Headlight Won't Come on. Connected to Gauge Cluster?

Hey guys! Anyone know if the gauge cluster has to be hooked up for the headlight to work?

I've done some major disassembly/reassembly recently and now my headlight won't come on at all. The first thing I'm going to check tomorrow is the bulb. I did the shake test, and heard nothing, so I'm pretty sure that's not the case. Plus the bulb is only a year old.

My leading theories are... bad connection inside the handle controls, took those apart and put them back together, but easily could have missasligned something. Also the contacts in there are damn dirty. ...Or, the headlight needs to have the gauge cluster connected to work???

Does anyone have a wiring diagram for the bike? That sure would help a hell of a lot!

Thanks!

 

Have you checked if the socket is getting voltage with a multimeter? Check that before anything else. I had a bulb go bad on me a couple weeks back and there was no visible damage (filament was intact).

 

Is the motor running? Most (not all, but I think yours does) have a headlight relay that turns the light on AFTER the motor is started. On most bikes, that is also common to the gauge cluster.

 

I had problems with my '81 XJ650 headlight relay. I took the original one apart and found that corrosion had built up on the contacts. I cleaned them up carefully. There is also a diode soldered across the coil. the one inside my relay was cracked so I replaced it with a new one. The relay worked fine after this. Then I read about a solid state Headlight relay that uses fractions of an amp and I bought and installed it. The first thing I noticed was how much brighter my headlight was. This great product is sold by Comagination.