A little while back, the headlight on my NH just stopped working, both high and low beams. You say you tested the headlight and it works. So did I. I'm going to assume that this means you got the headlight and 2 pieces of wire and touched them directly to the battery, yes? That should mean you have already figured out which connectors on the bulb are + and which is the ground, even if you don't know which is high or low beam. Next you need to attach a wire to the + on the headlight connector in the headlight bucket to take power from it. The ground you take off the frame, not the push-on connector. Run a ground wire from the bulb to the frame or back to the ground on the battery if you have a long-enough wire. See what happens. In my case, the bulb came on, which meant my ground was bad on the push-on connector to the bulb even though it looked fine on visual inspection. I cleaned and jiggled and pushed on the ground until it was making contact again and viola! working headlights, high and low! Your mileage may vary, but that's my story. Now I'm an electrical semi-idiot.
On Monday, June 25, 2012 5:30:25 PM UTC-4, clkcrawford wrote: > > I'm an electrical idiot. Never gotten my hands dirty in my life UNTIL I > bought my 1985 Nighthawk 450 a couple weeks ago. Wasnt running and now its > running like a champ thanks to forums like this and the Clymers. Now the > last two things that I CANT figure out. My horn and headlight are not > working. Already tested horn and headlight individually so I know its not a > problem with them. I have tried studying and analyzing the wiring diagram > in my clymers and it might as well be instructions to deactivate a nuclear > bomb thats written in german. I have no clue what it means and the only > time I've tried messing around with stray wires sparks flew like 4th of > July and I burnt my fingers. SO...my question is this..where do I start and > what do I check? You might have to use caveman language with me because > even "check the terminals for a bad ground" means absolutely nothing to me > cause I have no clue what those are. Only shop around in my area that will > do the electrical on this wants $90 an hour just to look at it. Trying not > to go that route. I apologize for my idiocy but I'm sure most people > understand that everyone use to know nothing and that happens to be the > stage I am in. If you need more info let me know I can post and reply > pretty quickly. Thanks and I'll post some pics too if need be. On Monday, June 25, 2012 5:30:25 PM UTC-4, clkcrawford wrote: > > I'm an electrical idiot. Never gotten my hands dirty in my life UNTIL I > bought my 1985 Nighthawk 450 a couple weeks ago. Wasnt running and now its > running like a champ thanks to forums like this and the Clymers. Now the > last two things that I CANT figure out. My horn and headlight are not > working. Already tested horn and headlight individually so I know its not a > problem with them. I have tried studying and analyzing the wiring diagram > in my clymers and it might as well be instructions to deactivate a nuclear > bomb thats written in german. I have no clue what it means and the only > time I've tried messing around with stray wires sparks flew like 4th of > July and I burnt my fingers. SO...my question is this..where do I start and > what do I check? You might have to use caveman language with me because > even "check the terminals for a bad ground" means absolutely nothing to me > cause I have no clue what those are. Only shop around in my area that will > do the electrical on this wants $90 an hour just to look at it. Trying not > to go that route. I apologize for my idiocy but I'm sure most people > understand that everyone use to know nothing and that happens to be the > stage I am in. If you need more info let me know I can post and reply > pretty quickly. Thanks and I'll post some pics too if need be. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/nighthawk_lovers/-/UWqJe6HaiFAJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en.
