"yellow wire", "PMA", "Headight Relay" question

CoconutPete

1979 XS650 Special
Messages
955
Reaction score
497
Points
63
Location
Charlotte, NC & Denmark
I got my girl (79' Special) back on the road today. Did a bit of surgery while she was down.

Removed RLU (jumpered the two wires per instructions commonly available).
Removed Light-Checker (used new power supply from the wire recommended)
Installed TC Bro's PMA and did the associated removing of stock components.

My question is about the "yellow wire" which the new PMA doesn't have an equivalent of, resulting in no headlight after start.

I jumpered what I thought was the yellow wire (from the plug w/ about 6 wires) to one of the yellow wires coming from the PMA. I did not get a headlight on once the bike was running.

I figure there are 2 obvious possibilities:

1: I messed something up removing the RLU.
2: I jumpered the wrong "yellow wire".

So my question is this. Is the "yellow wire" the wire that's truly yellow that's part of the pigtail plugging into the headlight/safety relay combo on the 79?

Or ...

Is the "yellow wire" the wire that's kinda-sorta yellow, but not really yellow wire that has it's own connector that the old stator plugged into that came out of the factory harness on the left side of the bike right around the front corner of where the left side cover used to be?

Hope that makes sense.
 
Let's cut to the chase. Bypass the safety relay and either leave the lights on all the time or install an on-off headlight switch.
 
Yes, that's an option, but it's not the option I have elected to pursue.

The safety relay and headlight relay are one piece and I like the safety relay, so may as well keep the headlight relay in place.
 
I took a look at the harness last night.

The wire that needs to be jumped is the one that has a single connector outside of the harness right? I followed the wire from the old stator and it led to that.

Does it matter which yellow wire from the alternator it gets jumped to?

Will be playing with the volt meter tonight.
 
Any of the three wires from the stator can be used. Yes, the yellow wire you want is the one with a single plug next to the big plug that came up from the stock stator.
It's the only yellow wire in that area. The other yellow wires are in the brake lights. Power to the brake light switches on brown out to brake light on yellow.
Leo
 
Back
Top