Okay, Need Some Help Diagnosing A Head Light

[Hard Luck Rodeo]

1998 Valkyrie Tourer, 75K miles, I bought it new. We've had some good years and we've had some lean years. I've learned a lot about DIY on this bike but I can get in over my head in a hurry. We've had a few scrapes and few close misses to make you crap your pants.

I checked the fuse and the bulb are okay.

Last week I had the air filter canister out to replace some vacuum tubing. I replaced the 2nd and 3rd main wiring harness frame clinches that were broken with 2 zip ties. I cut them back off to test that they weren't creating a short. The headlight worked before I had all this off.

Under my headlight is an older billet style Cobra light bar wired based on manufacturer recommendation that has been on since the bike was purchased. The highway lights don't come on now either. I don't believe if one of those bulbs was out it would disable the headlight. If the headlight circuit had a short, I don't believe these would work. So this is not really a surprise.

The neutral light on top of the headlight case comes on green as it is supposed to although the amber signal indicator hasn't worked in a year. The high beam blue does not come on. Is it a short in my switch possibly? Last month I replaced the signal relay and it works just fine.

Recently, I wired into the battery on a separate fuse some ground effects lighting with a remote on/off but I've disconnected those also. They were all working together with the headlight before this last repair.

The speedometer and tachometer lights function as expected. Everything else seems to operate as normal.

I don't know how many other things are on the same circuit as the headlight.

Anybody have any bright ideas on what I can check as I am examining the wiring diagram in my manual?

[bentwrench]

Hey rodeo,It's  Tough having to go over some else's work to fix a problem.I have the cobra lamps on mine but I disregarded the factory instructions and used a relay.The circuit they want you to tap into is the marker lamps(brown wire?)not the head lamps.If you look in the hlamp shell you'll see a blk. 9pin connector,power for the hlamp passes thru here.The blk/red(from hlamp fuse) wire should have pwr any time the is on,the blu/wh(to dimmer sw.) wire should also unless the start button is engaged.
    Between those wires is the starter switch which turns the hlamp off during start up.
Try playing with the start button if the headlamp flickers or lights you need to service the start switch. a search here will give the details on that.

[Hard Luck Rodeo]

I dunno about all that and unfortunately can't test it right now. I know that when I turn on my highway lights my headlight goes dim and it will not go bright. The light bar has a switch on the top right side that turns them ON/OFF. When I turn them OFF, my headlight will go back to bright.

I had to look up marker lamps. I always thought of them as turn signal indicators. You call them marker lamps because they are always on and blink when signaled?

The headlamp should come on when the key is inserted and turned to the ON position but does not. The bike starts as would be expected from the starter switch. There is no blinking of the headlamp before, during or after the starter switch is engaged.

 

[Ramie]

Sounds like you need a smart switch for your head lamp and need to rewire the Aux lights.

http://thedigisync.com/smartswitch-top-page.html

http://www.rattlebars.com/mtz/foglites.html

[Hard Luck Rodeo]

Thanks for the tip, but I'm happy with my current configuration. I just want to get it glowing again.

[The emperor has no clothes]

Thanks for the tip, but I'm happy with my current configuration. I just want to get it glowing again.

What he is saying is, your lighting needs to be rewired so that all of the power is not going thru you starter switch. The SmartSwitch is the easiest way to do this.

[Hard Luck Rodeo]

Ah, okay. Turns out to be a short in the bright switch. New on order. Thanks.