Issue with Lights

[rocksandhammers]

Have to be on campus by 8:00 and I live an hour away so for the past couple months that means riding in the dark since it doesn't get light until after 7:00 now. About 50 miles each way. Yesterday morning while riding I noticed some things going on with my lights. When I first left my neighborhood I noticed the headlight flickering just a little, but it was so subtle I just thought it was the headlight bouncing around since my road isn't the smoothest. About 30 miles into the ride it starts to get more noticeable. The light coming from the bulb was starting to flicker some. Never enough to really decrease my ability to see or to be seen, but enough to be slightly annoying. At this point I figured the headlamp bulb was going. About another 5 or 10 miles in and it has gotten more intense. Again, never to the point where the light went out, but it's intensity was flickering. Tried high beams to see if it was the low beams and those were flickering too. About this time I noticed the light on the speedo seemed to be having the same intensity fluctuations as well. There was no decrease in the performance of the bike itself, and if it would have been in daylight I likely wouldn't have even noticed at all. The flickering almost seemed like it would get more intense when I would let off the throttle coming to a stop and the RPM's declined, but when I started to test this further the problem stopped, so I only saw this happen once or twice. Prior to this point the flickering seemed more sporadic and not related to anything.

Made it to my parking spot with no issues and it seemed like the lights were acting normal by then. Rode it home later that day and there were no issues with the bike, but it was hard to tell how the lights were behaving since it was daylight at this point. Weather is shitty here today and I knew I wouldn't be riding so I yanked the battery out to see if this was related to the charging issues I had fought back in July and the tender said the battery was still nearly fully charged, and by this point I had put probably 70 miles or so on the bike since the lighting issue at highway speeds so it doesn't seem like it's an issue related to battery charge and output. Is it a bad connection somewhere? I'd hate to have to dig back into the wiring harness after spending so much time on it this summer, and I checked out the wiring diagram and I'm not sure where I would start since it seemed like all of the lights where effected and there isn't one line connecting them all.

Just not sure what to make of it or how concerned I should be since the bike seems to run fine. I prefer not to ride when it's dark, but since I have to teach so early in the morning this semester I don't have much of a choice if I want to ride and it would suck to have the lights go out and have to do some roadside maintenance in the dark. Looks like the weather won't give me an opportunity to ride in until Friday at the earliest so I have a few days to investigate.

[WintrSol]

The power to the headlamp goes through fuse #1, and the other lights #2. If the headlamp is flickering, that alone could cause the same symptoms on the other lights, because of the sudden change in Voltage from such a large load change. That means fuse #1 could be loose or dirty, or the contacts in the starter switch for the headlamp are dirty. Or, the connection from the key switch to the fuse box could be acting up, but that should cause some missing in the engine, which is powered from the same connection through fuse #3. I'd start with some contact cleaner, and clean out the fuse box first, then have a look at the starter button switch. Also, check that the battery cables at the battery terminals are clean and actually tight; there were many bikes that had the bolts that hold the cables to the terminals about 1 thread too long, and they weren't really tight on the cables. The standard solution is/was adding start washers to take up the extra, and make better contact. Next is the heavy ground wire from the battery at the frame/transmission, which can get corrosion and have intermittent contact.

[Herb]

A bad ground connection could be the problem. Since you had to work on the wiring it is possible that you loosened one of the ground connectors. I have had issues with the type of connectors these bikes have. The connector can be partially pulled out of the metal connector but still stuck inside the plastic shield and it will vibrate around.

Start checking all connectors making sure they are well seated.

[WintrSol]

Start checking all connectors making sure they are well seated.

And clean them with contact cleaner while you do that.

[rocksandhammers]

The power to the headlamp goes through fuse #1, and the other lights #2. If the headlamp is flickering, that alone could cause the same symptoms on the other lights, because of the sudden change in Voltage from such a large load change. That means fuse #1 could be loose or dirty, or the contacts in the starter switch for the headlamp are dirty. Or, the connection from the key switch to the fuse box could be acting up, but that should cause some missing in the engine, which is powered from the same connection through fuse #3. I'd start with some contact cleaner, and clean out the fuse box first, then have a look at the starter button switch.

Alright. I'll definitely check out the fuse box since it's easy and out of the things you listed seems like the most likely culprit. I don't think it was the battery connections but I'll be sure they're tight when I throw the battery back in. It's definitely not the ignition switch since that was causing my problems earlier in the summer and is a brand new OEM switch. When you say starter button did you mean the ignition switch or the electric starter switch up on the handlebars?

Next is the heavy ground wire from the battery at the frame/transmission, which can get corrosion and have intermittent contact.

I also doubt it's the groundwire since I replaced that this summer too so it's still nice and fresh.

A bad ground connection could be the problem. Since you had to work on the wiring it is possible that you loosened one of the ground connectors. I have had issues with the type of connectors these bikes have. The connector can be partially pulled out of the metal connector but still stuck inside the plastic shield and it will vibrate around.

Start checking all connectors making sure they are well seated.

Yeah, if it's not the fusebox this would have been my guess too. While going through my connections earlier in the summer I hit all of the connectors I could find with some cleaner, so it's possible I didn't put one back together as tightly as I thought. I'll check it out.

[WintrSol]

I mean the starter button on the handlebar - the headlamp power goes through it, so it is turned off during cranking. I had problems with this in my '98 Valkyrie; the headlamp power caused some pitting of the switch contacts. I now use a solid-state relay to handle the power, and turn it on/off with that switch.

[Night Stalker]

Check the headlight socket that the headlight plugs in to. Could be dirty or have corrosion in it . Also make sure the prongs on the headlight are clean and have no corrosion.