intermittent Headlights

So I get up this morning, get ready for work, head to the garage and start the bike. Purrs like a kitten. As I am putting my jacket on I notice I have no headlight!!! I figure it must be the bulb is burned out so I figure that I will just ride today with the high beam and get an new bulb at lunch..... except, no high beam either. Funny little light is on though. Check fuses, all good. Hmmmmmmmm......

End up driving the car today and as soon as I get to work I find this thread. Excellent!

Funny thing is, I have had this exact problem on several Hondas I've ridden over the years including my previous bike, an '82 GL500I. Clean the started switch and all is well. I guess I didn't think about it on the NT because it has been so flawless. Never a problem, never even a hiccough.

Awesome forum, awesome bike
 
Spraying cleaner with the unit in place didn't help. Separating the top and bottom of the switch assembly and spraying cleaner in that way didn't help. Before I get further into it, is there anything else? All fuses are good but I left my service manual at work so I cant trace the circuit tonight.
 
The starter switch is common to both lights. The position light is separate from this circuit.
You might verify power is getting to the starter switch contact. Also is it possible you lost the ground connection? By the book the position light shares the ground but I don't know of the routing.

Brad
 
So I dug deeper, removed the metal cover plate thingy and discovered that the black wire with the red trace had broken off at the solder joint on the starter button. I cleaned things up, re-soldered it and all is now well! Has anyone seen that before?
 
I've seen that before on "well used" street / trail bikes but not on a pure street bike. The ones I saw looked like they were due to the housing holding in water as it was pretty damp and nasty :eek1: in the housing.
 
Im sure that my switch unit is just an oddball defect. Everything I have ever owned seems to have one oddball defect :doh1:
The switch unit itself looks like it has posts sticking up where the wires attach and the wires have a small metal ring to push/connect over the post. Then the whole thing is soldered. Looks like the post itself broke off flush with the top of the switch housing. If I hadn't forgotten my manual at work I would probably have jumped the headlight wires bypassing the switch. The light would have stayed on during starting but I doubt that would cause a problem unless the battery was weak.

The broken wire was the red/black trace wire so now looking at the service manual it would jump to the solid red wire. I also thought about wiring a small spst waterproof switch that would turn the lights on if my solder job doesn't hold. That may be overkill as an entire new switch assembly is only about $30 shipped
 
I had a problem with the headlight going out when I first got my NT. Still under warranty...the dealer couldn't replicate the problem and the problem went away...it was pretty exciting to be riding a dark curvy road and have the headlight go out..
going to work a couple days ago....dark, about 40 degrees, switched from low to high beam and nothing happened...tried it again and the high beam came on, once the hi-beam comes on, it will switch back and forth just fine, seems to occur when I'm just starting out and it's cold out. .....maybe I'll be spraying some contact cleaner on these switches in the near future, can't hurt.
 
swingshiftssuck said:
I had a problem with the headlight going out when I first got my NT. Still under warranty...the dealer couldn't replicate the problem and the problem went away...it was pretty exciting to be riding a dark curvy road and have the headlight go out..
going to work a couple days ago....dark, about 40 degrees, switched from low to high beam and nothing happened...tried it again and the high beam came on, once the hi-beam comes on, it will switch back and forth just fine, seems to occur when I'm just starting out and it's cold out. .....maybe I'll be spraying some contact cleaner on these switches in the near future, can't hurt.
Click to expand...

The problem is generally caused by the poor grease used by the factory. It hardens after awhile a prevents the starter button from fully returning to the out position. This is typically noticed when the weather turns cold...cold weather, stiff grease...Best fix is to open the switch housing, clean out the old grease and place some good quality dielectric grease on the mechanism.
 
[..Best fix is to open the switch housing, clean out the old grease and place some good quality dielectric grease on the mechanism...]


I agree completely. Spraying from the outside is such a hit-or-miss proposition.
 
Thanks for all this. About to check wiring for continuity and the remove left hand switch. Who knew that it wasn't the right hand starter switch. Saved me loads of time and frustration. Cheers all you wise onesšŸ˜€
 
40 years ago, I suffered an intermittent headlamp problem. Eventually, it was traced to a faulty bulb. Vibration loosened the glass envelope which rocked in the mount. Headlamp went on and off with neither rhyme nor reason.
 
Be advised that there are 2 relays behind the left side cover area that controls the headlight. To gain full access to these will require the complete removal of the left saddlebag housing.
 
You folks are wonderful.
I spent two hours looking at the bulbs, fuses. and switches before I got smart and looked at this forum.
Jiggling turned the lights on and the contact cleaner (hopefully) fixed it for a long time.
I am almost to 70,000 miles so it isn't too bad of an issue for nine years of riding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom