Afternoon from Colorado,

My usually extremely bulletproof reliable XX is giving me headaches, maybe some one can lend some ideas. (I think she's pissed because her younger Suzuki roadracer sister has been getting more attention of late)

I did my normal spring tear down, clean up and fork rebuild this year. I did change the low beam bulb, as it had croaked last season. I put her upper faring back on, tested the new bulb. It worked brilliantly (Pun intended) and so did the bright bulb.

After completely putting the faring back on, I noticed that one of my turn signal bulbs was not glowing when the power was on. I did turn on when I turned on the signal on that side. Weird, but I was in such a rush to get riding that I blew it off.

20 miles later, I found that now both the signal lights work fine, but both headlights don't function. They are plugged in, the bulbs are both fine, the fuse is fine and I'm at a loss.

I'm wondering if I maybe pinched a connector when I re-assembled the faring.

The part that kills me is I live in Winter Park (Read- still winter here) and the XX is at a friends house in Denver (80 miles) where the weather is a bit milder. So I'm trying to gather ideas to try when I return to her, which should be later this week.

Help?

Originally Posted by Dodd

Afternoon from Colorado,

My usually extremely bulletproof reliable XX is giving me headaches, maybe some one can lend some ideas. (I think she's pissed because her younger Suzuki roadracer sister has been getting more attention of late)

I did my normal spring tear down, clean up and fork rebuild this year. I did change the low beam bulb, as it had croaked last season. I put her upper faring back on, tested the new bulb. It worked brilliantly (Pun intended) and so did the bright bulb.

After completely putting the faring back on, I noticed that one of my turn signal bulbs was not glowing when the power was on. I did turn on when I turned on the signal on that side. Weird, but I was in such a rush to get riding that I blew it off.

20 miles later, I found that now both the signal lights work fine, but both headlights don't function. They are plugged in, the bulbs are both fine, the fuse is fine and I'm at a loss.

I'm wondering if I maybe pinched a connector when I re-assembled the faring.

The part that kills me is I live in Winter Park (Read- still winter here) and the XX is at a friends house in Denver (80 miles) where the weather is a bit milder. So I'm trying to gather ideas to try when I return to her, which should be later this week.

Help?

I vote main connector between Frame (bike) and upper fairing.

Check your Regulator/Rectifier. Put a multi-meter across the battery, start the bike up and see what voltage you get. At about 2k revs, the battery should charge up to about 15V and then settle back down to around 14V. If it doesn' the reg/rect unit is screwed.

I had the same symptoms as you (blown headlamp bulbs - note, they may not look blown, but believe me they are) and my reg/rect was feeding 20V back into the battery. It is a common problem.

Reg/rect changed (about £70 from "Jaws"), no more blown bulbs, no more cooked battery and a happy me.

Hope this helps.

If is the R/R check this site:

Regulator Rectifiers, CDI Units, Rev Boxes, and High Output Stators - REGULATOR RECTIFIER

Thanks fellas, I'll try that this weekend. I'll post up what I find.

Dodd

This may be off target a bit, but, as I recall, the '99s and '00 bikes had documented electrical problems caused by corrosion in the main harness connector. I am not sure if the gremlins associated with the problem included lighting issues but it is worth a look at a wiring diagram.

Link:
1999-2000 Honda CBR 1100XX FI Light Fix

I saw a previous post about that, the connector under the seat? I'll try the r/r and given the results I'll take her down and clean all the connectors.
I can't help but think that I did something when I put the faring on I bunked something up. I've never had any problems with this bike.

Dodd, I doubt it's something that you've done. I will put money on it being the reg/rect that's at fault.

Toynut does have a point about the loom problem though. It is also documented on this site here. What these guys also say is that even if you don't have the loom problem, it's worth doing "the fix" anyway.

Well I think the R/R is ok, I'm not getting any voltage to either of the headlight plugs, and the bulbs are ok (I tested them with an outside 12v source)

Guess I'll try cleaning the plug thing. Man this sucks. My bird is down, my race bike's right side slider snapped off and broke the engine mount bolt in half, and today I broke a hardened steel extractor trying to remove it. Now I'm going to have to drop the engine to get at the head boss to see if I can get that thing out! AHHGGGH! Why are the motorcycle gods so angry at me?

Ok, there is no power at the light plugs, at the main plug or at the fuse block. The rest of the fuse block has power, so I'm at a loss. Help please! I know there has to be some reasonable explanation?

Originally Posted by Dodd

Ok, there is no power at the light plugs, at the main plug or at the fuse block. The rest of the fuse block has power,

I'm looking at the wiring diagram in my Haynes book and it looks like if the speedo, tach, turn signals, horn and starter are working, you should have power at the fuse for the headlights as they are all feed from the same feed.

Sound to me like the socket in the fuse panel for the headlight fuse is not making good contact. Try pulling the headlight fuse and check the power supply side on the fuse panel. It may take some probing to get a reading.

If still no power then something is wrong with the fuse box which seems unlikely but I guess it could happen...

I checked and there is no power at the block for the light fuse, but power everywhere else.

I broke down and went to a honda shop and picked the brains of one of the techs. He has been wrenching on hondas for 20 some odd years.

I told him what I had, what I had checked, the ideas all you fine folks came up with and he told me, "The switch". (High low switch)

So I'll take it apart and clean it, and report back

Originally Posted by Dodd

I checked and there is no power at the block for the light fuse, but power everywhere else.

If you have no power on either side on the headlight fuse you can stop right there. The dimmer switch, (high, Low beam), is feed from that fuse thru the starter switch no less.

You can try making a jumper wire, preferable with a fuse, and check the circuit by coming straight off the + terminal of the battery and going to the headlight curcuit side of the headlight fuse slot in the fuse box. This should power up the cucuit and if there are no problems with any of the switches, the headlights should work.....

If you don't have the manual for your bike, here is the link:
http://www.cbrxx.com/attachments/hon...ice_manual.pdf

THese things have all the wiring diagrams needed to troubleshoot a problem like this and are an invaluable resource as is the site...

Good luck!

OK I was mistaken about power at the fuse block, I wasn't probing enough. I used the jumper wire trick, and everything except the headlights powered up. This also happens when I turn on the key, indicating there is power where its supposed to be. I guess the next step is the headlight switch. Can anyone tell me how to test that?

Pull apart the connector by the dimmer switch and with the key on check for voltage on the blue wire with white strips from the harness. If you have voltage there it's probably going to be the main harness connector, the proverbial Achilles heel for that year.
Here the link to that fix:
1999-2000 Honda CBR 1100XX FI Light Fix

If no voltage there, then it's going to be the start switch as the the power for the blue/white wire goes thru it first.

As far as the dimmer switch goes it is used to activate the high beam only and the dims should work even if you unplugged it.

For what its worth, at the main harness connector the blue wire white strip is Low Beam, Blue wire black strip is High beam...

Good luck..