Melted wire/ No electric start/ No tail or brake light

[Guest]

So I was trying to get my taillight and brake light to work and somehow melted some wires that go to the starter motor. I can kickstart the bike no problem but the electric start doesn't work now.

Did I burn out the starter motor?
How do I troubleshoot why my tail/ brake light doesn't work?

Here's a picture of the wires.

I have a multimeter but I'm not really sure how to use it in this situation.
Bike is a '79 GS850.
Also, not as big of a deal but my turn signals don't work. I think the Turn Signal Indicator Unit is bad. Is there a way around this thing?

Thanks in advance.
-Tanerrc

 

[zed313]

Check the fuse box, a fuse may have blown

 

[JTGS850GL]

Agreed with checking the fuses first. The wires that look melted and shorted are the wires between the stator and the rectifier. Clean or replace those connectors. The reason they melted is because they were dirty.

 

[posplayr]

Agreed with checking the fuses first. The wires that look melted and shorted are the wires between the stator and the rectifier. Clean or replace those connectors. The reason they melted is because they were dirty.

I was digging around in my wiring a while back and noticed that even on my relatively new Compufire that came with a 3 pin connector for the stator that the plastic housing had gotten crispy. Even on relatively new crimped contacts (from Compufire) the corrosion got in there and caused a heating condition. I probably did not spray all of the crimps with DeOxit when I first got it, but you can see the problem with trying to keep up with this. A dab of solder and there is no maintenance as long as you do not over do it and make the wires so stiff they want to work harden and break.....

 

[Guest]

The fuses all look good to me. I'll replace the connectors as soon as I can just to be safe.

An update though, I just went back the the garage to mess with things after leaving the battery on the trickler and the starter clicked so I think it still works.

As for the tail light I figured out that the switch (thing that connects to the brake lever and pedal to light up the brake light) was engaged the whole time and that's why it didn't look like it was working. So I have a different problem now. When the light switch on the hand controls is turned on, the headlight will turn on but there is no running tail light, license plate light, and no brake light. When I turn the switch to turn all the lights off, the brake lights will work just for the foot lever and the license plate light acts like a brake light as well.

Seems like something is crossed here and the hand lever isn't sending signal to the brake light for some reason. I took apart the switch in the hand lever and cleaned it but it didn't help. The manual says something about a spring in the hand brake lever and my bike didn't seem to have one.

Also, I found BassCliffs way to fix the turn signals so I'll try that later.

So my real issue now is the taillight/ brake light.

 

[Brendan W]

T When the light switch on the hand controls is turned on, the headlight will turn on but there is no running tail light, license plate light, and no brake light. When I turn the switch to turn all the lights off, the brake lights will work just for the foot lever and the license plate light acts like a brake light as well.

Sounds to me like you have a bad earth somewhere in the tail area, Typically current can't see ground and has to find another way which is usually through a bulb that shouldn't be lighting.

 

[posplayr]

Agreed with checking the fuses first. The wires that look melted and shorted are the wires between the stator and the rectifier. Clean or replace those connectors. The reason they melted is because they were dirty.

Actually those are the stator wires going through the headlamp loop; The stator should be wired direct to the R/R.

 

[Guest]

Check the black wire with a white stripe that goes to the isolated electrical plate where the solenoid is mounted. The starter will not work without it so if it is a bad connection it could give you intermittent problems with the solenoid to the starter. The stator connections and melted wire are classic GS problems.

 

[Guest]

Check the black wire with a white stripe that goes to the isolated electrical plate where the solenoid is mounted. The starter will not work without it so if it is a bad connection it could give you intermittent problems with the solenoid to the starter. The stator connections and melted wire are classic GS problems.

I've gone through and cleaned all the grounds to the frame that I could find. Things are still not right. The starter isn't the problem anymore anyway. The battery was just low from me trying to figure out my taillight situation. Does anyone have a diagram of the wiring for a '79 GS850G? I have a Clymer manual but some of the wire colors are off so I wonder what else is wrong in it.

Again, when the switch is set to on for the lights I get a headlight and nothing else. When the switch is set for the lights to be off I can get a brake light and my license plate light acts as a brake light. What could be causing this?

Also, I'm pretty sure the head light isn't original. It only has 2 wires and the bikes seems to be set up for 3. I've disconnected the turn signals too. They shouldn't have any play in this, right? Could the wrong type of bulbs be the issue? This has been a project bike so maybe the previous owner put in the wrong bulbs and the brake light hasn't worked all a long.

 

[posplayr]

There might be a schematic or manual for your bike here.

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

 

[Redman]

Ignition and starter solenoid are on the same fused circuit (the Ignition fuse). So if bike runs (start with kickstart) then you must have ignition, so fuse isn't the problem with the starter solenoid.


If starter solenoid clicks then you have good idea that everything is okay with the starter button and starter solenoid circuit. Question then is why doesn't the starter motor go. Could be battery not well charged or battery is getting weak. Or bad battery cable connection somewhere, or starter motor is not good. Chceck all the big battery cable Connections. Try charging battery more. Check to see how much that battery votage dropps when trying to run the starter. Check those things before suspecting the starter motor.


Welcome to GSR.
Where in general are you located?
Add that to your user profile (goto UserCP). then that will show up in every one of your post.

.