A Main fuse so be careful that one.

The Brown wire is switched accessory power from the 20A Sig fuse.

The Blue wire is switched lighting power spliced to the Blue/Black wire from the headlight relay and uses the 10A Head fuse.

[skids]

I think I remember the red coming to the key switch, providing current to the brown and blue exiting the switch.

[skids]

I think I remember the red coming to the key switch, providing current to the brown and blue exiting the switch.

Never mind. Scott covered this and more.

[3Phase]

I think I remember the red coming to the key switch, providing current to the brown and blue exiting the switch.

That's exactly where it comes from, Sid. The single Red wire in the headlight shell is just spliced to the Red wire that comes from the 30A Main and goes to the ignition switch connector.

Notice that there is no single Black wire for grounds, you have go to the frame or the shell but all of those single wires in there are for accessories and/or the electrical pigtail for a fairing.

[thebottle]

Thank you very much for explaining everything. Much appreciated.

[3Phase]

No problem and you're welcome!