Horn and turn signals not working? Totally Stuck....

[estcstm3]

Hi All,

I replaced my bars and had to rewire all my connections in the headlight bucket. Got everything hooked back up and the headlight and my turn signals are not working. My neutral, guage backlight, kill switch are all working. My Right turn signal stays on when I turn on the lights.

I cant remember if this wire was broken but does my broken wire that is coming from the headlight harness go to that triple connection, and is that triple connection a ground junction?

Edit - Got the headlight working now I cannot get my turn signals or horn to work, see newest posts below

Edit2 - resolved all functions working

 

[Newagerocker]

Yes, the black wires are ground.

 

[estcstm3]

Awesome thanks! So I connected that black wire to that 3 way junction and my headlights are working. For the life of me I cannot get my turn signals and horn to work, which are all the bottom wires in my left hand controls. Now I am worried that those wires may be pinched off when I drilled out my bars as it was a tight squeeze on that side (didnt get my locating pin hole close enough to the hole for the wires so its puts a good amount of tenstion on those wires)..... My headlight works which is also from the left hand control which is good.

Im totally stuck at this point, any advice would be appreciated. I thought troubleshooting the horn would be easy since its just one pink wire. I follow the pink from the control into the bucket then into the female bullet connect that goes out of the bucket to the horn. I dont see anything out of the ordinary. What ground does the horn go to?

 

[retiredgentleman]

Awesome thanks! So I connected that black wire to that 3 way junction and my headlights are working. For the life of me I cannot get my turn signals and horn to work, which are all the bottom wires in my left hand controls. Now I am worried that those wires may be pinched off when I drilled out my bars as it was a tight squeeze on that side (didnt get my locating pin hole close enough to the hole for the wires so its puts a good amount of tenstion on those wires)..... My headlight works which is also from the left hand control which is good.

Im totally stuck at this point, any advice would be appreciated. I thought troubleshooting the horn would be easy since its just one pink wire. I follow the pink from the control into the bucket then into the female bullet connect that goes out of the bucket to the horn. I dont see anything out of the ordinary. What ground does the horn go to?

You have lost the ground to the handlebars when you changed them. On my 78SE, a black ground wire comes in from the common ground in the headlight bucket. That black wire provides the ground at the turn switch, which then grounds the handlebars, which then gives the ground connection to the horn. The horn and the turn signals switch must touch bare metal.....................painted bars could cause an insulated path blocking the ground connection.

I believe some years used a ground wire connected to the handlebar risers.

 

[estcstm3]

Thanks RG. Im hoping its just a ground issues my other connections seem to work, lights, lights on/off, starter button, taillight. Right now its my turn signals and my horn.

So I did replace my bars but they are just "chrome" superbars not painted. I did cleanup my risers with paint. I was having trouble with my taillights not coming on so I sanded the ground point that was under my guage hex bolt and then the taillight started working. Its weird ground as it goes from the gauge/triplle tree mount point to the bottom of the riser?

I stink with electrical which is why I numbered all my wires so carefully when I pulled them apart. Dumb question how do I locate the horn and turn signal ground? How do I test it? If you could help me locate the ground for the horn/turn signals? Im just stuck at this point and I was so close to having everything working again. I have a multimeter but I dont really know how to use it. I have it set to 250 AC and get a 8 ohm reading at 15v off the battery? Again I do not know electrical.......(willing to learn).

Here are some pics of my model and the ground that I see.

 

[5twins]

The whole point of that ground wire in your 1st pic is to get to ground in the headlight which then can connect back to the frame. The way you have it now, that's not happening. I would run it into the headlight and attach it to the end of one of the turn signal stalks. Then it would combine with the turn signal ground wire already there, which connects to the black ground wire in the harness. Grounding anything to the triple trees in not good enough because they are suspended on bearings filled with grease. You get intermittent contact at best.

 

[gggGary]

Grounding anything to the triple trees in not good enough because they are suspended on bearings filled with grease. You get intermittent contact at best.

And the arcing eats the bearings.

 

[5twins]

Yes, that too, lol.

 

[estcstm3]

Bear with me as im new to this stuff. Im pretty young and this is my first vintage bike so there will be some growing pains, and things you guys feel are super obvious.

I attached a new picture, the red is how the ground wire is run currently (how it was before I took the bars and wires apart). The yellow is waht I believe 5twins was saying? Route the wire in the bucket and connect to the grounds off of the turn signal?

 

[5twins]

Well, almost ..... run it from your handlebar riser bolt to the turn signal. You're trying to get a good ground for the handlebars.

 

[estcstm3]

ahh i see what you are saying..... and that ground it was completes the loop for both the turn signals and horn correct? So that ground could be the cause of all my left hand issues correct?

 

[5twins]

Yes, it could be, unless of course, you did damage some wires pulling them through the bars.

 

[estcstm3]

lets see do I have it in this picture.

 

[estcstm3]

looked in the control and the solder points still look to be intact...i walked the pink horn line and didnt see any breaks if it is the wire.... Can you crush/pinch these wires? The only place I believe that could have happed is where the wires enter the bars by the controls. They go straight up and are pulled pretty hard to the right so that i can get my locating pin in the hole I drilled. Ideally I would have drilled the locating pin afew mm closer to the wire hole but I doubt that split any of the wires. My headlights which are in the same control bundle work fine....however theyare on the outside of the bundle in the sleeve and the horn and turn signals look to be the ones pushed against the hole....

 

[5twins]

Well, you sort of have the idea now but the wire doesn't need to be up on top by the bars like you show it. It can be hidden (as it originally was) underneath where you have the lower right red "X"ed wire.

 

[estcstm3]

makes sense. I did paint my riser pieces, Im guessing I should sand up where they make contact to the handle bar? Ill let everybody know how it works out tonight.

 

[5twins]

Yes, remove that paint where the clamps pinch on the bars.

 

[estcstm3]

Another thought, if this is just to ground the handlebars, wouldn't my right hand side controls not work? Additionally my lights in my left hand controls work, so what does moving this ground wire do for me?

I.E. how does this get my turn signals and horn working again?

 

[estcstm3]

okay so i was looking in the left hand control I still do not see how it grounds. None of the wires in the control are a ground.

I hooked everything back up today and the horn/turn signals still dont work. Also my rear break light and dash brake light are not working (using the rear brake), my new M/C still isnt hooked up.

im getting to the point of kicking the bike over im so frustrated.....any help is appreciated.

on top of that I hooked my tank back up and I can not kick it over..... yesterday I did the same thing and it kicked over but one of the throttle cables was tensioned so it was ideling at like 4k so I had to quickly cut it off... Not sure what changed between yesterday and today concerning kicking it started. Its one of those days.

 

[gggGary]

If I remember correctly the 75 grounds the handlebars with a ground wire under the bolt that holds the riser into the bushings in the top triple clamp, I think that wire goes inside the headlight bucket and connects to the other grounds. On the RH side only the start button needs a ground. Does your starter work?