HELP! Up in the mountains and headlight is out

I'm up in the mountains on my 85 XJ700X and I just noticed this evening that my headlight was out. Both the regular and high beam are out, so I'm suspecting a fuse. The turn signals and tail light both work, and the bike starts and runs fine.

Can anyone confirm that this is probably a fuse or does it sound like the light itself. If so, can you give me the part information? My wife is driving up to meet me tomorrow, so I'd like to call around and have her bring up the parts if possible.

Thanks!

 

To get the bike back to where you can work on it properly.
Take 2 lengths of wires approximately 4-5 foot in length. one red, one black.
Attach the red length to the positive battery terminal. The black to the negative battery terminal.

Use the two wires to test the bulb to see if either high, or low beams work.

If you get one or the other working. use spade terminals to attach the wires to the light, and secure the wiring for the ride. The problem will most likely be in the fuse, or wiring.

If neither side works. replace the bulb.
Sylvania part # 9003/HB2

Ghost

 

Well, *you* can confirm whether it's a fuse or not in about 1 minute. Just pull the HEAD fuse and see if it's blown. Oh, wait, do you have glass fuses? Well, regardless, check the fuse. Sometimes it's hard to tell, just pop a new one in there, see if it fixes problem. You should always have a few spares(my fuse box has unused slots, I keep spare fuses there)

Lacking a spare, you can bypass the fuse FOR TESTING ONLY. Otherwise, the hot wire fix listed above is the best bet. You might not even need the black wire, if your ground at the light is ok. I did just one red wire from the battery to my light for a few days when I had some kind of gremlin.

I just thought of something, not sure about your bike, but usually the instruments are on the same circuit. Are your dash lights out as well? If not, it's not the fuse, most likely. If they are out...it *could* be the fuse, but no guarantees. There are a few threads, including one from me, on losing head and dash lights, old wiring is tricky.

 

You should have a spare bulb on-board, ... especially if going cross country.

Test the 2-sides of the Bulb with a Meter.
Trouble shoot the Circuit with a Test Light.
Begin with the Fuse.
Then:
Battery to Fuse
Fuse Box to Bucket
Receptacle

Good Luck.

 

Holy cow! I just noticed you've been on the forum since 2009 and this is your third post! And I thought I was the king of lurking

As for Rick's advice, he's right, *if* you have a meter or test light, I think Ghost and I were thinking more that you're stranded on a mountain with very limited tools. (just how it seemed based on your original post) However, even if all you have is a knife, you can jury-rig a test light...a "field-expedient" test light, we'd say in the military.

What really works well is a car dome light bulb, the kind that looks like a big glass fuse? because it has nice contact to wrap wire around on either end. Then when you touch both of the other ends of the wires to a hot circuit, bulb lights up. You see where I'm going with this, you could, if you really wanted to, pull a small light off your bike, attach wires or even cut the socket out with the bulb, then you'd have wires already attached.

 

From memory [mines not an X]if a fuse is your problem your dash lights and indicators wont work either.

 

MaximX doesn't have glass fuses.

Pull the front cover off of the gauge lights. The fuses are in there. Check the headlight fuse. For that fuse to blow, you probably have bared wire somewhere in the headlight bucket.

Now, 'up in the mountains' ......can you be a little more specific? Maybe there's a list member near(ish) you........................

Dave Fox

 

Thanks for all the tips. The gauge lights are out, so it probably is the fuse. I'll pop the front cover off and see what I can see.

 

Not a fuse problem, so it must be a wiring issue (imagine that in a 25 year old bike!) We'll, I was planning to come down out of the mountains (I'm in Black Hawk, CO) on Thursday evening, guess I'll cut it a little short and come down in daylight. Or I'll try that wiring trick to the battery.

Thanks for all your help.

 

hope ya get er figured out, good luck!!