Failed WOF - Bloody Electrics

[Hawkeye]

My CBX failed the WOF today for 3 things.

1. Rear brake needs adjusted - easy
2. Rear shock weeping - going into shop to get sorted tomorrow.
3. When I put on the lights, the high beam warning light comes on even when the lights are dipped. FFS The lights are working fine. Dipped when they should be dipped, full when they should be full. Flash button flashes full beam so everything hunky dory. But he failed it for the warning light being on.
I've just spent the last 2 hours trying to track down the cause.

Question:

Does anyone know what feeds the warning light. I have stripped the switch for the dipped/full beam and found nothing wrong. The next step is to strip down the other side where the lights turn on. I can only assume that there is a short there that is feeding the warning light. If that all checks out OK then I'm confused (which isn't hard to do).

The problem I have is the bike needs a WOF, without the WOF I can't get a REG. I only need it road worthy for 5 more weeks until I take my full. :crybaby:

[Ixion]

Are you sure that you have not sometime inadvertantly plugged the bulb or wire intended for instrument illumination into the high beam socket? (I assume it has not always been thus) It is easily done, I have done it myself, there are usually so many of those bulb gizmos attached at the back of the instrument thingy.Since the instrument illumination lamp will be on for both beams it would cause the effect of which you speak

[Motu]

If both beams were conected to the high beam light both beams would go at once,it would be a short through the headlamp bulb,and no way could the dash light handle that amperage.It's geting it's power from somewhere else,some crossover or wrong fitting as Ixion says.

[Drum]

Try this page Hawkeye......

http://www.cbxworld.com/modules.php?name=NukeWrap&page=/features/tech.html&GallerySession=98ca9270f915adcd4674154721bf6e22

[Drum]

Are these wiring diagrams any help?

[rwh]

If both beams were conected to the high beam light both beams would go at once,it would be a short through the headlamp bulb,and no way could the dash light handle that amperage.It's geting it's power from somewhere else,some crossover or wrong fitting as Ixion says.

Something feels wrong here. I can't picture how the wiring looks to get both filaments going through the dash light, but if you are supplying both beams through the dash light, they're surely going to be pretty dim, and the current will be low (the dash light is low power by being high resistance). After all, surely the dash light normally sits straight across the battery - you can't get more available current than that.

Or have I totally misunderstood how bike electrics work?

Richard

[Hawkeye]

Are you sure that you have not sometime inadvertantly plugged the bulb or wire intended for instrument illumination into the high beam socket? (I assume it has not always been thus) It is easily done, I have done it myself, there are usually so many of those bulb gizmos attached at the back of the instrument thingy.Since the instrument illumination lamp will be on for both beams it would cause the effect of which you speak

Thank Ixion. Never thought of that. When I first got the bike (Dec 2005) the headlights weren't working as the bulb plug had burnt out. I put a new plug on the end but had stripped the whole of the harness off the frame to clean and paint it. When I put the harness back on, I found this problem. I had a look at the time but couldn't trace the fault. Come to think of it. I'm now not sure if the panel lights up when I put it on side light. The bike passed the WOF like that last Jan and then again in July. But the bugger picked up on it this time.
I'll check the order of instrument panel bulbs tomorrow.
Cheers.

[cynna]

i would just take the warning light bulb out........ except i suppose he would check to make sure its working properly now

[Hawkeye]

Well... $160 got me some new rear shocks.
Back brake pedal adjusted.

About 4 hours of fiddling with the wiring and I still couldn't figure it out.
Without a headlight bulb plugged in, the warning light works exactly as I would expect. No warning light on dipped and it lights up when high button pressed.
Plug in a headlight bulb and the warning light comes on (very dim) when on dipped, and is bright when switched to high.
Decided that there was enough of a difference to argue the point.
Took the bike in for a retest and he passed it without problems

So I now have a nice shiny new WOF and Reg on the bike ready for the Full.

The new shocks on the back have made a huge difference. I never realised how soft the back end was with the old ones. It almost feels like I'm riding down hill with the new ones as they are solid as. Cornering is way better.