Battery warning light & broken wire

I finally got to "test" drive the bike last night. It's a 1982 XJ750 Maxim.

The Battery waring light started flashing on the guage cluster but I never lost any power on the bike returning home.

I checked all the battery connections and they all were tight. However, I did find a wire that either broke or came off something....

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me where this wire came off since I was unable to locate where it belonged. (Could this be why the battery warning light is on?)

The wire is white with a red stripe. Here are a couple of pics of the wire and it's location.

 

That wire goes to the battery sensor. If it is not hooked up your warning light will always be on. The sensor goes in one of the center battery water holes. If yours is missing Chacal has them or they can be bypassed. I don't like bypassing things so I would get another one.

 

I DO like bypassing things and it's possible the previous owner did too. Do you actually have the sensor in one of the cells of your (presumably old) battery? of not this wire may have come loose from a bypass someone patched in there once upon a time.

As I can see in the pic that's not the 1982 factory battery and knowing previous owners like I do, I'd lay money this is the case. Get a new sensor or hack it. Up to you how much you want to spend for the feature of another thing to set off that light.

I like to say I'm a surgeon with bike guts but only in the back-alley-wake-up-in-a-tub-of-ice-kidney-donor way. As such I'd take the bulb out of the red warning light and ride on. After spot checking the fluid level in the battery and topping up with DISTILLED H2-oh of course.

 

Thank you!!

I was hoping these 2 issues were related. An added bonus is that I can solve the problem myself.

 

The recommended BYPASS for the Battery Warning Sensor is a cheap fix.

Jumper the Battery Warning Wire to the Rear Tail Light Wire placing a 2.5K Ohm Resistor in the Line.

You need the Tail Light.
Not the Brake Light..

The Jumper Wire will be "SWITCHED" to ON and OFF the Signal with the Ignition.
The Resistor makes the current roughly the same signal as would the Battery Sensor reading the right level at the Battery.

 

Well, I took the battery completely out of the bike and was unable to locate where the battery sensor is/was.

So, it appears that I will have to go with the bypass method.

But since my next full day off of work isn't for another week....a little black tape on the warning flasher will work for now......