Dim headlight?

[liv2day]

Long story short, had one of the wires to the headlight plug snap (of course, during a night ride...lol) a while back. Fixed it as best as I could on the trail so I could actually see to keep riding.

Once back home, I pulled the plug and soldered the wire to the connection in the plug thinking that would resolve the issue - figured the trail-side job wasn't getting a solid enough connection.

It's still really dim; especially compared to our other 200. I've swapped bulbs and it doesn't do any good.

A buddy mentioned it might be the voltage regulator? How would I check that? Or could it be that the wire really needs to be in the clamp of the plug to make a solid connection?

Thanks for any input...the electrical stuff is definitely a weak area for me.

 

[Neil E.]

Follow the wire back to where it connects and rig up a jumper from your headlight connector to that point. This will bypass the questionable wire. If the headlight is now bright, it means that there are some broken strands near your original repair. The wires take a lot of flexing as you move the handlebars back and forth, so it is common for strands to break.

When a voltage regulator goes bad, you usually wind up with burnt out bulbs from excess voltage. I think your problem is more likely to be a poor connection somewhere. Also make sure the ground wire is good.

 

[Zman]

Have you checked your ground connections as well?

 

[liv2day]

Thanks for the tips guys, haven't had a chance to check yet, but plan on it this coming weekend (assuming I don't get sidelined again).

Neil - when you say make a jumper, do you mean splice a new wire where it connects and run that to the headlight plug? Or is there something else that I should do?

Zman - what color are the ground wires? I'm going off memory, but I believe there's a yellow wire and a green wire with a white stripe that go to the headlight plug. Should one of these go back to the frame somewhere as the ground?

Sorry if my questions are ignorant - don't know jack about electrical stuff.

 

[Neil E.]

Jumper = go from your solder joint back to where that wire joins the previous component/switch/wire junction. This tests to make sure there are no broken strands inside the wire that you repaired.

Ground = yellow/green wire at ALL places where it connects. You could have a poor ground at various locations. Easy way to check is to jumper from the yellow/green wire at your headlight to any bare chassis point. If your headlight is bright, you know it's a ground issue.

 

[bowhunter007]

If you have the 2k3 ignition, a good upgrade is the Trailtech X2 with hi/lo switch. I still have OE GG headlamp( just in case)...I'll never go back.

 

[liv2day]

Jumper = go from your solder joint back to where that wire joins the previous component/switch/wire junction. This tests to make sure there are no broken strands inside the wire that you repaired.

This might sound dumb, but I soldered the wire to the plug as that's where it snapped. Should I run a wire from the plug to where the original wire hits the next junction?

I'll check the grounds too.

And thanks again

 

[Neil E.]

Yes, the jumper is just a way to bypass the original wire temporarily to make sure there are no broken strands somewhere else inside the original wire.

 

[liv2day]

Yes, the jumper is just a way to bypass the original wire temporarily to make sure there are no broken strands somewhere else inside the original wire.

Ahh...thanks for the clarification

Hopefully, I'll have a chance to run through testing this weekend. Riding all day Saturday and won't be back in the garage until Sunday afternoon - might have to wait as I'm sure my boys will want to "help" if I"m in the garage

 

[liv2day]

Jumper = go from your solder joint back to where that wire joins the previous component/switch/wire junction. This tests to make sure there are no broken strands inside the wire that you repaired.

Ground = yellow/green wire at ALL places where it connects. You could have a poor ground at various locations. Easy way to check is to jumper from the yellow/green wire at your headlight to any bare chassis point. If your headlight is bright, you know it's a ground issue.

Digging this back up as I'm finally getting around to trying to figure this out

I tested my headlight on our other bike and it's good. I used the plug from our other bike and when running that to my bike, the headlight is dim - does this mean that junction where the good plug connected isn't getting enough power through it? Or am I way off base?

Is there an easy way to test this stuff w/o starting the bike every time? Can I wire a 12v battery with hot and neg and use that to power the light at various points?

And another dumb question on making a jumper, is this splicing a wire in and cutting the old one? Or do I just run a wire "on top of" the existing wire?

I really suck at electrical stuff

 

[liv2day]

Decided to hook a battery directly to headlight through the plug and it was bright. This bypassed the junction where the wires all head back to the airbox.

What I don't know is what to check next, the wiring is different than our other bike - the white wire feeds into another junction and doesn't directly follow the ground into the same junction?

How do I figure out if the issue is with the wires heading back to the airbox?

 

[liv2day]

Ahh...replying to my own posts...lol.

Traced the %#}{]^ power back to the block that attaches to the frame (not sure what this is?). Discovered that the purple wire isn't power...doh.

I put power at that block and the light was bright, this was with ground into the junction. If I'm thinking this right, does that tell me that my power lines are good? If that's true, does that mean I have a ground issue somewhere? So I'd need to tap into the ground line in the airbox?

FARG

 

[Neil E.]

Time to learn how to read a wiring diagram. Can you find the wiring diagram for your bike? You haven't told us what year machine it is.

 

[liv2day]

Time to learn how to read a wiring diagram. Can you find the wiring diagram for your bike? You haven't told us what year machine it is.

Sorry, it's an '11 EC200.

I checked the wiring diagram in the user manual - might as well have been reading Chinese If it featured an image of the bike and relative locations, I'm sure I could decipher it, but a bunch of lines going different places isn't a huge help to this hack.

I traced the headlight power line back to a little block that's attached to the frame under the gas tank. I think I traced the ground back to the airbox - at least it was a yellow wire with green stripe.

