Headlight not working, indicators on permanently.

Bike started this morning but had no headlight, and all the indicators were staying on.
Rear light and brake light worked fine. Not what I wanted at 0430......any ideas?

are we assuming you've checked the bulbs arnt blown?

Bulbs are fine....

Fuses then Connectors would be my path.
STick your hand under the pillion seat and wiggle the main fuse connector, maybe something came loose.

By "all indicators are staying on" do you mean the direction indicator? if so all 4?

The only connection with the headlight and indicators is the black/white earth wire, are dip and main headlight not working? do you get a light pressing the pass button?
Unlikely to be a fuse, main and dip have separate fuses

Assumed it is a K2 curvy

Originally Posted by warmshed

By "all indicators are staying on" do you mean the direction indicator? if so all 4?

The only connection with the headlight and indicators is the black/white earth wire, are dip and main headlight not working? do you get a light pressing the pass button?
Unlikely to be a fuse, main and dip have separate fuses

Assumed it is a K2 curvy

its an sk3, direction indicator are on, indicator lights on dash are on, high beam (blue light) is on, but no main light, switch indicators on and there is a very slight blink on indi lights and dash

The feed to the main and dip have separate feeds and fuses. It is unlikely they are both faulty. In this case the only common link is the earth wire. I believe the fault is a broken or dislodged earth wire. If you remove the headlight bulb you may find the indicators will go out, this will prove it is an broken earth

Does the horn work? its fed by the same earth. Does the Pass switch operate the main beam?

yes the horn does work...no the pass doesn't..i did try it at 0430 this morning, what i thought it would do i dont know!
so a dodgy earth you think? is that an earth anywhere?? yippee

In industry when a wire connects to more than one place there is a legend that gives the "route" for the connections so you order the order it connects up, the SV wiring diagram does not do this. At first I would check out the earth wires from the headlight and the "console" area then under the tank, sorry cant be more specific.
It seems that the battery feed being put to the headlight bulb is going though the bulb to its earth wire but due to a break or high resistance connection it does not get back to the battery earth,so it means this "earth" has a voltage on it, feeding back through the other components connected to the earth wire run, ie the indicators thereby lighting them in revers if you see what I mean. You can trace this if you are handy with a meter, Place one meter lead on the engine casing and set meter to DC voltage range for 12Volts (normally a 20V setting) Now with the ignition on check the earth wires starting at the bulb, I expect to see a fault voltage, try other earth connections, when you dont see a voltage it means you are on the good part of the earth run. Doing this should give you some idea where the fault is ie where is goes from a voltage to no voltage, your fault is somewhere between the two. If you dont have a meter, wire up a small 12volt bulb, one side to the engine casing and the other as your probe, the bulb will light when you are on the faulty part of the earth run. Sound complicated but it isn't. have a go and good luck.

Originally Posted by frankie77

Bike started this morning but had no headlight, and all the indicators were staying on.
Rear light and brake light worked fine. Not what I wanted at 0430......any ideas?

hey frankie,

i had a problem similar to this a few days ago funnily enough. what it looked to be is the green plug under the tank in front of the airbox for the right hand side switch-gear (give the wiring loom for the RHS switch a pull and you will see). all the connections were corroded so i had the plug cut out and hard-wired. seemed to solve the headlights and my hazards as only 1 side was working. not saying this will fix it, but it does sound very similar to what i was suffering. hope it helps.

Ben.