Lighting woes

[TheBigRed]

You have some really good answers above, and it sounds like it has been determined it may be in the switch. But I just wanted to clarify a couple items.

The smaller bulb it the "license plate" bulb there to *duh* light up the license plate.

The other dual filament bulb is the tail/brake. As you have seen the one filament (dimmer one) is the tail light, and the other, once you get it to light, will be much brighter and is the brake light.

I actually rode home one night in the dark on my 650 with the tail light out and I think the license light was the only light at the back of the bike the whole ride home (my wife was following me, then passed in her car). Left me with very little light back there, I quickly rectified the situation and got new bulbs. And have made note on for future reference what bulb numbers are needed for the bike so I don't have to play the guessing game at the parts store anymore. I have that information at home, where I can't get to it at the moment.

Amos

[monte]

brake light

I posted the answer to this question before......get a hydraulic actuated switch and junk that oem one. The Baja conversion switch contains the banjo bolt to adapt. Locate under the headlight where the hose block is. Wiring is convenient to the harness at that point. This is a permanent fix for all the GS models. You are welcome. Monte

[LarryA_Texas]

Ok, well I've sorta left this awfully dead, but I'll try and update for now and get some pictures up later.

I wired up the turn signals that I bought to replace those that are missing. Rather annoyingly, the two wires on each of them were colored green and a pale, sort of baby blue color. The wires where my signals used to be are black and black with a white pin stripe. I went with convention and hooked the green up to the black on the bike, and the blue to the black with the white stripe on the bike. Turned the bike on, flicked the signal switch, and nothing changed. Both signals on the respective side would light, but I was still getting no flash. So could this mean the relay for the signals is no good?

As for the brakes, haven't been able to touch that yet, but I took a picture of what I think lucabond was referring to as the rear brake switch. I'll post that up later so that it can be confirmed or corrected.

So, unfortunately, haven't had time for much activity with this, and all this occured maybe a few weeks after the last post I made, but I guess I'm looking to see where I should go from here. Thanks to everyone for your continued help (and patience).

A quick recap. The little bulb is for the license plate. The two filament bulb is for brakes and tail light. One filament is for the tail light,the second is brighter for the brakes. Look at the socket, you'll see two points at the bottom for the bulb to make contact with. That is the positive for each filament. The outer ring of the bulb is the ground for both filaments. Black wire with white tracer is the ground for everything and will connect to the outer ring or bucket on every socket.

It's possible that when you turned the entire socket you probably pulled a wire loose under the socket so the brake wire isn't making a connection. It was probably rusted and weak anyway. Put a tester down the there and touch each of those contacts...If there's not voltage there the keep tracing all the way back to the switches to find where you lost voltage.

If you don't have a volt tester you can get a cheap one that is the size and shape of a small screwdriver with a wire coming out the handle. You clip that wire to a ground and wherever you touch the screwdriver to voltage the handle lights up. Simple. Get one for a 12 volt system and you'll have all you need to solve your problem.

As for the turn signals: did you buy the kind with a two pin socket? Those are for a combination running light/turn signal . If so, those wires are designed to be positive for a TWO filament bulb like the tail light (an 1157 by the way) The ground for both of those is a ring on the stem placed under mounting nut. That's where your black with white should attach. Then you could just connect one of the wires to your turn signal wire. Try them one at a time; one will light the bulb dimly and the other will be bright. Use the second.

If your new lights have only one pin at the bottom of the socket for a single filament bulb, then it really doesn't matter which wire you use for ground. Just hook one up to the black and one up to the black with white.

Either way, until you get both front and back lights working you can't tell if the flasher is OK. It depends on the current draw of two bulbs to function correctly.

[Overdrive]

Alrighty, well it's time for another progress report...well overdue, actually.

So we had a beautiful Saturday this past weekend, which motivated me to actually get up when the double digits first hit the clock and get to the DMV. So now the ol' horse is registered and tagged.

