| Author | Message | ||
     Hangetsu |
Here I am again seeking your wise council. So, after getting my precious XB12X out of the shop and rejoicing in the new life and power a new ECM brought to my faithful friend, I was jockeying the thing around on the side of the road in an attempt to angle into a curbside parking spot. Then suddenly I noticed the road in front of me go dark as I turned the handlebars to right full lock. Then, when I straightened the bars again the light came back on. I thought it was a bit peculiar, so I turned the bars to the right again just to see if I was imagining things. Well, I wasn’t. As the bars approached full lock, out went the headlight. When I straightened them out again, just a few degrees away from full lock, the lights came back on. I repeated this action over and over, and without exception, the lights would go out as soon as the bars reached the stop and come on again as I began to straighten them out. This is not an intermittent problem; it happens every time, and the lights go out at the exact same spot in the ark of the steering head. Last Saturday I pulled off the fly-screen to see if I could find the culprit wire. I cut every zip-tie and gently pulled each wire out so that it hung loose with no tension. I even pulled off the headlight and let it hang loosely over the fender. In this position, with absolutely no tension or threat of a wire pinch, I turned on the light and then turned he bars to the right. And as soon as they approached full lock, out the light went. Turn the bars back to the left, and on they came again. With all the wires hanging loose, I wiggled each wire and every connector, and never once did the light so much as flicker. But when I turned the bars to the right, off it went as if I were flipping a switch. And it happens with either the high or low beam. After fiddling with every wire under the fly screen and having absolutely no success in upsetting the glowing headlight, I began pushing around the various bundles of wire that run from the handlebar switchgear and into the cavity behind the fly screen. I hoped that I would find the offending wire, but no luck. No matter which wire I pushed or tugged, the light went undisturbed. But every time I turned the bars to the right, just short of the steering stop, out the light goes. Has anyone else out there had this or a similar problem? Or if not, do any of you have enough familiarity with the headlight circuitry to hazard an educated guess as to what might be happening to kill my headlight? I’m going to dig back into it this weekend and hopefully find and remedy the problem, but any guidance from you all would be most appreciated. Thanks for listening and your input. Regards. Alex | ||
| Steveford |
Try taking all three ground wires behind the headlight and soldering them together into one common ring terminal. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
When that happened to me, I found a broken wire in the main bundle that wraps up around the left side of the steering head. The break was just about where the plastic wire guard ended. If I recall correctly, it was an orange/black wire. | ||
| Refurb |
I had a similar problem with my '07 about 5 years ago. The main harness that runs up the left side next to the steering head goes through a plastic guide, along with the throttle cables. The steering motion bends the wires in the harness at a sharp angle over the front of the guide and the wires most affected can break inside their insulation. To fix the problem, I removed the plastic guide (2 bolts with nuts with lock nuts that go through cast lugs at the front of the steering head) and carefully cut the wrap for the wire bundle. I found the broken wires by flexing them individually. They act different if the wire inside the insulation is broken. After I repaired the broken wires and taped up the bundle, I re-installed the plastic guide over the throttle cables using only the top bolt. Then I zip tied the wire bundle to the guide and lug where the bottom bolt had been removed. So now the wire bundle runs outside the guide and can move around a bit without getting bent over the guide. | ||
| Hangetsu |
Wow. I'm happy to hear that other's have experienced the same or very similar issue. This gives me confidence that it may not be to difficult of a fix. Thanks! I'm going to dive into it next weekend. I'll let you all know how it goes. Cheers. Alex | ||
| Glenn |
I had trouble in the same area around the plastic cover near the fork. The red power wires broke inside the cold weld joint. I spliced a new wire into the headlight bucket and made the join there. I use quality crimp connections and try to avoid soldering. Soldered joints get brittle and will fail where there is flexing and vibration. I joined the brown ground wires as you can see, and used liquid tape over the repair.    | ||
| Hangetsu |
Everyone, Thank you for all the tips and the descriptive photos. A couple of questions though: What gauge wire should I use to splice, if adding wire is necessary, and what is the material you used, Glen, to insulate the repaired wire? Thanks!! A- | ||
| Glenn |
Hi The black coating is a product called "Liquid Tape". I used it on the abraded wire you can see in the first picture since only one strand was broken and just the insulation was rubbed off on one side. I didn't want to cut it and splice it. Its pretty easy to find this stuff in stores. The only problem is that the can hardens pretty quickly. Use it a few times then a few months later the can is solid. For the red power wire, I bought some finely stranded, silicone insulated "RC wire". This has a lot more strands than regular copper stranded primary wire. I put the splices in the headlight bucket and back toward the motor,too. https://plastidip.com/our-products/liquid-tape/ an example of the RC wire. I forget what gauge I used. http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-AWG-10-Feet-3m-Gauge-Si licone-Wire-Flexible-Stranded-Copper-Cables-for-RC -/111042906855 | ||
| Hangetsu |
Glenn, Again, thanks! I dug into it today and, as far as I can tell, effected a successful repair. I watched the harness as it bent over the plastic guide when I turned the bar fill left, and sure enough, the angle on the bundle over the plastic edge was extreme. I cleared a space under the fly screen so I could get at the wires and stripped the insulation away about an inch above and below the point where the wires were bending over the plastic guide. Once I had the wires exposed it was a pretty easy task to locate the broken wire. The insulation was in tact; in fact, all the wiring looked pretty good except for one thin blue wire that had a sharp kink where the wire inside was broken. I clipped it at the kink, stripped the insulation bask about 3/8" on each end, coated the wire with solder, and connected then with a good crimp connector. I then re-wrapped the loom with a "cold shrink" electrical wrap, and put it all back together. I also chose not to run the loom back inter the plastic guide. One, it would no longer fit after my wrap-job, but i also figures letting it hang loose would prevent later breakage. I ran the bike in the garage and turned the bars lock to lock several times and the headlight never cut out. Now I only have to hope my repair goes the long haul. Thanks again to all of you for your advice and input. Cheers! Alex | ||
| Glenn |
Great, glad I could help out and you have it fixed!! Best, Glenn | ||
| Tootal |
I removed that guard years ago for just that reason. I never had a broken wire but those who did convinced me to do so. I just loosely held the loom with zip ties and so far have not had a problem. I did have a broken ground on the front of the frame. I connected all three ground wires to a large single wire, made a coil and then mounted it with an eye. Been good ever since. |
