Topic: Cb500k1 (general export/aus) headlight switch internal wiring

[Mootercycle]

Hi guys,

Hoping to get some help with the internal wiring of my Honda CB500k1 right hand switch block.

While trouble shooting my faulty headlight, I've pulled apart my right hand switch block to find there are a few wires disconnected from the little pin board which is part of the headlight dimmer switch.

Any chance someone has a photo of where each wire is soldered to the board?

Edit: bike is cb500k1 (general export type)

[calj737]

It might be easier to tell us what wire colors you have, and post a picture of the switch block buttons. Different model years for different markets had slight changes.

[Mootercycle]

Thanks calj737,

Good point. Looks like I have 4x wires:
Blue, white, blue and brown, white and brown.

Here's a pic of the top of the board without the plastic slider piece on it

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[Mootercycle]

And here is a photo of the switch unit itself (minus the headlight toggle which I have out right now)

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[calj737]

Solid Blue should be for HI beam.
Solid White should be for LO beam.
These connect to the board below that toggle switch (obviously).

I don’t have a stock diagram for a Euro (AUS) K1 so the Blu/Brn I suspect is for the Start button. You could check that by looking at the solenoid.

I’m guessing the Brn/Wht is for the engine KILL selector. I venture a guess it’s for the RUN position, but that could be verified by tracing the wiring to the coils.

Apologies I don’t have definitive answers (as well I could be wrong on the latter two).

[Mootercycle]

So luckily I have my starter button and kill switch all wired up and they work perfectly, so I suspect all four wires are for the headlight? The extra wires may have something to do with the parking light.

There are about 10 points on the back of the board I can solder wires to so I'm just not sure where each wire should go.

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[newday777]

Thanks calj737,

Good point. Looks like I have 4x wires:
Blue, white, blue and brown, white and brown.

Here's a pic of the top of the board without the plastic slider piece on it

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Welcome to the forum Mootercycle, from north of Boston
Here in the states we didn't get the bikes with the park lamp in the headlight which I presume yours has from the P on the headlight switch so the Brown/Blue(stripe color is always listed second on the diagrams, Br/B, so be sure to list your colors properly in your replies so there isn't confusion introduced, you said Blue/Brown, which would be B/Br) so I'm not familiar with that switch panel soldering that you have.
I looked in the manuals section of the forum to try to figure it out and the CB500 doesn't show a different wiring diagram for the P headlight(EU/AU/Japan models) that has the Br/B(blue), it only shows Br/W, so I couldn't trace it for you that way. Hopefully someone will come along shortly and see this that has the same switch as you have to help you out.

http://manuals.sohc4.net/cb500/

Is your bike an original import to AU?(I see in your profile that you are in AU) I'm a sluth in trying to get enough information to help before I answer...... and I hope I've been helpful.
Do you have the wiring diagram for your bike with the park  headlight switch, with the Br/B wire?

It might help if you edit the title of this post to say 'CB500 K0 with P headlight switch internal wiring help needed in AU' to get the attention of the AU and other countries to see it and respond.

It always helpful if you include as much information about your bike when asking for help so correct answers get to you. I was a parts manager and learned I had to get lots more information out of customers as there were multiple changes in each model of bikes throughout the years. Most customers assumed there wasn't any changes and so I had to ask lots of questions to pry it out of them.

Take some time and go to the new members section and introduce yourself and your bike.

[Deltarider]

First step is to identify your model (this includes the socalled 'area code') by comparing your engine- and framenumbers to those listed in the first 4 pages of the various parts lists. They are all here:
https://www.honda4fun.com/materiale/documentazione-tecnica . Then you will know which wiring diagram is the appropiate one. When the manual doesn't give a U TYPE*, yours is the GENERAL TYPE. Yours is a K1, so the appropiate wiring diagram is the fourth in this manual: https://www.honda4fun.com/dwnload/Owners-Manual/CB500-K1-Owners-Manual.pdf In the last page.
When your switch unit differs, at least you will know either somebody messed with it, or the part on yours is not the original one**. The above is a simple procedure. Bonus will be that you get to know your bike better.
* U: AUSTRALIAN TYPE
** Report when you need an original switch unit.