I was itching to take it for a ride after getting it running again on Friday, so I started plugging away at that rear brake switch. I got it adjusted and working so that even the slightest touch on the pedal will activate the light. So there's some success, and at least now I know it's not wiring. The front brake will be another endeavor for this week.

Thankfully, my neighborhood doesn't see a ton of traffic, so I was able to take it for a spin in the very low-traffic back parts of the area. Turn signals are apparently optional in CT, so not having them operating at the moment was not too too big a deal for the little ride I took. The only traffic I really encountered was some id10t on his sport bike (sunglasses, it would seem, make awesome helmets) who decided it would be a good idea to start smoking his tire as I was coming up behind him at the stop sign.

Man, it felt great to finally get that thing moving.

And LarryA_Texas, I have not checked under the bulbs yet, but I think your suspicion at these signals being grounded differently would be correct. I will check that out and give wiring them up another shot with the method you described. Thank you for the insight.

Hopefully I'll have more success for you guys in the coming weeks. Thanks to everyone who's been helping me out. I know this thread's pretty dated, but I'm always coming back to it for my troubleshooting.

[BassCliff]

Hi Mr. Overdrive,

Congratulations on your success with the rear brake light.

Mr. Gravity tester has a pretty good cleanup guide for the front brake switch on my website. You might find it helpful..

Front Brake Switch Repair
(by Mr. gravity tester)


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Steve]

Nice to see that you have it (mostly) resolved, but thought I would toss in a troubleshooting tip for those that see this later and bother to read this far.

When troubleshooting something electrical, make sure you have a proper source. One of the first things to check is the fuse. I can guess that the fuse is good because the fuse that powers the brake light also powers the horns and turn signals. Since there was a mention in the original post about the signals coming on (but not flashing), it was apparent that they were at least getting power and the fuse was, therefore, good. After you verify that you have power, start following the path to see where you lose it. If it's a rather complex system (and our bikes really aren't), it can be quicker to divide the path from source to load in half and test there. If you still have power, divide the remaining part in half, etc. Our bikes are not that complex, they only have just a few points to test from source to load.


Yes, the tail/brake light can be replaced by an 1157 bulb, the license light can be replaced by a 67.

.

[Overdrive]

BassCliff and Steve, thank you very much. That is an excellent DIY presentation for cleaning up the front brake assembly. Looks like I'll have me a little project to do in the near future.

As for the signal troubleshooting, I'll be picking up a test light and multimeter pretty soon to get that going should the re-wiring of the new front signals not end up being the cluprit.

Not exactly related, but something I forgot to mention about my weekend...it would seem my tach decided to go on the fritz right before I took my spin. It was working literally minutes before, albeit kinda wiggly at the lower/idle RPMs, but I figure that's an age thing. Once it was at about 3K and higher it was solid, but it would bob at anything lower than that. Now it pretty much sits down on the arm at the bottom and doesn't move with the engine speed. Saddens me...

[uudfourty]

it would seem my tach decided to go on the fritz right before I took my spin.

Sometimes the cable breaks, so unscrew it from the back of the gauge and from the valve cover, paying attention to how it was routed. Inspect the inner cable itself.

Sometimes the cable needs some lube, so while you've got the cable out, lube it!

Sometimes the indicator itself needs a few drops of lube, so since you've got the cable disconnected, shoot a small amount of your lubricant of choice up into the hole. Some folks will tell you to take the instrument cluster off and drip a few drops in, but I've had no problem with a short squirt.

All three of these have happened to me. If your cable is broken, a little JB Weld will hold it together until you can get a replacement.

My guess would be a broken cable, given the complete lack of movement.

[Overdrive]

Any recommendations for a good lubricant uudfourty? Thanks for the idea. I will check into it.

[Overdrive]

Almost done!!!

Well, a little more progress to report to you all!

