GS650GT Electrical Problem

[Anonymous]

Hi

I'm experiecing a weird problem with my GS650GT Shaft drive. When the rear brake pedal is pressed, activating the stop light (no front stop light switch fitted), the right hand side turn signals glow dimly and the turn light warning light glows.
When this happens, the neutral lights dims slightly. The turn lights work fine when operated by the switch, but I'm wondering if there could be an internal fault with the turn signal relay. The one fitted is a cylindrical design, but the one shown in the Clymer manual is square, so could this be linked to the fault?

Any help anyone can give with this problem will be gratefully received, as I'm getting stumped!

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

First thing I would do is check all the grounding on the bike. If your ground for the brake light bulb cant get to ground, it will search around for an alternate route through some other bulbs ground and in so doing may have to pass through that bulbs filement causing a faint glow.

[gspaul]

You have a short to earth ,check all the wireing on your brake circuit!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips guys. I still can't seem to pin-point the cause of this problem though. Aside from the main earth wire from the negative terminal of the battery, are there any other earth points that relate to the problem - in the headlamp shell for example?

[Anonymous]

There should be lots of connectors inside the headlamp shell, and under the seat. I'd take a look at each one and give it a really good cleaning with a can of electrical contact cleaner (NOT WD40 because that tends to collect dirt/dust over time). Those connectors can get really corroded over the years, and that can be the source of a lot of grounding/leakage problems. In fact, when I was chasing the electrical gremlins through my '82 GS400, I ended up taking out all those little white connectors and soldering all the wires together. It makes for a nice clean path for the current, and makes the harness run like new. One drawback to this though is that it makes later repairs a little harder to do, BUT with nice electrical contact means that you'll be less likely to run into issues which need repairing.
Oh and by the way, I did have lots of problems with the electrical system, but once I soldered all the connections together - I haven't had a problem since (been 2 years - knock on wood)

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help guys, as you said it was an earth fault. A previous owner had swapped the earth wires around in the headlamp shell, causing current to return through other components. Anyway, it's fine now and ready for the MOT.
This is a great forum, putting all of us GS owners in touch!