Help...electrical failure?

Help!

I took my bike out for a ride after dinner tonight, rode approx. 40 miles, everything ran fine.

I stopped at a pet store for food for my semi-loyal furry quadrapeds, went to turn on the bike and my headlight, aux. light, and dash lights wouldn't come on. Everything else works (bike started up fine, turn signal lights work, tail light works, brake light works).

Ended up having to have the Spousal Unit rescue me and let me follow the car home. Freaky scary not having headlights or display lights on in the dark.

Any advice on what's wrong/how to correct it? My bike is stock, including the original fuse box.

 

#1 suspect: fusebox #2 suspect: wiring in the headlamp shell.

I'm sure you've heard all the fusebox talk; it's all true. They simply BREAK for no apparent reason at all.

Supposed to be 60 tomorrow, can you believe that?

 

Yeah, and I was really hoping to spend the day enjoying it on two wheels too, but not without a headlight.

Is there a common fuse for the two lights and the dash lights?

 

Yes the headlight and dash are on the same circuit.
I believe it is the one farthest to the right a 10 amp.
This exact thing happened to me doing 65mph at 3:00 in the morning.
Drove home using the blinkers for light.
It turned out to be the fuse was blown.
Funny thing was that the filament was intact so when you looked at it, it appeared fine.
After many hours of cursing I put a new one in, 'cause I had tried everything else.
Headlight came on miracle of miracles.
Examing the fuse latter revealed that there was a round hunk of metal rolling around inside the glass tube.
best I can figure is that the fuse holed under the metal end were I couldn't see and the metal piece was part of it or the fuse was defective and the metal piece rolling around in the tube shorted the whole mess.
Sorry, for the story, bottom line check the fuses.

 

Thank you Mr. The Hound!

I did check the fuses and they did all look intact. Having the headlights and dashlights on the same circuit would make sense, which made me think they didn't do it that way lol I may get to go for a ride tomorrow after all!

A new fuse box is in my future.

 

I'll back the fellows up. Had the same thing happen to me 30 miles from home with the wife on the back. Scary ride home! New fuse box fixed it.

 

I'd love to seperate out some of the fuses honestly.

On my bike the tach/speedometer, all lights and horn are on the same circuit. I installed a new rear indicator - tested it - was on the road, indicated to make a right turn and lost EVERYTHING. Bike kept running but I didn't have a single light.

I'm considering putting in a massive fuse box and breaking the stock wiring out - labeling each one separately. That way I'd have only lost indicators...

 

Just wanted to follow up.

Yes the fuses all looked good, until I popped the one for the headlights/dashlights out. The filament's intact, but I kid you not there is a hole (looks like a bullet hole) in one of the end caps. I drove this morning down to the auto parts store, bought and installed a new fuse and everything works fine.

I did order a new fusebox from Chacal last night, fuses do blow once in a great while, but yeah this is a needed upgrade. It got me thinking this morning though, how much life can we really expect out of the wiring harness itself as a whole?

 

Woot, some in-line fuses would be easier to do.

 

It would be easier, however, I'm already running two fuses boxes - one for my aux devices, and one OEM. At this point I've not investigated how far I'd have to go to fix it all, but at the moment I know the tail section is an absolute mess ( tangled mess of OEM harness from PO ) and I have fears about what I'll find when I switch over to track mode.

 

It really depends on the environmental conditions the bike is stored in and how much it's messed with. By the time any of my vehicles gets to the age my bike is, I expect to do repairs on the most handled connectors and those that have the tightest radius bends. This holds true for the airplanes I work on too.

Mike

 

The filament in the glass fuses is soldered to the end cap. It's not unusual for the things to fatigue off with age, either leaving a hole in the end or the filament breaking where it meets the joint.

Last week I had to fix my furnace which is similar age to the XJs. Solder joint on the control board had fatigued loose.

 

I had the exact symptoms yesterday morning. Got on the bike and the headlight & dash lights wouldn't come on. I had the same problem years ago and it was the fuse box and its been replaced. I suspected the relay. I rode it today without the headlight and before I got home I lost all electrics. Come to find out that the alternator must initially power that headlight relay, once powered by the alternator there's a latching circuit that would allow the battery to keep the relay closed, but it must have alternator power initially. Looks like I'm going to be getting a new rotor. I rode a 129 miles on the battery today. Hope yours is just the fuse box.

Mike