I picked up some signals from a local member (Kato76, thank you again, sir!) off of a 1980 GS550 he parted out. Let's just say the wiring on these bad boys was looking like wire that's been in the elements should after 31 years.

So I got to put my military job skills (electrician, conveniently enough) to use and went about rewiring the signals. Got the right side working, got all giddy and went to wire up the left...no joy. I ran out of daylight, so I had to do the troubleshooting the next day.

Seems the splice for the front left signal that sits behind the headlight (a GREAT place for all those wires and connections) disconnected at some point. The connectors in the splice snap into one another, so I reconnected that, put the headlight back together, wired up the signal, and got more success. Now I've finally got operational signals on the bike, and thankfully it wasn't some terrible gremlin in the electrics.

My last task is still that front brake switch. I'm going to try that cleaning that was suggested from BassCliff's site and see if that does it. Then I may just be able to put this thread to pasture.

Once again, thank you all for the help and suggestions.

[Overdrive]

Ok, here's a little something to add to the thread. I was checking my rear brake lever to make sure the switch was working, and for ha-has squeezed the front brake lever a few times. I found that when I really squeeze the lever (in a way that would likely lock up my front wheel had I been in motion) my brake light would come on. It seems that at about the maximum amount of pressure I can squeeze the lever is when contact is made to turn on the light.

So is that just a matter of adjustment similar to what I did with the rear brake lever?

[bakalorz]

Ok, here's a little something to add to the thread. I was checking my rear brake lever to make sure the switch was working, and for ha-has squeezed the front brake lever a few times. I found that when I really squeeze the lever (in a way that would likely lock up my front wheel had I been in motion) my brake light would come on. It seems that at about the maximum amount of pressure I can squeeze the lever is when contact is made to turn on the light.

So is that just a matter of adjustment similar to what I did with the rear brake lever?

Someone above wrote it, and I'll repeat it.
GET A HYDRAULIC FRONT BRAKE SWITCH !!!

Really.

The OEM one is horrible.

No matter how I adjusted mine I could not get it to work "right"

I started out similar to yours, a monster grip would activate it ...
Cleaned and adjusted it (several times).

At best it would more or less work with a fairly firm grip, but sometimes activate for no reason at all, and sometimes require the monster grip again.

Spent $20 for a hydraulic switch and all is happiness.

If the tolerances in an OEM one are good, they might work ok.
If they don't, don't bother to screw around with it, get a hydraulic.

[Steve]

Using the stock brake switch is nice, ... if it works. But, like others have suggested, a hydraulic switch is about $20.
What they did not mention is that a stock switch is about $8.
You do, however, get a lot of peace of mind for that extra $12.

Have you gotten your front signals wired and working?
I noticed in your first post about the signals that you wired the left signal green to black and blue to black/white.
I think that is backward. I would presume that the green wire on the signals would be the ground and the blue wire the hot wire.
On the bike, the solid black wire is the hot wire for the left turn signal.
The black/white wire is the ground. On the right side, the hot wire for the signal is light green.

.

[monte]

lighting woes

simple re-wiring will correct many ills on our otherwise great GS's.
2 x 7wire trailer cord will give you everthing you need for a complete rewire.
Suzuki has seen fit to send several hot leads forward for no particular reason.
One hotlead to a good relay will look after everthing.
see pics.......

[Overdrive]

Hey, guys. I did write in an update that I got my signals working.
I bought some OEMs from an '80 550 Kato76 was parting out and rewired them. Got those working. As for the aftermarkets I bought, I tried them wired both ways with the same results. I believe it was as suggested earlier, and one is for running lights while the other is just for signals, and it still requires the grounding ring at the bottom of the post like the signals normally do. For right now I'm fine with the OEMs on the front and the working aftermarkets on the back. At least I've got signals that work.

I guess I'm gonna have to look into this hydraulic brake switch. Where can I find them and is there anything on here or Cliff's site to do the job?