Charging issue

When I turn the key the red light goes on the quickly out. The headlight is dim also.
Horn, signals, all work, but head light is very dim too, and bright light only comes on with flash position. I checked battery voltage, correct both with key on and off.

MIAirhead said:

When I turn the key the red light goes on the quickly out. The headlight is dim also.
Horn, signals, all work, but head light is very dim too, and bright light only comes on with flash position. I checked battery voltage, correct both with key on and off.

Click to expand...

Guessing, based on the info so far:

The Gen light going out suggests that the downstream side of the bulb is seeing 12V+ immediately, from some source other than the alternator (the normal source of counter-voltage to put out the Gen light).

The headlight only working on the flash-to-pass position, and only a dim low beam, suggests that there is little juice passing into the headlight switch via terminal 56 (the supply wire to output circuits 56a and 56b). The feed to terminal 56 is from the load relay relay (the relay that turns the lights off during starting).

My first guess is that there is a short between the supply wire from the load relief relay to the headlight switch, and other circuit (not necessarily the Gen light circuit, as that would still allow 12V to pass to the headlight switch).

I'd suggest first rubbing/moving the wiring harness between the headlight bucket and the frame and the harness between the headlight switch along the handlebar -- with the ignition on -- to see whether the headlight and Gen light come -- i.e., looking to see whether there is a short in a harness (a easy/quick to do). If no, then proceed to pulling the headlight to look for obvious shorts/worn-off wire insulation, etc.; same with the electrics under the tank next. You may want to focus the search a bit by identifying the load relief relay and starting to trace the 56 wire from the relay to the headlight switch to see where the 56 wire may be shorted.

Switch?

I take the light switch apart, hold it a certain way, ALL is good. I have no idea of why a light switch would effect the charging. I order a new switch, I do not see what the issue could be with the switch. Just effect charging?

MIAirhead said:

I take the light switch apart, hold it a certain way, ALL is good. I have no idea of why a light switch would effect the charging. I order a new switch, I do not see what the issue could be with the switch. Just effect charging?

Click to expand...

I suspect there is nothing wrong with the charging circuit. Rather, I suspect a wiring issue associated with the headlight circuit, which is causing the charging light to be prematurely extinguished.

The headlight switch is in a cluster with other bits present -- all it would take is a short across wires in the harness or between switch contacts to have 12V passing backwards through the Gen light circuit (thereby extinguishing the bulb, as the bulb would see the same voltage at both terminals, i.e., no current flow to cause th ebulb filament to glow). I imagine that if you used a continuity meter across the terminals in the wiring harness at the plug-in end, you would fine connections across circuits which should not be present.