Headlight won't come on

[dkaiser]

Hello All,

 

Was doing a quick walk around on my 87 Venture, and my headlight isn't on. I pulled it apart and the bulb is good, both low and high. When I unplug the light the Warning light comes on on the dash. Then I plug in and it shows fine, but I still have no light.

 

 

Any Ideas?

 

D

[flb_78]

sounds like you may have lost ground on the light itself, either that, or the switch may be corroded up.

[Neil86]

Most of the time its the starter button has not fully released. There are two sets of contacts...one opens the headlight circuit to conserve power for cranking..before the other closes the starter relay circuit. When the button releases...it opens the starter circuit but if it doesn't fully release, the headlight stays off.

With key off, spray some Wd-40 around the button and flick the button on and let it snap out a few times. Should fix it.

[dkaiser]

These bikes never cease to amaze me, the forethought that was designed into the bike.

 

thanks

 

D

[RoyalPain]

I knew this guy, not me you understand who spent two days pulling things apart on my, I mean his 89 over the same problem. Come to find out that my , I man his 2yo had been playing with the shut off switch and it went un noticed.

[Venturous Randy]

You may also have a problem with the CMS in the center of the dash. The headlight power runs thru it and there may be a problem with a cold solder joint. Usually, with this problem, the light does not go completely out, but gets real dim.

RandyA

[Bob Myers]

Check the headlight fuse holder. Mine is very weak on one side of the fuse holder, a piece of copper wire wrapped around the holder effectively clamping the holder to the fuse, hasn't flickered once since this was done.

[Neil86]

ummmm....I think he already fixed the problem guys....where he posted "That was it" in the subject line.

[Bob Myers]

ummmm....I think he already fixed the problem guys....where he posted "That was it" in the subject line.

So? You totally against a bank of ideas to check for the next guy who has this problem and finds this thread via search? I would have thought "the more the merrier", especially since the other could be's actually were "That was it" for someone else.

[Neil86]

geez sorry!

[cmiles3]

Ditto- I had this problem riding home in the rain a few weeks back. I thought I'd blown a fuse, but they were OK. Then I remembered this thread... problem solved.

 

Most of the time its the starter button has not fully released. There are two sets of contacts...one opens the headlight circuit to conserve power for cranking..before the other closes the starter relay circuit. When the button releases...it opens the starter circuit but if it doesn't fully release, the headlight stays off.

With key off, spray some Wd-40 around the button and flick the button on and let it snap out a few times. Should fix it.

[MikeC]

I just went through this last week - I mean ALL of last week! lol! I found the light problem pretty quickly in the hi-lo beam switch. There was a great deal of crud /corrosion built up between the contacts. Most of the down time was spent trying to put the starter switch housing back together though. I also took the time to explore a little and lube everything I could think of since I was in there.

 

The real point I wanted to make though, is that shooting WD40 in there is likely a stop-gap measure IF these items aren't opened often enough to keep them cleaned out. As a bonus to opening and lubing everything, it all works like new now - pretty cool!