[bryanj]

Blue and brown is power into the light switch from fuse, brown and white goes to all the clock lights plus rear sidelight and front sidelight if fitted.
In theory this bike should have one fuse and a switch on the lh side of the bars saying on/off( circular clamps round the bars) that has a black wire and a brown blue with black being power with ign on and brown blue connecting to the one from rh switch

[Mootercycle]

Thanks for the info everyone.

I have stuffed around with the bike a bit today and worked a few things out.

So my blue and white wires are still in their original spots, so I'm just working out the location of the other two. I have tried to test a few things with a piece of random wire to book up some different variations.

What I can confirm is:
Blue is definitely Hi as has been suggested
White is definitely low as suggested

When the Br/W and Br/B are connected the parking light will turn on.

I have a hunch that I may be able to solder it up like the below. Will hopefully have a chance tomorrow. Sorry for the crap diagram. Circles are pins on the board I can solder to. Boxes around them are where I believe the wires will be soldered. Again, I know the blue and white are still connected to the board.

In the case of the Br/W and Br/B, I believe they should be soldered together across the rows as the parking light should be powered during all 3 switch positions. This means as the switch moves across the board (right to left, I am only now realising I've done this whole diagram flipped 180) it will add W (low beam) to the circuit in the middle position and then B (hi beam) at the last position.

I'll take a look at all those resources everyone has shared and see if that clears anything up too.

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[Little_Phil]

Had this switch apart a couple of weeks ago and do remember that some contacts are soldered together. As you see both sliders move together.
This is the wiring diag for the UK/Aus models and as bryan says you should have an additional on/off switch on the left bars that feed the right switch for headlight power on the BR/B.

[Mootercycle]

I've taken a look and I believe it's a cb500k1 general export type D as you guys have guessed. Glad I've got that worked out. Appreciate all the info!

Looks like a previous owner has messed with the LH switch as there's no ON/OFF button. I imagine they might have just wired it to be ON all the time and carried on? Something I'll need to look into I suppose.

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[bryanj]

Its NOT part of the lh switch, its a seperate switch on the lh side

[Little_Phil]

If you don't have that switch you could wire it so that the P (parking/pilot/whatever) is permanently on. BUT the starter may struggle if the switch is left in L or H.

[Deltarider]

Actually I don't quite understand what the 'P' position is doing there. It's confusing. Many markets had a . there meaning OFF, the one in the middle then was 'P' (pilot/position whatever) and the third was 'H' for HEADLAMP. But we have the dipswitch at the LH switch unit. The parking light is activated by bringing the ignition key to the third position.
Your switch seems to suggest that whenever the ignition key is in ON, either the position light, or the dimlight or the high beam is on. That arrangement would be new to me.
Could you post a pic of what you have at the LH side?

[Mootercycle]

If you don't have that switch you could wire it so that the P (parking/pilot/whatever) is permanently on. BUT the starter may struggle if the switch is left in L or H.

I think this is looking like the best plan of attack for the time being

The bike already goes through the battery pretty quick so it's not ideal but at least it's functional until I can score a new on/off switch.

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[Mootercycle]

Actually I don't quite understand what the 'P' position is doing there. It's confusing. Many markets had a . there meaning OFF, the one in the middle then was 'P' (pilot/position whatever) and the third was 'H' for HEADLAMP. But we have the dipswitch at the LH switch unit. The parking light is activated by bringing the ignition key to the third position.
Your switch seems to suggest that whenever the ignition key is in ON, either the position light, or the dimlight or the high beam is on. That arrangement would be new to me.
Could you post a pic of what you have at the LH side?

I've been looking at this table from the wiring diagram which hopefully helps.

It does seem to suggest that the P light should be on only when the switch is set to P so I may need to revisit how I plan to wire it up...

Here's a pic of LH controls too.

