Headlight grounds through Blue Wire/High Beam Light??

akpasta · Post by **akpasta** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 4:56 pm

Started taking readings. The red terminal on the back of the headlight reads 12v, the blue terminal off the headlight reads 12v, the green terminal (ground) reads like .5. I got an alligator clip lead and attached one end to the green terminal on the headlight (Ground) and the other side to ground. nothin. However, if i attach the alligator clip to the red terminal or blue temrinal and run that to ground the corresponding filament goes on. wtf? Is the ground terminal on my headlight bad?

rzgkane · Post by **rzgkane** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 5:23 pm

akpasta wrote:Started taking readings. The red terminal on the back of the headlight reads 12v, the blue terminal off the headlight reads 12v, the green terminal (ground) reads like .5. I got an alligator clip lead and attached one end to the green terminal on the headlight (Ground) and the other side to ground. nothin. However, if i attach the alligator clip to the red terminal or blue temrinal and run that to ground the corresponding filament goes on. wtf? Is the ground terminal on my headlight bad?

Just take the headlight completely out of the bike and hit each of the red and blue wires (one at a time) with 12V with the green wire straight to the negative battery terminal and see what you get. The red and blue are 12V in and the green is the ground.

akpasta · Post by **akpasta** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 7:25 pm

I finally tried that, and the light was out cold. Bought a new one works now. I know that should've been the obvious thing to check, but I was getting the filament to fire earlier, but I guess that was just the last bit the bulb had in it.

rzgkane · Post by **rzgkane** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 10:36 pm

akpasta wrote:I finally tried that, and the light was out cold. Bought a new one works now. I know that should've been the obvious thing to check, but I was getting the filament to fire earlier, but I guess that was just the last bit the bulb had in it.

Which could explain the crazy readings. You probably had the high and low beam filaments of the bulb shorting out internally.

akpasta · Post by **akpasta** » Sun Apr 01, 2012 4:21 am

Ya, who knows. I went by Charlie's Place cause I was so baffled, and they said "you tried a new bulb?" "well... no, cuz I haven't got one." Figured it out from there :)