No electricity running to headlight thru fuse box now what??

Hi all XS400ers,

My headlight is not working. The secondary light is though. I changed bulbs no difference.

I tested the fuses all working. The fuse box shows a lack of electricity running thru the headlight section of the fuse box. All other sections receive some charge. I have included some images.

I wanted to shift to LED for my headlight but I first have to work out why no electricity is running thru headlight part of fuse box... as per images.

What is the next step?? Replace fuse box??

The 0 reading on the headlight fuse section of the fuse box.

Are you checking it with the motorcycle running?

Not running but ignition on. not for these photos. (battery on recharge at the moment) But I did yesterday thru the opened up headlight lamp and the headlight wire was still reading 0.

There is a relay that does not energize the headlight circuit unless the motorcycle is running, or at least an attempt to start it has been made.

Video footage with motor running and my 8 year old on iphone camera duty... Had to upload to youtube to get the file to work.

You're using your meter wrong. Testing across the fuse like you are, in the V setting of your meter, tests for a voltage drop across the fuse.
A 0 reading is ideal. Your headlight fuse gets the best reading out of all of them, but that could be because both sides are 0.

Test with the black lead on a solid ground point or the - on the battery.
Test both ends of the fuse holder with the red lead. You should read battery voltage on both sides.
If you read battery voltage on one side but not the other then either the fuse is blown or the terminals holding the fuse are corroded.

The 12V reading you got in the video indicates the same thing.

It's pretty common for surface corrosion to cause problems. A very light sanding made mine work again.

Here is some footage by someone who knows what they are doing for newbies like myself....

took my footage down... thanks for the tips....

Jaycar did not have the 10A 2ag fuses the thickness to match the original fuse holder length and diameter unfortunately.

I went to Jaycar and got new fuse holder to see if I can bypass the faulty headlight section of the original fuse holder.

I have been checking Mikes XS etc for the fuse holder.

Not a bad video. A non-autoranging meter like yours would have sped up the readings they were taking.
Pretty interesting how much the voltage drops between the main fuse and the accessory fuses.

Quite a few members have removed the stock fuse box entirely and put in a blade fuse holder. Some of the new fuse boxes even mount to the stock fuse box screw locations.
I was able to find some low profile mini fuses and individual holders that fit in the stock box but it took a fair bit of work to do, plus some 3d printing ordered online.

There are also reproduction OEM style fuse boxes.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/232031333692
or
http://www.ebay.com/itm/381343155763

I bought this fusebox on amazon. Bolted into the stock location.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003JPCZAQ/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hi all and thanks all, I finally got that "hell yeah" feeling this morning. Installed the new fuse setup I built yesterday... and now have main headlight working!!!

So after identifying the problem with the fuse box and in particular the headlight fuse section I decided to by pass the existing fuse box altogether. I had two problems - 1. bad connection on the headlight fuse. 2. Age and wrongly sized fuses had made fuse box and subsequently the fuses poorly functioning in general.

I tried to buy the shorter 20mm fuses but no store locally had the diameter to match my existing fuse holder. Longer wider fuses had been used to make do and had stretched thin metal of the fuse box clamps. It also meant that the power was held in place by a few mm rather than the full width of metal on the fuses. While trying to tighten one of the fuse holders grip on one of the fuses, ended with the clamp cracking. Typical of nearly forty year old skinny metal pieces.

I simply went to Jaycar electronics and bought some same guage wire, heatshrink, and the best value waterproof fuse holders. I got the marine grade fuse holder for the 20A fuse to make separating the 2 types of fuses apart. The marine grade even has a led light to let you know if you have blown the fuse. The other 3 fuses all use 10A fuses so I keep the holders all the same. The initial built is pretty rough but I have ordered the replacement fuse box as suggested by "bb360". I will upload images later today and we can all laugh at the awkard but functioning solution.

Here is the new fuse box bypass....

Nicely done.
I was kind of wondering if the mismatched fuses would be contributing to the problem. Glad it's sorted.
I couldn't find stock size fuses anywhere in town. Ordered a few on eBay before switching to the low profile mini blade fuses.

Let us know how the repro fuse box works out.

So after a month or so of putting it off, I finally pulled the rectifier and regulator off the battery basket. The regulator was visibly old and the regulator wire I noticed had a crack in the casing and bare metal was exposed out the side. This crack was where the metal clip that held the regulator wire against the frame. Not the best idea to use a metal clip to hold wire?? So in that spot the aged wire rubbed through. I thought perhaps this was the source of battery drain.

I tested the rectifier and uploaded a video. It actually seemed to be okay. I taped up the regulator wire with 3 layers of electrical tape.

So it took the bike for a test run up Mt Cootha this afternoon.

Headlights working. Bike starting easy as after recharge of battery. Strangely enough I decided to start with no fuel on and it started easier. I suspect the issues with the one carb is getting worse causing flooding. Parked on a hill too seems to cause flooding of the carbs.

Fun ride.

Until the time I went to use the horn and no horn???


PS Tomorrow came and went and worked on bike this morning. Battery dead so another recharge.... aaaarrrrggghhhhhhh

On my bike the stock regulator rectifier only seems to charge above five thousand rpm. Which is fine for high speed cruising but around town it can be hard to keep the battery charged.

Interesting you wrote that about the 5000rpm. Most of my riding is less than 3 suburbs... home to work... occasionally nice cruise up Mt Cootha or Mt Nebo.... so that definately could be a factor .... bike is not starting at moment so its something more serious than a battery....

I just received a replacement fuse box from Ebay and of course the chinese version did not work.... aarrrggghhhh

PS my home made fuse system got the headlight working.

Saw in the other thread that only the headlights worked with the new fusebox?
Could be miswired at the connector. If the main and headlight were mixed up you might only get the one thing working.

I got the headlights working once I rewired my make do fuse system. But still the battery is an issue where it does not recharge. Got a day off work and I am working on it today.

Check the winding resistance. under the seat is a bundle of 3 white wires, and OHM the the of them out. as well as check for grounding.