Interstate Headlight

[AussieValk]

Went on a weekend ride last week with plenty of night riding (1400 klms). On two occassions after stopping the bike for a short time and restarting, both headlights were out. On the second occassion, after removing the sidecovers and checking the headlight fuse (not blown), and tapping the relay, I flicked the high/low beam switch a few times and the lights came back on.

Would this be a dodgy relay or the high/low switch? It hasn't happened since, and oddly enough it only seems to bother me at night.   

TIA

[Grandpot]

Seeing as the low beam and high beam are on separate relays and both do not function and it is unlikely that both relays are bad, the problem is in the circuit before the relays.  This leaves the High/Low selector switch and the Starter switch.

My money is on the Starter switch.  There is a normally closed contact on the switch that drops out the headlight relays when the switch is pressed.  Most likely the normally closed contacts are contaminated and do not make a good connection when the Starter switch is released.  ???

[R J]

Do a clean and re lube of the starter button.

There is a link in Shop Talk on how to do it on an I/State.

Just a tad bit harder to do on the I/State.  The Std, Tourer comes apart real easy.

Clean th contacts good, put some dielectric grease on it and put it back together and you is good for another 70,000 miles in most cases.

[AussieValk]

Thanks for the help. I'll do the starter switch maint.

[AussieValk]

Well that would have to be one of the easiest jobs to do. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Knowledge is power, power is good......