Headlight out 1150

[Carter Turk]

Worked fine before I removed the engine for tranny work. Swapped engines covered in another thread and now the headlight doesn't work.
Read something about the oil pickup under the carbs which is still hooked.
I don't need the headlight for the track day on Sunday, but I wanted to do a shakedown run, making sure all is well.

83 Kat wiring harness, 84 1150 engine. Tried 2 bulbs, nothing, changed fuse nothing.

Pretty much useless with a multimeter, even after all of Earlfor's efforts to help me in the past.

I had 13V at the battery last night key off. Key on the volts start dropping. Bike starts, neutral light works, signals work, tail light, brake light work, just no headlight.
All my dash lights burned out long ago, and there really isn't much on a Kat dash anyway. Any wires to check or troubleshooting to offer out there? Thanks.

[Steve]

Pretty much useless with a multimeter, even after all of Earlfor's efforts to help me in the past.

Sounds like your options are rather limited, then.

1. Get proficient with a voltmeter. (It's not all that hard.)
2. Get a test light. Simple to use. Clip wire to ground, touch point to connection in question. Light or no light?
3. Sell the bike, because you will need to do one of the first two options if you keep it.

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[Carter Turk]

Thanks for the help steve, I'm closer now to solving the problem.

[Steve]

With either the voltmeter or the test light, you should be able to see whether you have power at the LIGHTS fuse.
The fuse might appear to be good, but they can fail under the cap, where you can't see.
A meter or a light will tell you intantly if you have power. You should also check both sides of the fuse, just to be sure.

If you have power at the fuse, there is another connector inline before you get to the headlight beam selector switch.
Verify power at the connector. Verify power after the beam selector switch. Verify power at the headlight connector.

If you have power at the headlight connector and the light still does not work, verify that the bulb itself is still good.
If the bulb checks out, put it into the socket, put your meter or test light on the ground wire.
If you see power there, you have a bad ground for the headlight.

.

[Carter Turk]

Disconnected bullet connector was it, hiding behind the frame tube behind the coils.

I had to do a little cleaning on the bike elsewhere, to find the motivation to pull tank, fairing and side panels off again, as in my haste to go for a test ride the other night, I missed this one connector.