There's a yellow wire coming out of that little block - is this where power for the headlight originates? When I put 12v power through that line, the headlight was bright (with ground attached to the junction).

This leads me to believe that there's an issue in the ground somewhere between the junction and back to the airbox (assuming I followed the line correctly). Does that sound logical? An additional thought - is it possible that the bike, when running, isn't putting out enough power to make the headlight as bright as it should be?

And I thought doing the top end was going to be rough...lol.

Thanks in advance Neil - really appreciate your input & assistance

 

[Neil E.]

Does it have estart or is it kick only? Big difference in the wiring.

What does it have for a headlight switch?

 

[Neil E.]

The 200EC Racing Owner's Manual does not have a wiring diagram so I downloaded the EC200 Sixdays Owner's Manual to get the wiring diagram.
(http://www.gasgasmotos.es/en/manuals/models-2-2011.html)

It shows the 2K3 ignition. Look at the large circle with "G" in it. That is the stator. It has two wires coming out, white and yellow. You will notice that the white wire (which is drawn as black so it shows on the white page) is not connected to anything. Thus the yellow wire is your AC power for all lighting. The other side of the circuit is frame ground which is on the yellow/green wire.

The yellow wire goes to junction U1, and branches out to multiple places. We only care that it goes to the headlight switch. AC power comes out of the headlight switch on white (32) for LO and blue (31) for HI beam. Power for the city light and tail light is on purple (22). Other side of the circuit is yellow/green (ground).

The other thing we care about is the voltage regulator, see wire (6) yellow going to it. It is a black block usually mounted by the coil. The second wire on the regulator connects to frame ground. You are not blowing lights so the regulator is probably good.

Start by unhooking the stator wires. Connect a test lead from the yellow stator wire to an old 12V light bulb and ground the body of the bulb. Start the bike and rev it up. The bulb should burn out very soon. If it does the stator is probably OK.

So your dim headlight will be a result of a bad connection:
1) broken strands in the three wires that go to the headlight bulb (flexing at the headstock from turning the bars)
2) broken wire anywhere along the yellow wires that go from the stator to the switch
3) bad ground point on the yellow/green wires or poor engine to frame ground (paint insulating the engine mounts, loose engine bolts etc.)
4) water in the wiring or switch (shorts power to ground)

Follow the diagram, all the information you need is there. Ask if the symbols don't make sense. You've got to do some careful jumpering to bypass parts of the existing wiring to find the problem.

 

[Neil E.]

I traced the headlight power line back to a little block that's attached to the frame under the gas tank. There's a yellow wire coming out of that little block - is this where power for the headlight originates? When I put 12v power through that line, the headlight was bright (with ground attached to the junction).

>>> power originates at the stator, the regulator just clips excess voltage

I think I traced the ground back to the airbox - at least it was a yellow wire with green stripe. This leads me to believe that there's an issue in the ground somewhere between the junction and back to the airbox.

>>> the ground is important, it's the "other side" of the circuit

An additional thought - is it possible that the bike, when running, isn't putting out enough power to make the headlight as bright as it should be?

>>> possible but not likely unless it was damaged during the rebuild

 

[liv2day]

So your dim headlight will be a result of a bad connection:
1) broken strands in the three wires that go to the headlight bulb (flexing at the headstock from turning the bars)
2) broken wire anywhere along the yellow wires that go from the stator to the switch
3) bad ground point on the yellow/green wires or poor engine to frame ground (paint insulating the engine mounts, loose engine bolts etc.)
4) water in the wiring or switch (shorts power to ground)

Follow the diagram, all the information you need is there. Ask if the symbols don't make sense. You've got to do some careful jumpering to bypass parts of the existing wiring to find the problem.

This is awesome, thanks for the in depth explanation of what goes where and how to read that wiring diagram - that's huge .

I won't have a chance to test things again until this weekend, but my plan is to focus on the ground line from the airbox forward. I will also test the stator; as I believe testing the line from the regulator forward proved that all those lines are good (this as all done with the ground connection at what I believe is 3 on the diagram).

If I have this process accurate, all the power lines from the regulator forward worked as the headlight was bright when I connected the 12V battery - does that sound correct?

I didn't connect the ground from the battery to the connection point in the airbox, but wish I would have as that might have isolated the issue.

Given what I've tested so far, there might be an issue with the power line coming out of the stator that goes to the regulator as I haven't tested that link, or there's an issue from that #3 connector back to the airbox. So I'm using the correct words - what's the box that a bunch of wires connect to inside the airbox?

Thanks again for all the pointers and help Neil - it's truly appreciated

 

[liv2day]

Does it have estart or is it kick only? Big difference in the wiring.

What does it have for a headlight switch?

Oh yeah, to answer this set of questions, it's kick only (though you probably figured that out with the wiring diagram...lol).

The headlight bulb only has two wires going to it; it doesn't have another wire for the low beam (at least, that's what I assume the 3rd wire would be for). The switch has three settings, but the light only illuminates in the "middle" position (all the way down is off). It looks exactly like the switch n_green used in his sticky thread:

I'll have to get some pictures and post those so it's a bit easier to understand my non-technical description too - I'm sure that isn't helping things along.

 

[Neil E.]

I assume the headlight switch has been replaced so you may have to look at how it's connected if you can't find the problem somewhere else. The "thing" in the air box with all the wires is your CDI. If the bike runs, don't mess with it. It is shown at the top center of the wiring diagram.