Topic: Weary of Wires.... help please!

[Gnat]

This question concerns only the lighting portion of the wires

I am rewiring my CB350 Four. Not with new wires, I am using the old wiring harness. But I have taken it apart and cleaned all the parts and connectors and from what I can tell all of it was in "decent condition" meaning no brittle wires and specially no burnt wires. This bike only had 4000 miles on it when it was parked.

I examine the Clymer manual and a color coded diagram I got from somewhere. They seem to vaguely agree.

So Saturday morning I start to reconnect all the wires using my Handy Color Coded Wiring Reconnector Guide and Decoder Ring. I ken from this guide that my bike uses a double run with Ground and common which I assume prevents having one bulb taking out the whole circuit. It takes hours to do something I thought would take just a bit of time......and here is what happened.

Remember I am only concerned with the lights I don't have the motor in the bike but its not on the light circuit and makes no difference (am certain of this and I'll say why)

1. I finished. I turned on the key....nothing. I look at the diagram and notice the fuse and red wire that goes to the ignition. I realize that since the motor is not in the bike that I will have to run a jumper from the battery to the fuse. I do this and Viola' everything comes on. I tested hi and low beam and turn signals. And the only thing not working is the rear brake light. (which may be a burned out bulb) Then just as suddenly they all go off ( I hear a tiny click just before this happens). I check the fuse and its fine. So

Question #1 is there a sneak circuit or fuse that I am not aware of or is it posible that the winker relay is broken.



Question#2 I noticed that there was a jumper in the common circuit. In the headlight spaghetti bowl I plugged all the commons into one of the common 4 way connectors and that used up all of one. But a closer look revealed that there was another 4 way connector in the pile that I didn't use. Is it possble that might be the cause.



I then opened up every connection and jumped each one and the lights all come on so I didn't blow the bulbs.

This took one whole 8 hour day.....got tired and quit

Anyone a wiring genius out there!

TIA Gnat

[Spanner 1]

There is no ' secret' fuse  ... just the one you have circled in pic. 1.  If your flasher/winker/blinker relay is a 3 wire type ( with a ground connection ) and if you have connected it incorrectly then the flasher load may be 'clicking' the unit to shorting the black wire ( +12v ) to the green ground wire  = no lights. In a perfect world the fuse should have blown.... is it a 15A like it's supposed to be and are you sure it is conducting ? Got a meter ?, a ten dollar one will do everything voltage wise you need to test on your bike  
BTW, you can by-pass the winker relay, just pull the black and gray wires off the relay and connect them together, signals should light solidly ( obviously  ) no flash/wink/blink.

[scottly]

My guess is that the jumper you installed from the battery to the fuse had an bad connection. The click you heard was probably the regulator, when the power shut off.

[Spanner 1]

Good one Scottly, I would have said regulator too but doesn't seem to be connected according to his diagram.( who knows )... prolly a bad fuse that is not discovered yet  and a short somewhere.......

[Freaky1]

I'd vote for a short also, or maybe a bad ground. I chucked my entire system and made my own, there is no easy answer. Amazing how something so simple can just frustrate you and eat up the clock. Patience and a methodical step by step from A to B to C and so on will prevent you from jumping all over the place and doing the same thing twice, just my 2 cents.

[Bodi]

Try to get a real Honda wiring diagram. The haynes/clymer diagrams and that web colored one are all simplified. The real diagram shows every wire and junction exactly. Some Honda service manuals or owners booklets available online are too low resolution to be super readable but in combination with the wiring diagrams you have you should be able to get the wire colors figured out.
You can trace the power through the circuits with a test light, just a 12V light bulb - indicator or tail light bulb - connected to two wires. Connect one wire to ground and you can test the power on any wire junction. Vonnect one wire to +12V and you can test that any ground is good. Using a voltmeter can be confusing because it takes so little power - it can read "good" voltage through a bad connection or even through weird things like a dirty regulator.

[Gnat]

Thanks for the help. I'm off on Wednesday afternoons so I'm going to give it another go today.

Last night I looked and saw that that the winker relay is only 2 wires not 3. Yet there is a green ground wire loose right next to it. Further confusion I'm afraid.

Where might a real Honda wiring diagram be found? Do you think the Honda dealership might have Old service manual?

Gnat

[-CB-Jamie-]

You can download the workshop manual(includes wiring diagram) and parts list for free from here:
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=17788.0
Scroll down a small bit and click on cb400f cb350f shop manual and parts list this gives you the actual workshop manual dealers had. You have to download the whole lot but its really handy.

That relay is probably a newer electronic one, they don't need any ground as far as I know. Check me on this though as I could be wrong.

[flybox1]

Last night I looked and saw that that the winker relay is only 2 wires not 3. Yet there is a green ground wire loose right next to it. Further confusion I'm afraid.

dont fret, just go out and get a new 3-pronged (electronic) flasher relay from your auto parts store. then you'll have all 3 connected.  honda wouldnt have put a ground there for no reason.

[bollingball]

A two prong will work fine the electronic is better with it the flasher will not slow down at a stop light. I have had one for two years now The ground is not needed.