Flickering lights, grounding issue on headlight CA72.

[deafanddiabetic]

I have a large group of photos to post tomorrow, but my updates for tonight are that I cleaned off all contact points of metal groups to the frame, sandpapered rust off of the condenser bracket and rectifier mounting arms.

I retraced all the wiring and everything is exactly as the per the manual except two things.

One: I do not have a brown wire labeled ML on the ignition switch that says it goes to the "meter lamp 3watts".

Instead, I have that 3w bulb jumped off of the low beam of the handlebar switch since it stays on always unless you're switched to high beam which ignites both filaments in the bulb.

Maybe that's where my power draw is coming from? I don't know where else to jump it off of since there is only one powered ignition wire which is black and it goes to the neutral lamp or the horn.

I also have a mystery black wire that's been there since the beginning that I cannot figure out. Coming off of the main wiring harness (which is stock, I can read the label still left on it) it comes off in a pair of black wires right next to the horn on the right hand side near the headstock. One of those wires I'm using to go into the horn, the other side of the horn goes into the handlebar switch.

There is 12v power in that black wire, what could it be for?

Again, the lights work just fine until you switch to high beam and it starts flickering, or put on the brake light switch. Both would indicate that there is more power being used, more voltage, whatever and that is causing a slight overload that is causing the flickering. At least that's my theory.

[deafanddiabetic]

Here, you can see the blade fuse added into the hot brake line. Also you can see the connections for the tail light switch that I've added spade ends onto.

[deafanddiabetic]

Here is the ignition switch. The two IG black wires are in the back of this switch and can't really be seen. When I bought this bike, it came with an aftermarket 3 way switch that was difficult to make work correctly.

I bought a stock one from a friend who had several CA72s in his collection. The only difference in this switch that I can find is that it does not have a brown wire labeled ML. There is no spot labeled ML at all. ML corresponds to the speedometer light bulb as per the wiring diagram.

[deafanddiabetic]

This is a picture of the headlight bucket wiring. It's a bit of a mess but I'm able to make out most things.

The brown, yellow and black wire are leaving out the bottom of the picture to the headlight bulb.

Yellow is high beam and I have it 3 way soldered into the headlight bulb indicator of the speedometer.

Brown is the low beam and is 3 way soldered into the speedometer bulb that's always running.

Black is the earth and is grounded to the frame in the lower left hand with an eyelet with a blue bottom.

[deafanddiabetic]

In the above photo, the unused open female end is the light green/red neutral light spot. I took it out for the use of this photo. I have never had the neutral light installed (one black wire, one green/red) as because I do not have a rubber bulb holder for the glass eye in the top of the bucket.

[deafanddiabetic]

Here, I who the unused black wire that was cut by the PO. I cannot find this wire on the wiring diagram and it doesn't correspond to anything that I'm aware of. It is live with 12v when the ignition switch is turned on.

When this bike was built the first time, I left it open because it made no difference in the use of the bike. The horn is hooked to this other black wire and then the other end of the horn is connected to the handlebar switch.

[deafanddiabetic]

This is the wiring of the rectifier heading out towards the physical rectifier. You can also see the two wires of the tail light in the right hand side.