Hey all... I recently purchased an xj650 and the headlight was burned out.. so i replaced it. But its still not working and i notcied my left front turn signal is out too.

My question is will the headlight work if one or more of the turn signals is not?

Are they tied together by wiring or seperate?

thanks,

Brent

Looking at my diagram, it does not appear that the two circuits are tied together. The first thing I would check is the headlight fuse. (fusebox is under the seat) The fusebox is very poorly designed, and as the connections with the fuses gets corroded, the terminals heat up and will eventually melt themselves loose, or the prongs will snap off. Either way, it is best to replace the whole thing, either with separate fuseholders, or a Radioshack fuse block. That will save you a lot of headaches in the future, as well as not having to worry about why your engine suddenly died on the freeway doing 70. (don't ask me how I know.. :lol: )

Your turn signal (if it is only the front one) could be 3 things - bad/corroded ground, bad/corroded socket (my bet), or a broken wire/bad connection to the signal. Easiest way to rule things out is to get a test light, open up the signal, and take out the bulb.

Probe (in order) with the t/s on:

Socket center/socket sleeve (ground)
Socket center/known good ground (like a frame bolt)
Battery + /socket sleeve

The test light WILL light up in one or all of these situations, and that will tell you where the problem is.

Matt

Thanks Matt

Very Helpful. I did replace the fuse box with one from Radioshack.. Its another lucas style 4 fuse block and it installed nicely. much sharper than the last one that needed replacing badly.

As far as the light testing... i'll have to do that later this week...

Ug.. work work work.. and dreamin of riding.

Brent

If the fuse is good (and assuming it's both high and low beams out), then the next likely suspect is the headlight relay (turns the light off when you press the start button).. Unfortunately it looks like it's under the gas tank. You have to unlpug the 4 prong connector to the relay. It appears that the RED/YELLOW and the BLUE wire should have battery voltage with the key on, BLUE/BLACK wire should have CONTINUITY with (at the headlight socket) YELLOW wire in high beam and GREEN wire in low beam, and the WHITE wire should be GROUNDED, ONLY when the START button is pressed. If all these check out, then relay itself is bad. If any of the voltage/continuity tests fail, you have a bad connecton or broken wire. If the white wire shows a ground all the time, most likely the wire is pierced by a piece of metal, which is holding the relay on.. This would have to be somewhere between the relay and the diode block, otherwise your starter would be engaged all the time.

Man that was IT! Thanks for the tip TaZMaNiaK. I owe you one!!

Bad Relay... ah now back to Ebay

By the way, does anyone else love searching "Maxim" parts on ebay :)

Had the same problem with my xj550. Relay is indeed under the seat just in front of the fuse box. Mine has a yellow tag on it. Now for the bad news. Those relays cost big bucks. I took mine apart (four crimps) and found a lot of rust from the case had dropped onto the contacts. A healthy shot of carb cleaner and some 440 abrasive paper and the relay works as advertized. Best of luck.