Low beam went out ,now bike won't run...help

[Anonymous]

First off, hello to everyone, I'm new here and have spent many hours reading through the site and found tons of usefull info. I have just bought my first bike a 1982 GS300L It has been nothing but perfect...untill today.
Ok heres what happend, i rode the bike this morning, everythings fine, got on it this afternoon and it didn't want to run, when you give it gas it just bogged down like it wasn't getting any gas. I was in a bit of a rush so i didn't want to try to figure out what was going on so I just pushed it into the shop. When I got in where it was dark I saw that my headlight was out so i checked my high beam ,it was working, and when i switched to high beam the bike smoothed out. I switched back and forth a few times and on low beam, the light is out and the bike won't take any gas, on high beam ,lights on and bike runs fine. I rode it about 10 miles down the road to see what would happen and it ran just as smooth as ever, as long as the hi beam was on. What is going on? A short somewhere? If any one knows about this please help me.

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering if it's actually an ignition problem, not a gas problem?
Perhaps your regulator is on it's way out?
Ben

[Anonymous]

well thats what i was wondering. I know it's not the gas because she'll run fine when the high beams on so it has to be something electrical causing the motor to go crazy when low beam is on. You think it could be a short in the light switch or some thing like that, or is whats happening a common thing when the regulator is going bad?

[earlfor]

Re: Low beam went out ,now bike won't run...help

You bike does not have a headlight switch with an off position, so open up your headlight shell and unplug the sealed beam. If the bike runs normally with the sealed beam unplugged, then its a fair bet either the sealed beam is shorted out, one side of your light switch is shorted or the light socket that plugs onto the back of the sealed beam is shorted out.

Earl

First off, hello to everyone, I'm new here and have spent many hours reading through the site and found tons of usefull info. I have just bought my first bike a 1982 GS300L It has been nothing but perfect...untill today.
Ok heres what happend, i rode the bike this morning, everythings fine, got on it this afternoon and it didn't want to run, when you give it gas it just bogged down like it wasn't getting any gas. I was in a bit of a rush so i didn't want to try to figure out what was going on so I just pushed it into the shop. When I got in where it was dark I saw that my headlight was out so i checked my high beam ,it was working, and when i switched to high beam the bike smoothed out. I switched back and forth a few times and on low beam, the light is out and the bike won't take any gas, on high beam ,lights on and bike runs fine. I rode it about 10 miles down the road to see what would happen and it ran just as smooth as ever, as long as the hi beam was on. What is going on? A short somewhere? If any one knows about this please help me.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice guys, i have found what I hope is the problem. I took the side covers off and started checking wiring, found a wire that was almost in two at a connector, cut connector off and rewired it and it seems to have done the trick.It's running as smooth as before whether on high beam or low, low beam is still out got to replace headlight. Just wish I had found that before i took my signal switch apart, I took great precoution to keep from loosing anything but lo and behold a spring and something that i didn't even see flew off and dissapeared. Got it back together though and everything still works except the turn signal switch is kinda free roaming now. I'll either figure out a way to fix that or just replace the whole switch. Thanks again for the help and I'm sure I'll be posting something else as with these old bikes things are apt to go wrong with them. Keep on riding......Zombie Jim :twisted:

[crc1214]

Just FYI, I lost the spring used in my front brake switch, and found that the spring used in most pens was nearly a perfect fit. You may have to shorten the pen-spring a bit though to make it work correctly.

Chad
Columbus, OH 1978 GS550E

[Anonymous]

Just FYI, I lost the spring used in my front brake switch, and found that the spring used in most pens was nearly a perfect fit. You may have to shorten the pen-spring a bit though to make it work correctly.

Chad
Columbus, OH 1978 GS550E

Great tip!!