Newbie needs advice - throttle and electrical

[ricosmodernlife]

Hello everyone, thanks for having me on your forum! I've already read a bunch of great articles and also found my bike's manual on here, which was a huge help!

Currently, I've noticed a few odd things about my bike that I was looking for advice on.

One thing is that when I turn my bars to the right, it seems to engage the throttle a bit. I was going to just take apart the throttle assembly and figure out if the cable is getting caught somewhere - but if anyone has any further advice on this or a link to a how-to, that would be great!

Another thing I noticed just yesterday is that my lights get brighter as I accelerate and my brake light is stuck to always be at it's brightest. I'm assuming that's possibly a wiring issue or maybe has something to do with my stator. Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BBS360]

Your throttle cable is adjusted too tight. It should have enough slack that turning the handlebars doesn't affect the rpm.
http://www.xs400.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13974&highlight=throttle+adjust

Not sure about the lighting brightness. The stator does generate more power as the RPMs increase, but whether that would noticeably affect brightness someone else will have to say.

Double check the wiring diagram in the manual and compare to your brake light wiring.
Probably yellow and blue wires to the brake lights. Double check both ends of the harness. Double check that you have the correct bulbs installed.

What model of bike? Do you have any pictures?

 

[ricosmodernlife]

Thanks! I'll take a look at all of that tonight when I'm at my buddy's shop. I have an 81 XS400s. I attached a picture of the bike for ya!