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[jonda500]

Hi Mootercycle, I am also in aus and have two of these, unfortunately only the LH side switch blocks are original on my two with the right side having replacement reproduction items <off-L-H> that I bought. I don't have the separate light switch on the left on either bikes and have not seen that separate switch on cb500's here in Australia (yet!). I do have the combination horn/pass button on both. My 3 previous owner 500 came to me with what I think is a later RH switch block <off-P-H> with the wiring modified (maybe PO unsoldered the wires and soldered on the original earlier wiring loom wires instead) rather messily such that the tail light was always on (when the ignition was turned on) and the headlight low beam did NOT turn off when you switched it to high beam. I rode it for many years like this and loved how well lit up the road was with both beams on - although maybe that's why the little metal cap fell of the sealed beam element to eternally rattle around inside the glass. I wish I could be more helpful but currently the entire contents of my double garage are all crammed into my lounge room so I can't take photos, find my old switch blocks, or get to my 1st 500 to check wire colours. (In my garage I have had a new concrete slab laid over the old leaky cracked slab, converted the twin roller doors to one very wide tilt-a-door, and am in the process of installing better wiring for power & lights, and insulating & cladding the inside with plywood so my hondas will have a nice dry home to live in!  John

[Mootercycle]

Hi jonda500

Yep, sounds very familiar. My tail light turns on with the ignition, and braking just makes it brighter. Same for the head light, L is just a dimmer setting for the same bulb as H.

My bike is outside under a motorcycle cover and it's been raining so I haven't had a chance to go solder the wires yet. My gf has dubbed herself the health and safety officer when I'm working on the bike and might not be too impressed if I go out and play with electronics in the rain haha.

I have revised my plan and will probably solder everything up as the below so that the P light doesn't run when I'm on L or H. Now just to wait for the weather to clear up!

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[bryanj]

What you need is honda part 35150300730 if you want to stay original, or just a waterproof toggle switch if not

[Deltarider]

Or you can choose another approach and make it the way you like.
This is what I've changed on mine.
In the headlamp I disconnected the brown + wire from the position light and replaced it by a piece of black wire to a spare black connector.
I then added a switch in the green - wire to the position light. I can now bring on the position light without the tail- and instrument lights. The added switch is hidden in between the speedo- and the tachometer, where it is hardly seen, so the classical looks of my bike are preserved.
In the headlight reflector I replaced the OEM Ba9s  4 Watts position light bulb by a dito 21 Watts halogen one, which I now use as DRL. The bulb is a bit yellowish which is better noticed and highlights you're a biker.
So this is what I have now:
During the day I switch the DRL on. All the rest remains off. Saves fuel and extends lifespan of bulbs. Know that especially the little instrument lightbulbs do not live long and that it is quite a hassle to replace them! With the taillight off, brakelight is better noticed. The same goes for high beam flashes when you slide the PA switch. Not that I use that function often.
On entering a tunnel I slide the stock RH switch from . to 'P', which adds tail- and instrument lights.
Exiting the tunnel I slide the switch back to ..
The rest remains the same, so when darkness falls, just sliding the standard switch to 'H' (headlight) brings on the 60/55 Watts Philips Visionplus. My model has the standard dipswitch for HI and LO in the LH switch unit.
At night I can choose to switch off the DRL or leave it on.
The only thing I don't have anymore, is that when I turn the key switch to PARK , the front position light doesn't come on anymore, only the taillight. BTW, that's what most markets have standard. And... I never used that PARK mode anyway. 
The arrangement is simple and the cost almost nothing: a switch I had lying around and that little halogen bulb (see pic).

[newday777]

What you need is honda part 35150300730 if you want to stay original, or just a waterproof toggle switch if not

Is that switch to control the headlight or is it for the park lamp in the headlight?

[Mootercycle]

If it connects to the Br/B wire, my guess is it controls on/off for all headlight functions including the P light.

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[Mootercycle]

Good thinking. I like the idea of a DRL without the instrument and brake lights. I think I would be able to do something similar without too much fuss... Definitely one to think about while I get the rest of the bike in order as it's pretty rough around the edges right now

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