05 Chopper Headlight Assembly Replacement

[japelfrey]

Hello,

Recently my wife surprised me with a replacement for the headlight assembly, it has had a big dent in it for several years and was beginning to rust.

Before unhooking everything, all worked properly, have the LED light from Curtis, it has been flawless the last 2 or 3 years.

The new housing came with the female plug and a fairly long cable, likely long enough to go back to the pins but I really didn't want to take the tank and all that off some times the easiest isn't the best lol

So I prepped everything and before I buttoned it up, I generically twisted the wires together to do a test before soldering and making things permanent. White (Hi Beam), Yellow (Low) and Black (ground). When I turn the key I get the blinking blue indicator on the speedometer and the fault lights on the ECM for HI/LO.

At first I figured that maybe the LED got broken on disassembly so I plugged in the new bulb that came with it and same problem remains. Clicking the Lo or Hi doesnt do anything either. What am I missing?

 

[1 B.M.F.]

On my 05 I had to wire black to black white to yellow and yellow to white. Try that. It worked for me

 

[japelfrey]

On my 05 I had to wire black to black white to yellow and yellow to white. Try that. It worked for me

I tried that a few moments ago and it didn't fix it. I still get nothing but the blinking blue indicator on speedometer and the 2 faults on the ECM.

 

[1 B.M.F.]

You might disconnect the the negative side of the battery and let it it sit a few minutes to reset the ECM. If all you did was unplug the old, cut and re-wire the 3 wires. I don’t know it wouldn’t be working unless you turned the key while the light was unplugged and it showed a fault light for the headlight. You might Also try this. Turn key on. Hit run button. Then turn key off. Wait 30 seconds and it should reset. I read that on here this morning. If that doesn’t work I would start looking at where you spliced it together and go towards the tank and see if you have a wire that has rubbed through and it wasn’t noticeable until you moved the wires.

 

[1 B.M.F.]

Any luck??

 

[japelfrey]

I've not had time to get to anything under the tank, I plan to tackle it this weekend though and I will report back any findings or pics. Thanks everyone

 

[japelfrey]

So I've had this thing laid up this whole time

Back to the troubleshooting. I believe I will end up having to take the tank off. With both fault lights flashing on the ECM, I have disconnected the battery and connected back up after a few minutes. I have noticed that referencing the diagram, it appears the items from bus 1 aren't working. on the2005, do you have to have the bike running for the horn to work?

 

[japelfrey]

It seems the next step is definitely going to be to remove the tank

I took off each of the EHC connectors and put some fresh dielectric grease in them. (I have my battery disconnected)
I took continuity readings from pin connector (with proper flexible pin connector on multimeter) to spliced wires that exit the tank before entering the head bulb assembly. My owners manual reflects the pins below.
Inputs B41 High Beam, B25 Low Beam
Outputs: B38 High Beam, B39 Lo Beam
I didn't read a short on any of these pin connections. I did this with key off and key on (eventhough battery is disconnected)

I also have a Kzyee KM10 probe and kit, I can successfully get the lo and high beam to come on from where my splice is through the female and male connection to the LED bulb using it to supply the voltage.

So the only thing left is from the B connector to the spliced area, something had to have been pulled lose or something. Any suggestions? Did I miss a step above?

Any tips on removing the gas tank? I didn't see very many posts about it when I searched.

 

[1 B.M.F.]

Horn should work with engine not running. Tank removal is a snap cut fuel off unhook fuel line from petcock then remove 4 bolts on bottom side of tank. Just watch how spacers come off. Then carefully remove the cross brace while holding tank so it doesn’t move. Really nothing to it.

 

[ShaggyCRMC]

I replaced my headlight connector with a porcelain one and when I did my light that was working fine would not work. Found out the wires were pinned incorrectly in the new porcelain connector. Swapped them to match the old and it worked. Worth a look.

 

[japelfrey]

I'm still nervous about taking that tank off it may be a few days before I can get to it.

@shaggy, I luckily still had the old plug I cut out and verified it to that one. I believe that there is some kind of connector that came unplugged while I was trying to get some slack from under the tank. I am not getting any continuity from my yellow and white to plug and I am not getting any from the black to the negative side of battery cable

Thanks for everyone's feedback, this community is what makes these bikes so special! I will update with what I find under the tank, I will make sure it isn't 8 months from now lol

It's about time for some hard core maintenance, part rebuilds etc to get my dog back up and barking again.

 

[ShaggyCRMC]

Tank is super easy to take on and off. Gas line and four allen head bolts. Lift off.

 

[chubs]

Dumb question, but have ya got a ground continuity from the twisted splice to the headlight bucket mounting bolt ?

 

[japelfrey]

So I ended up not having to take the tank off!! There was a wire connector that I pulled loose while trying to get slack on the wire to prep the splice. Luckily my wife has some smaller hands because these sausages weren't able to get to it, she made it look easy. So plug connected, all fault lights clear and I will be soldering connections today and mounting the light back together. I am so stocked I didn't have to pull that damn tank off.

I know it will have to come off eventually because I need to do the liner, I will double check all the under tank connections then and police up any broken zip ties etc.

@chubs, not a dumb question at all, that is actually what made me hunt more because I didn't have that continuity, I already knew from the harness up I didn't have it, the ground just caused me to dig more. Thank you everyone for always giving some solid extra eyes and thought to the issues posted.