Noticed that my headlight was out the other day. Figured my Osram Silverstar had finally gone out, 6 years old, not bad life. Replaced the bulb, still no light, replaced with stocker, just to verify, still no light. Got out the DMM, but wasn't sure how the pinout worked, had 12v on the center pin, so had power. Found out the 3 pins are grd, low beam, high beam, so 12 v on the one pin was right.
Since I have no light, starting to suspect the ground is bad, but need to get the DMM back out not that I know the pinout.
I haven't read anything about this being a common problem, so appears that it's maybe a one-off, so could just use some advice on what to check for.
Running lights works, rear light works, TSs work, engine runs fine, appears to be localize to just the HL.
If it is the ground, its easy enough to verify, but don't really want to pull the wiring apart to find a flaw. Guess I could just run a new ground from that pin back to a grounding spot, but hate to just "rig" something up.
Silly question-but just to clarify-did you check both Hi *and* low beams? Both are out?
Do you have an owners maual to confirm the ground path?
Hop Along
Just a piece of advise.. I hooked up an aux light for a friend, had power, had ground, wouldn't light... moved the ground from the fork back to the frame, and it worked... guess there was ground but not enough to actually circuit that much power...
No low or high beam, thanks for asking, forgot to mention that. That's another reason I was suspecting the ground, but at the time I wasn't sure what the bulb pins were so did not check the high beam circuit for voltage. I will do that when I can get around to it.
As for a ground path, not sure if I have that in the manual that I have, I need to check.
Check your switch make sure the contacts are clean.
Quote from: Jerry G Turner on October 06, 2014, 02:50:38 PM
Check your switch make sure the contacts are clean.
Good call, Jerry. Not just the headlight switch contacts, check the run/kill switch and especially the starter button. I haven't checked the 3G Magna for the same design, but on my old 2G Interceptor they ran the power for the headlight through a normally closed contact on the starter button (starter is normally open on same button). They do this to kill the headlight draw so more power is available for the starter. If those contacts get gunked up - and they regularly do, especially if you ride in weather - they'll fail to make contact and won't pass power to the headlight circuit. You may be able to confirm by "flicking" the starter button a couple times to knock the gunk off and see if the light comes back on.
My Versys has a similar problem, but it's on the starter relay under the seat. I need to replace the relay to fix it. Flicking the starter button works for now.. :lol:
Quote from: v4_jeff on October 09, 2014, 04:26:13 PM
Quote from: Jerry G Turner on October 06, 2014, 02:50:38 PM
Check your switch make sure the contacts are clean.
Good call, Jerry. Not just the headlight switch contacts, check the run/kill switch and especially the starter button. I haven't checked the 3G Magna for the same design, but on my old 2G Interceptor they ran the power for the headlight through a normally closed contact on the starter button (starter is normally open on same button). They do this to kill the headlight draw so more power is available for the starter. If those contacts get gunked up - and they regularly do, especially if you ride in weather - they'll fail to make contact and won't pass power to the headlight circuit. You may be able to confirm by "flicking" the starter button a couple times to knock the gunk off and see if the light comes back on.
My Versys has a similar problem, but it's on the starter relay under the seat. I need to replace the relay to fix it. Flicking the starter button works for now.. :lol:
Good Call Jeff
Quote from: v4_jeff on October 09, 2014, 04:26:13 PM
Quote from: Jerry G Turner on October 06, 2014, 02:50:38 PM
Check your switch make sure the contacts are clean.
Good call, Jerry. Not just the headlight switch contacts, check the run/kill switch and especially the starter button. I haven't checked the 3G Magna for the same design, but on my old 2G Interceptor they ran the power for the headlight through a normally closed contact on the starter button (starter is normally open on same button). They do this to kill the headlight draw so more power is available for the starter. If those contacts get gunked up - and they regularly do, especially if you ride in weather - they'll fail to make contact and won't pass power to the headlight circuit. You may be able to confirm by "flicking" the starter button a couple times to knock the gunk off and see if the light comes back on.
My Versys has a similar problem, but it's on the starter relay under the seat. I need to replace the relay to fix it. Flicking the starter button works for now.. :lol:
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! ...and a mystery,,, at least to me anyway.
Finally got around to checking out my problem a bit more. After the advice everyone posted (thanks all, btw), I decided I would check the easy stuff first, you know KISS. First thing I tried was to turn the key on, then move the starter button around a bit, still no HL. I then pressed the starter button in some, just a vert small amount, and the HL came on. Great we know have our culprit. First I squirted some tuner cleaner into the gaps around the button and moved the switch back and forth. Still no light when button not pressed in slightly. Then took the housing off and got to the switch itself. Squirted some more cleaner on, in, and around it,,, still no HL. Figured I was going to have to replace the switch. Decided to try one more thing, loosened the switch, push it forward some and tightened it back down. Success, have HL now, and it doesn't turn on/off when messing with the switch and from riding vibration. Hopefully fixed for good, but who knows for sure.
The mystery, to me, is how I was getting 12v on the low beam HL connector pin if the switch was not allowing a complete circuit? I thought it might have been cuz the switch was on the current path after the HL, so when I grounded the HL pin with my DMM, it would read 12v. IOW, current was flowing from the battery to the HL then to the switch, if I completed the circuit on the HL to seperate ground, made sense I would see 12v. After checking the Magna wiring diagram though, this is not the case, current flows from the battery, to the switch, to the H/L beam switch, to the HL, to ground.
So anyway, problem appears fixed, but not sure why I saw voltage on the HL connector......
Just cross posting some to share information. I posted this same question and result on the other Magna forum, and received a response on the reason behind seeing voltage on the HL conector even though I had no light. Thought was that I may have had 12v, but there may have been enough resistance on the switch that I had little to no amps.
Also, the following link was posted on how to open the starter switch itself and clean the contacts. Not specifically for a Magna, but the pics and description matched what I saw in the Magna's housing.
http://www.rattlebars.com/mtz/starter.html