Electrical demons?

[Trev84]

Hey guys, looking for some advice from those of you with a little more experience...

I've got an 82 gs1100 that is giving me some issues. Earlier in the season my r/r went out in the 'open' position and threw enough voltage through the system to shatter my headlight and render all of the other lights in use at the time useless. I replaced the r/r and all of the bulbs that were damaged. Everything works fine except for my headlight. It seems to be very dim-even with the high beam on. I've noticed that the high beam indicator stays partially lit when the switch is on low beam. I went to a sylvania silverstar bulb but it's still dim. It's running well and has no problems starting-I replaced the battery in May so I don't think that's the issue...any ideas where else to look?

 

[82kat]

Hows the headlight relay if you have one? It might of been damaged.

 

[GSX550]

Or some of your wiring has melted/fused and you have a higher resistance in there. If you can, try and check all the wiring and see what kind of resistance you have. You would want it to be very small, very close to zero. Don't check on one side of a relay and on the other side and panic when you get an open circuit, just test each continuous length of wire and see if there is some form of high resistance.

 

[rustybronco]

first of all which bike are you taking about? is it an E or a G model?
second, what is the charging system voltage when measured at 5,000 rpm?
third, do you have the wiring diagram for your bike?

I had low headlight output on my '80 GS850G which was caused by excessive resistance in the 4 pin connector off of the ignition switch. it was quite easily tracked down as evidenced by the "melted" connector.