Start by running a wire (temporarily) from some frame point to the handle bars. I'll bore you with an explanation; The battery and engine are in the frame..duh. The instrument cluster is on the fork which is attached to the rest of the bike at the fork pivot point. Now that means that the actual physical ground is through 36 ball bearings in grease. Not very reliable as a ground. So, the wiring harness has ground wires (green) that help this out. The important connections are where they are attached to larger metal parts. Look inside the headlight for these. Why not redo all of these on the bike ? I once had an employee that attached the ground of a welder to the trailing arm pivot bolt head and proceeded to repair the steering stop on the fork. The result was a fried choke cable and melted grease running down the frame stem. He wasn't allowed to weld anymore. Electricity follows the path of least resistance. Think about it.
--- On Sat, 5/30/09, Minnesota Blue <[email protected]> wrote: From: Minnesota Blue <[email protected]> Subject: [Nighthawk Lovers] Re: Fun with fuses To: "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009, 8:05 AM That is good to know! I was assuming it had to be very far up the wire harness as all of the functions that were blacking out were spread out on the bike. The whole cluster, except for the speedometer and odometer, are going out, even the four indicator lights on the bottom. I will report back once I get it taken apart and let you know. Thanks so much! MN Blue On May 29, 10:05 pmDennis Hammerl <[email protected]> wrote: > If you are encountering a total black-out of lights and display, the only > thing common to all of those is the ground. Sounds that way to me. > > --- On Fri, 5/29/09, Minnesota Blue <[email protected]> wrote: > > From: Minnesota Blue <[email protected]> > Subject: [Nighthawk Lovers] Re: Fun with fuses > To: "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" <[email protected]> > Date: Friday, May 29, 2009, 10:40 PM > > Everything else seems to work fine. I have been getting an > intermittent tail light indicator on the cluster, but I was working > under the impression that it was symptomatic of the entire instrument > cluster problem. As far as the fuses, it looks like I can pull the > wires our of the fuse plug and insert a new fuse. My only worry is > where those wires lead. Sounds like my only course of action is to > take the headlight off and go from there. I get nervous messing > around with wiring. Still new to motorcycle maintenance. So for the > fuses, A B C D. Is that left to right then? > > Thanks! > > Brian > > On May 29, 8:52 pm, "Creative Residential Designs" > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > It sounds more like a lose connection in the wiring behind your headlight > > that's causing the cluster to cut off. Does everything else seem to work > > fine on the bike? All lights and so forth? > > Fuses: > > A-Meter light-tail > > B-turn signal-front rear brake-horn > > C-Neutral-oil light > > D-Headlight > > > HotrodMamma > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Minnesota Blue" <[email protected]> > > To: "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" <[email protected]> > > Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 5:44 PM > > Subject: [Nighthawk Lovers] Fun with fuses > > > > Well, I am a little dumbfounded. The instrument cluster on my 83 650 > > > is cutting out occasionally. The speedo and odometer still work, but > > > everything else just goes blank. Then I hit a bump and it comes > > > back. I started looking for a loose connection. I was not able to > > > find a loose plug on the wire harness (not yet at least). I decided to > > > open the fuse box to check those and see if I had any corrosion in > > > there. Here is where it got interesting for me. There should be four > > > fuses in there. Instead, looking straight at the fuse box, the three > > > fuses going right to left are fine. The fuse on the far left (again, > > > looking straight at the fuse box) is not there. Instead, there are > > > two red wires jammed into the fuse plug. Not sure where they lead to > > > yet as I am not ready to take it all apart. Just wondering if anyone > > > has seen this before? Not sure if that is the cause of the cluster > > > cutting out, but seems like a good place to start. If it is not the > > > cause, still seems like something worth fixing. So one, possibly two > > > problems. Any suggestions? > > > > Thanks! > > > > MN Blue --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
