Topic: Electrical Issue After Top End Maintenance

[spmc]

Okay so hoping you guys can walk me through some steps to take as electrical has always been my least favourite part of these bikes. I don't have a large base of knowledge to start with when it comes to basic electrical and on bikes and in cars I've always been confused when dealing with issues.

Bike was operating as it should before I took out the engine to address some other issues. While it was out I decided to wire up some new back turn signals I had as the old ones kind of fell apart (not stock). I have an LED taillight bar with integrate signals, a little plate light, and the signals all running around in a little rats nest (okay a little neater than that) in the back end. I used the wires that fed the old ones so I wouldn't think that was the issue. Once I wired them up and turned on the bike though, again engine out, they didn't work and curiously the headlight actually blinked when I turned on the signal switch. Figure must have something to do with a gap in the wiring when the engines not all plugged in and what not.

The only other thing I did was replace the coils with a new kit from 4into1. My understanding is it doesn't matter which wires go where really other than 1-4 and 2-3 on the same coil. It says Note: Wires can be mounted on either terminal (no polarity + or - ) so I assumed that mean the lead wires to the harness and ran the wires the same way on each coil and to the corresponding wire from the harness. Was this where I made an error? would wiring those wrong even affect the lights?

So put the engine in, connected all the wires, negative wire from the battery connected to through the hanger bolt, reconnected the solenoid... andddddd nothing. Well thats not true, the speedo lights up but not signals front or rear, no headlight, horn barely makes a ticking noise.

Not sure where I screwed up, not sure how to start diagnosis, but I do have a multimeter and all that fun stuff to check for power, just don't know where to start pointing it.

Will be researching through the forum in the meantime, but any tips would be greatly appreciated!

[calj737]

Start where it all begins; the battery. Make damn certain your battery is fully charged and good.
Then, go the ignition switch. Trace power from it with your meter to the RH switch. Trace power from ipthere to the solenoid and the coils. And so on…

For the moment, ignore the lighting. Get the motor fired first.

[BenelliSEI]

If your horn is just “ticking”, I’ll bet your battery is dead.

[spmc]

If your horn is just “ticking”, I’ll bet your battery is dead.

Damn, I did slow charge it recently before this all began so it didn't even cross my mind it could be out of juice... that's where I'll start, thanks for the common sense check!

[spmc]

I regret to admit it was indeed a dead battery... sometimes you just gotta think of the simplest answer first.

However not completely a bonehead move, as I think a faulty ignition switch base might have been the cause of a slow drain the whole time I was rebuilding the top end. 

[newday777]

I regret to admit it was indeed a dead battery... sometimes you just gotta think of the simplest answer first.

However not completely a bonehead move, as I think a faulty ignition switch base might have been the cause of a slow drain the whole time I was rebuilding the top end.

Good that you got it 👍.
Did you do a load test after charging it? I usually will do a quick load test of 10-15 seconds using a headlight and watch the voltage drop during and after the light is disconnected just to be sure the battery hasn't developed an internal short problem.