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Author Topic: Headlight not working but high beam indicator is on  (Read 900 times)

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Offline zabzob

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Headlight not working but high beam indicator is on
« on: July 04, 2017, 11:09:57 PM »
A few days ago the high beam indicator on my panel started flickering on and off, as did my headlight. Oddly enough it was steady when the bike wasn't running and got dimmer as the revs increased. Now the headlight isn't working at all, and the high beam indicator is permanently on. From my googling this could be some kind of ground issue. I've checked the main ground from battery to frame and it looks okay... are there others I can check? Unfortunately I'm on the road right now and don't have a tonne of time or space to go over all the connections, so any tips on where to start would be appreciated.
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Offline Airborne 82nd

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Re: Headlight not working but high beam indicator is on
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2017, 12:16:48 AM »
If you take the bulb out there is a ground on the big nut that the bucket pivots on and while you are in there you can check the plug on the back of the bulb and check if you have 12vdc on the high beam slot of the socket with the high beam sw. on. Does the low beam work?
Airborne.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2017, 12:18:56 AM by Airborne 82nd »
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Offline my name is nobody

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Re: Headlight not working but high beam indicator is on
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2017, 06:45:03 AM »
Something to watch for too, sometimes the terminals will partially back out of the connector when bulb is
removed/replaced, resulting in a non secure connection.
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Offline calj737

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Re: Headlight not working but high beam indicator is on
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2017, 12:10:37 PM »
Does toggling the HI/LO switch extinguish the HI bulb on the idiot panel? If not, there's a clue for you-
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Offline zabzob

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Re: Headlight not working but high beam indicator is on
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2017, 04:29:22 PM »
Well, the flickering high beam indicator turned itself off. Put a new bulb in and now everything appears to be back to normal. The lead for the high beam did back out of the housing @nobody... and I wonder if it was intermittently shorting or something before, just partially backed out.

All's well that ends well, I guess.
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1975 CB750K5

Offline my name is nobody

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Re: Headlight not working but high beam indicator is on
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2017, 07:47:54 PM »
You might consider trying what Cal mentioned as well, (if it happens again) just to verify the integrity
of the hi/lo beam switch. Sometimes that switch can get "flakey" and cause intermittent problems as well. The hi beam indicator light is part of the high beam
circuit, so when the hi beam is turned on, the indicator for it should also come on.
Glad you got it sorted. I went thru something similar with my k5, and had to do
a complete check of the entire circuit till I found my problem.
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