interesting electrical issue
 

So i just changed out some dead lights in the gauges, and installed an Eastern Beaver headlight relay. I must have really screwed something up though.

Everything is normal when the bike is in neutral. But when i click it into gear, the gauges stop working (lights are still on but dim), turn signals dont work, tail light is dim but working, when the headlight is on low both high and low beams come on, but only high when high is selected.

Fuses look good. Bike was fine before. Neutral light is always on (ever since i got the bike) so i dont see how that sensor could be affecting anything.

What did i do?

where do you get the power to energize the relay ?

tim

when I first installed mine, I did not plug the headlight in correctly, I must have been distrated or something. Recheck the plugs. Your symptons sound like a neutral light switch issue, but you should not have touched that. There must be a short somewhere.

Advice for next time - one chage at a time. It makes trouble shooting much easier. You may need to remove the EA harness to eliminate that as a problem.

the battery... dont have a fancy fuse box if thats what you mean

The EA connects directly to the battery one one end, and intercepts the headlight via the 3-prong socket on the other:

power socket -> EA plug -> EA socket -> headlight

works well normally.

a relay is an electrical switch. the contacts of the relay connect the battery to the headlight but you need to energize the coil in the relay to close those contacts.

tim

Well, with the neautral light lit at all times, you have either a faulty sensor, or a groundfault... So it's fairly likely that once you changed a few burnt out bulbs in the dash, you managed to short stuff/connect stuff together that isn't supposed be connected...

Start by unplugging the EB harness from the bulb and plugging the stock plug in... Just leave it hanging... Then check/measure the voltage on the leads to the high/lowbeam...

And check the clutch and sidestand cut out switches... And preferrably check/replace the neautral switch... Or since that isn't working, remove that bulb from the cluster... But that's the last thing to do, don't start here, you will only be hiding the problem, making it harder to find...

well i managed to make it worse. retraced my steps, checked a undid things as i went. nothing until i got to the neutral sensor. found where someone spliced into the neutral sensor wire to ground it out constantly. took that off, then nothing would work. put it back on, nothing. i get absolutely nothing when i turn the key, no ignition either.

Well... Faulty sensor it is then... Grounding it out makes the bike "work" by bypassing it... I'd consider replacing that sensor if I where you...

the sensor if fine, someone spliced into the wiring. i wouldnt think a bad neutral sensor would turn the bike into a paperweight

Sounds like a chassis ground issue. You should probably check all of your ground points to make sure they are clean and tight to include the battery ground. You may have also jiggled loose one of the other electrical connectors while you were working on it, so you might want to check all of your electrical connectors to make sure they are tight and not corroded. Good luck.

And the going totally dead sounds like your main fuse might have gone.

fuses are good, ill recheck connections when i get home

the main fuse is separate from the rest (it is a car sized one on the left of the subframe, and not in the fuse box)

(I just blew mine playing around with my A123 battery :P)

yep 30a fuse is good

well i feel super retarded. checked the voltage of the battery, good, then checked it between the frame, nothing. and as i was kneeling down there i noticed a extra cable by the batter. i forgot to hook the ground back up.... thats what i get for doing work in the dark. i did find i have a bad side stand switch though. for some reason its enough that itll make the engine cut off with it down and in gear, but doesnt make the light come on. never noticed it before since the neutral switch was grounded. oh well, couple of snips and twists later and that fixed (bypassed). now ive got a super bright headlight, a dash thats almost too bright, and a working neutral light.

Congrats on progress. You going to leave that bypassed or fix it?

And we all miss the obvious stuff sometimes.