No lights

[kik]

Hope someone can point me in the right direction. 2000 FLHTC carbed, I lost all lights except for instrument panel. I replaced the fuses for lights and accessories, The relay under the seat clicks when I turn the ignition on. The bike runs fine just no lights at all, no signals or brake lights running lights, nothing. Thanks for any help.

[smoserx1]

I can't see the wiring diagrams here but I am  thinking yours and mine (99 FLHT) are close enough.  Listen carefully and see if that relay you hear when turning the ignition switch is actually coming from inside  the fairing.  If so read on and remove the fairing and the relay.  The relay should be on the right side and attached to a bracket.  Look for contact 30 (bottom of relay, prongs are labeled) and identify the incoming wire (it will be red).  Check for voltage coming to contact 30 when the ignition switch is on.  Should be +12V.  Plug the relay back in to the harness.  Next locate the fuse block and find the fuses labeled ignition, instruments and lights.  Check for +12V on the entrance side of each fuse.  I think the entrance side is the out most side, but removing the fuses will leave no doubt as only one side will have any power.  If these tests all pass you likely have an open circuit the lighting path electrically downstream of the fuse block.  You will likely need a wiring diagram, but anyway post back what you find.

PS...second thought...just go to the fuse block first and do that test.  No need to check the relay if that passes.

[FSG]

the lights and the instruments fuses get their 12V from the same source i.e. keyswitch ignition relay

check the input to both fuses

[kik]

Thank you for your input smoserx1 and FSG, I got it all figured out, but not until after I pulled the fairing and the bags...LOL....Dummy me....Someway somehow, my front tire got hold of the wiring to the front fender lighting an caused it to short out...OK, got that fixed, but I still didn't have lights...I had changed out all the fuses in the fuse block, just because I hadn't done it in a few years, well come to find out that my son had gotten into my fuses. He had a bunch that he had blown out on his bike, and instead of throwing them away he put his blown fuses back into the box with the good fuses....normally I check the fuses I'm installing but this time I didn't and it came around to bite me in the butt. It's all good now except for me putting everything back together, and yes I did make him go out and buy a new pack of fuses and go through all the fuses with a volt meter in my old pack and throw out the bad ones.....Kids, guess I didn't teach him as well as I thought I did.

[Fugawee]

Good Catch.  Don't forget to tell Your Son that You have a whole bunch of spare fuses, that He can have, and put in His tool box.

[kik]

Good Catch.  Don't forget to tell Your Son that You have a whole bunch of spare fuses, that He can have, and put in His tool box.

His toolbox???  His toolbox is whatever he finds in mine....Here a couple of years ago I complained so much about missing and broken tools that he broke down and bought me a new box loaded with sockets and wrenches, I thought great, he's learning...I didn't touch them for over 6 months and I opened it up one day and over half the tools are missing, I found some of them rolling around on the floor of his truck, at that point I packed up that box of tools opened his truck and placed them on his seat and told him that considering he had over half the tools in his truck he can have the other half back. He still goes after my tools....I just told him, I'm not replacing anything so if he loses or breaks them it's on him, because the tools will be his inheritance once I'm no longer here....he's a good son, just lousy at maintaining tools.

[Fugawee]

I hear You about the tool thing.  Not with a Son, but one of My Nephew's would always come by and put the bite on Me to borrow tools.  I would always have to remind Him that He had My stuff...which I got back.  His tools consisted of a claw hammer, pliers, and one or two screwdrivers.  All junk.  A couple of years later I bought Him a small Craftsman Mechanics Tool Set, to solve this problem.  He had a banging noise coming from under His car, and didn't want to drive it.  Off I go, get under the car and look around.  I said to Him, go get Me Your tools, which were still in the plastic/molded case.  I open it up, and there are about 6 sockets in there, and that's it.  I ask...where's the ratchet?  Where are the wrenches?  Uh...I'm not sure, He says.  Now I go home and get My stuff.  I wanted to give Him a kick in the butt.

