Follow up - Final Headlight Wiring Question

[Koko]

In a quest to bring back the lighting on my '05 EC250, I posted this thread.

http://www.gasgasrider.org/forum/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=19

First question..those with lights, was it typical to have an on/off switch. So just the headlight was on or off. That's it? Is the tailight/brakelight always on?

Reason I ask is because of the following:

I ended up identifying that up front, I have 4 wires being unused.

1 - Yellow w/ green stripe (I believe this is a common ground)
2 - Violet wires
1 - Yellow ( I believe this is the "hot" wire).

Out back, I had one plug, containing a Violet, Yellow/Green, and White wire.

I know that was for the tailight. Yellow green being ground, Violet bringing power and the white wire sending the brake light signal.


I wired my toggle using a double pole, double throw toggle. Figuring the 2 violet wires were for a high and low beam. My results were...meh.

Toggle in center position. No headlight, tailight or braklight.

Toggle switch in the up position. Tailight and brakelight work.

Toggle switch in the down position. Healight, Tailight and brakelight work.

The light really wasn't that bright and got a bit better with revving but nothing stellar.

Should I only use the high beam wire off the headlight (red per diagram)? Or should I wire the high/low wires together off the headlight?

Here's a really rough diagram.

But I don't think that's right. I think one violet is for power the tailight, one to the headlight?

 

[MattR]

Here is a link to my tech article. There is a wiring diagram I created for a double pole switch. Your's is similar in layout.

http://www.gasgasrider.org/html/headlight___horn.html

I think you are wiring it correctly and i'm just providing comments below to further explain the logic.

The yellow wire is hot and goes to the common center pole of the switch. From there, the violet wires becomes hot for the rear taillight. You are correct connecting 2 violet leads at the switch that become one violet in the wiring loom. This makes the taillight always on like it should be regardless of the switch position. The yellow-green wire is ground. It is also black at other portions in the loom. So you are correct in this regard.

On the other half of the switch, the top pole is for high beam and bottom pole is for low beam. If you have the small 2k-2 ignition, then this could be the reason for the weak high beam since it only puts out about 35 watts. Check to see if your ignition wire exits in 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock position. There is a sticky thread discussing this.

If you are wiring in a horn, then you will also want to splice a hot wire before the switch directly to the yellow wire. In my diagram, I think that used red as my hot wire. Then, you connect a wire from the horn to a 2-wire button switch (like a kill switch) and finally the remaining button wire to ground. So when the button is depressed the path to ground is completed and horn sounds. Release the button and the connection is open.

The only other wire back by the rear taillight is white which should go to the pressure switch on your brake lever.

It seems like you have everything correctly, so hopefully the above makes sense. It may help others who need to tackle this at some point or to sort a faulty wire.

 

[Koko]

Thank you Matt...bad news for me...I have the 2k-2 ignition.

I guess where I'm still a bit confused...how does the headlight know between hi and lo beam. If both violets are there to only to power the rear tailight.

Is it the switch it self that sends a different level of voltage to power the headlight in low or high beam?

I only ask because using my toggle, I only had the headlight on in the down position (along with tail/brakelight). In the up position the head light was off but the tail/brakelight was on. In the center position, everything was off.

Last question...how much is a 2k-3 iginition.

 

[MattR]

I think your toggle is wired correctly. The yellow wire puts out X voltage. When the toggle is in up position, the red and violet wires see this X voltage. When the toggle is in the down position, the yellow/red and violet wires see this X voltage.

The headlight bulb has two filaments with different resistance. This is what makes it glow brighter in high and less in low. So you need to find out if the bulb has a bad high filament or if the voltage is just too little (not enough power generated to light the bulb due to its resistance) or if the toggle switch has a bad pole.

I recommend you make a tester bulb or use a multimeter. The tester bulb should be connected first to the low toggle circuit to confirm your tester is working. Disconnect it and then content it to the high toggle circuit. It should work the same. This will confirm if your toggle is working properly.

Report back what you find and we can diagnose it further.

 

[Koko]

I've got a nice multi meter. I just don't know how to use it properly, other than checking a car battery or probably for a "keyed" wire on my atv to wire up accessories.

 

[MattR]

You could also switch your low bulb wiring temporarily to the high toggle switch position. If it lights the bulb with same brightness then you know the toggle switch is good.

 

[Koko]

Hey Matt, I solved it. Thank you for your help.

My wiring was right. I had hastily wired everything togther just to test it all out. My plan was/is to shorten the wires and make better connections, etc.

As luck would have it, a poor connection on my part was the reason for lack of low beam. Once I added a new bullet connector, the low beams worked.

 

[MattR]

Glad you got it sorted!