I rebuild my bike after a few bodymods, and decided to take the controlunit for low-beam/high beam/blinkers and horn off, because I dont have blinkers or a horn.
So I took off the unit and wires, and used the yellow-white and Black-white cables as + and - for my new headlight (which is an H3 bulb).

Not sure if the above is the problem, but as mentioned in the subject; But when I put the key in the ignition and switch to on, there is no light on the front and none on the back. The brakelight works though.

Anyone?

As the old country boy said, you ain't gitten no far to it, you got to figure out why.

Thanks for the replies guys, I know that I should have known better than to just cut some wires...

For the record: I didn't do anything weird, the only mod on the electrical system is the removal of the dimmerswitch. I was hoping that someone would say that there are some wires that need to be connected and problem solved...

Well thanks for the next posts in advance!

I'll keep you posted, fon't hesitate to put your tips and trics here!

I don't know what you cut, or what year your bike is so I can't be more specific, but all you really need to do is find a wire someplace that has 12V at it when you turn the key on. Run that to one side of the headlight filament and connect the other side of the filament to ground. The light will be on whenever the key is.

Do you have a wiring diagram handy?  The white wire is the low beam and the yellow wire is the hgh beam......but only after the switch.  There is a wire leading up to the switch that brings the power up to the switch....and the Savage usually uses orange for power.  The thick yellow wire would power the headlight, and the thin yellow wire probably goes to the high beam indicator light.

Sounds to me like you need to get some power to the yellow or white wire.......they don't have any power if you removed the switch and did not connect them to something.

Also....Suzuki uses a color scheme on the Savage for wiring that makes some sense....although I don't have it all figured out.  Solid orange is power, if it is orange with a white tracer.....that means it goes though a switch and may not always have power unless the switch is in the correct position.  The yellow headlight wire with a white stripe means that it probably went through a switch.  The same for black wires......black with a white stripe means it is a ground that goes through a switch somewhere....it could be that on some of the later year bikes the headlight ground may be run through the starter switch - so the headlight goes out whe the starter is running......I don't have a wiring diagram here to confirm or deny that.

Not sure how the tail light is tied in.....I am at work and don't have a wiring diagram here.

check your connectors. same thing happened to me and the connector to the brake light was loose. pushed it in and bingo! laser vision.

Cavi Mike wrote on 04/23/13 at 11:43:26:


+1....Without a multimeter your working in the dark. Just curious, where are you located that no blinkers, horn, or low beam is street legal?

apache snow-FSO wrote on 04/23/13 at 13:12:18:


Crazy! Up here in Maine they are very strict