[smoserx1]

This is bringing back an old memory.  A long time ago I read a bulletin or something about the fender tip light wiring doing what happened to you.  Apparently some of the fenders used plastic wire clips that attached to the underside with adhesive and could come loose (mine uses metal tabs) but if you don't just love that tip lamp you can remove the whole thing (wiring and all) and replace it with a tip emblem from a road king classic that did not use a lamp. Here is something else I have done to my bike:  Your fairing cap has switches for SPOT and ACC. and if you remove the cap you will find multi-connector 105A where it all comes together.  I removed the SPOT switch gray/black wire from connector 7 in the multi connector and insulated the now bare connector with heat shrink.  Then I removed the orange wire from the ACC switch connector 2 and inserted it into the now vacant connector 7.  Now my passing lamps run off the accessory circuit and are unaffected by the hi/lo beam switch, but the real beauty here is the passing lamps would remain on even if the lighting fuse were to blow.  You would lose use of that ACC connector under the seat but I never used mine anyway.

[FSG]

 

[kik]

 Your fairing cap has switches for SPOT and ACC. and if you remove the cap you will find multi-connector 105A where it all comes together.  I removed the SPOT switch gray/black wire from connector 7 in the multi connector and insulated the now bare connector with heat shrink.  Then I removed the orange wire from the ACC switch connector 2 and inserted it into the now vacant connector 7.  Now my passing lamps run off the accessory circuit and are unaffected by the hi/lo beam switch, but the real beauty here is the passing lamps would remain on even if the lighting fuse were to blow.


Smoserx1, Thanks for that tip. I already have the fairing off the bike, I may as well take this little project on.

[kik]

Well, I thought it was fixed, I guess not. I got it all back together, lights were all working, bike running, rode it across the lawn got off to recheck the lights and nothing was working, I'm assuming at this point it's a wire that must be shorting when it's jostled. I'm going to grab a couple of circuit breaker fuses so I can track down the problem without continuously blowing fuses....Now awhile back I changed out the incandescent headlight for an LED, I wouldn't think it would be causing this but I'll replace it with the original light 1st, but I'm leaning toward a chaffed shorting wire at this point.

[smoserx1]

I'm leaning toward a chaffed shorting wire at this point.

If the fuse is continuing to blow (especially with the bike in motion) it is almost certain a wire is shorting to metal somewhere.  It happened to me with an ignition wire shorting to a fairing bracket.  It will be next to impossible to fix without help from wiring diagrams and I cannot get the ones on this site to work for me anymore, but I have a service manual with them.  Anyway, the blue (BE?) wire that exits the lighting fuse goes to multiple connectors and ties into other wires (like a violet one for the rear lighting).  Any downstream wire connected to the lighting circuit fuse exit is vulnerable.  I never could have found my short without the wiring diagram.  The most vulnerable part is where the  harness bundle exits the tough black outer sheath before terminating to a multi-connector.  There are numerous examples of this under the fairing.  Places where the sheath runs along frame tubing is not normally as vulnerable but could still rub through, especially if it was ever removed and put back carelessly.  Harness bundles do not normally carry negative wires and two positive wires  shorting together inside the sheath does not seem like it would blow a fuse (might cause items to operate unexpectedly though).  Anyway, an exposed +12V individual wire rubbing through to the frame is virtually guaranteed to instantly blow a fuse.  Get those diagrams, study them well and have a good idea what you are looking for first.  It will save you a ton of frustration.

[kik]

Thanks for the tips smoserx1, I do have the service manual for the bike with all the wiring diagrams fro the various models. Hopefully this heat will die down a little bit so I can actually get out there to work on it without getting heat stroke....LOL

[kik]

Alright finally got a chance to get back at it. I found a wire in the main harness in the fairing was laying against the radio chassis, rubbed through and was shorting out. Its all fixed and put a few extra zip ties on the harness hopefully to keep it from happening again. Thank you guys for all your suggestions.