Lights. I have none.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:36 pm

I tried searching the archives, but I think my question might be so very elementary that it hasn't been addressed.

Let me preface this by saying that while I've been wrenching on old 2-stroke scooters for years, this is my first motorcycle, and I know preciously little about it at this point. So it's fair to assume that I know absolutely nothing.

Here's the first thing I've run up against: no lights. It's a 1966 CA77 that I've had for a few weeks now. When I test drove it, the battery was dead, so I kicked it started. The seller hooked it up to his car battery to provide a charge (in retrospect, a really dumb idea I think), and with that I was able to see that the headlight and tail/brake lights worked.

I got it home, put in a new battery, and the starter now works just fine.

But I have no lights.

Could something have fried while it was hooked up to the car?

What would be the first things to check?

e3steve · Post by **e3steve** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:09 pm

Hi Susan, welcome to The Forum; get in the queue to your left for a lobotomy. We're all slightly mad here......

Does anything else not work? If nothing else works, check that you placed the main harness feed -- the cable with the fuse in line -- on the correct (+ve) terminal when you replaced the battery; aside from the starter cable (the heavy one), there should be a red (+ve harness feed) and a red/white (charging system). Is the (15A) fuse intact?

If other stuff -- horn, starter, (winkers, if fitted), brake light, etc -- all work ok, then:
a) check that the bulbs haven't blown during the jump-cable procedure
b) inspect the ignition/combination switch for a wire off -- there should be a green wire on terminal HL, a black/yellow wire on TL and a brown wire on ML.

Do any of the lights work? Parking/tail, speedo?

Do the parking lights work in the 'park' position of the keyswitch? That's the only position, apart from 'off', in which the key can be removed.

Come back with some answers when you can.

Rgds,

Steve

e3steve · Post by **e3steve** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:11 pm

Sorry, I'm being a numpty; you already said that the starter works! It won't be the wires at the battery terminals, in that case....

e3steve · Post by **e3steve** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 12:01 am

Susan, I should add that if the bulbs are blown then it's probably a result of a cell in the old battery being 'open circuit'. This would allow the alternator to provide excess voltage, having nothing in the circuit to 'cap' its output. A good battery will control the voltage, keeping it from becoming excessive, as the alternator can go as high as 30V at high rpm and without a decent battery in the equation.

Don't worry. Connecting a 12V car battery to the bike will not fry anything, even if the car is running, provided that the car's system is healthy.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 12:15 pm

e3steve wrote:Don't worry. Connecting a 12V car battery to the bike will not fry anything, even if the car is running, provided that the car's system is healthy.

That was my biggest fear. I've never been very good at troubleshooting electricals, so I'm rather annoyed that after I confirmed that everything seemed to be working, this is the first thing I've needed to deal with.

So OK. Everything works except the lights. All of the lights. Or, more accurately, none of the lights works. Parking lights don't work in Park - no lights work at all.

So other than the obvious (fuse and bulbs), next thing to look at would be the ignition/combination switch (if I'm reading the above correctly).

I hope to have some time this weekend to get on this.

I'll report back.

(and thanks for the welcome)

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:22 am

Connections at the switch seemed fine.

Fuse was fine.

Tail bulb was burned out.

I took a good look at the sealed beam headlight and it seemed like the filaments were intact. Unfortunately while in that headset I saw some really interesting bodge work - lots of zipties and electrical tape to be found in there.

Methinks this project is going to be a hoot.

I picked up a new tail/brake bulb, but haven't had a chance to put it in yet. From what I could tell from the wiring diagram, it doesn't look like a blown tail bulb should cause the headlight to be out, particularly since the horn and started work. But I can hope I guess?

While I'm here, can someone answer a quick board etiquette question? If I have a number of questions is it generally preferred to open a new thread in the appropriate section for each, or to put them all together somewhere?

e3steve · Post by **e3steve** » Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:14 pm

Hey Susan,

I suspect that you'll find all the lamps (bulbs) have blown on the lighting circuit. They're all cheap except the sealed beam unit, for which you'll need to trawl eBay and search honda c77 or c77.

Do you have a multimeter / voltmeter and, forgive me for asking, the knowledge to use it? We need to run some tests on the bike.

Posting other Qs in other forum subjects is a good idea, as it will enable those watching those topics to afford their knowledge.

Regards,

Steve