So, after a long winter's sleep I noticed the other day that when I went to take the bike for a ride to work in the wee hours of the morning that the headlight and front signals were flickering on and off, thankfully not much traffic and as I reached forward and pushed/pulled on the wires coming from the throttle side the lights stayed on.

Made a mental note to myself that I should really check that out when I get a chance, but as most those notes to myself go...didn't do it and now it's reared it's ugly head again.

This morning I went to ride to work again and noticed the headlight wasn't even on when I turned the key, so I remembered that note to check the wiring  

I took a second and pushed/pulled on those wires again and where they go under that side of the fuel tank. Low and behold I feel that connector under the tank and the wiring comes unplugged from the harness. I thought to myself that it's almost light and I will have to take the tank off to plug that back in, I wonder if the bike will run with it unplugged...found out it won't. So either at lunch today or sometime tonight I will need to pull the tank to get the wiring plugged back in before I can ride again. I just hope that's the extent of my "intermittent electrical" problem.

Just ranting because it's a beautiful day and my highlight was going to be ridding the bike back and forth to work, but instead I'm stuck in the truck today.

So, I'm a little more than bummed to find this out...I took off the tank at lunch to reattach the plug that had come loose and the headlight didn't come on. If I bent the wires leading into the plug from the handlebar side it would come on, but I wasn't able to identify a single wire/connection that was causing the problem.

Here is the plug that I'm talking about...I rolled back the rubber grommet that covers most the plug to try and see what wires are in there.


Then the 2 pages of the wiring diagram from the Clymer...
The 10 wires leading into the plug appear to be from this image (none of them are related to the headlight though  )
Any suggestions on where to go from here? I'm pretty sure it must be on of these wires, but it's not clear to me which.

Dave wrote on 03/17/15 at 12:44:34:


Not very likely...I was actually unplugging this harness plug and plugging it back in as the lights came off & on
(This is all with the plug on the right hand side of the bike if you are sitting on it facing forward)

EJID:

I had the same problem with mine and then one day the headlight would not come on at all.  I used to play with the wires that go to the connector at you took the picture of.  Take a look at the metal inside each side of the plugs.  Two of mine were visibly corroded.  I had to cut and splice 3 wires around the plug.  I can go look and tell you which ones, if you are interested.

Best regards,

This happened to me. I went through all the harness checks - same thing - intermittent power - no pattern to what was causing it. It would work fine, then stop. Turned out to be a dirty battery connection.

Some of those connectors really look corroded.

Yes, you can remove the wire and connector.

The connector has a small tab, and when it is pushed in from the backside the tab clips into a small slot and locks it in place.  You have to insert something small into the backside to release that clip.  The connector will have a small groove on one side where the clip goes...insert a paper clip, small wire, small screwdriver into that slot and see if you can get the connector to release.

It may not be real easy the first time - but once you get it figured out it will go faster the second time!

OH...I forgot the most important part!

You need to insert the pin, paperclip...or screwdriver on the side facing away from the wire end.  That will allow the clip to release so the connector can slide out the side the wire is on.

So, I finally had more than 5 minutes to look at this and try to fix it, but was unsuccessful  

DAVE: You said that you need to push a thin item like a paperclip or small screwdriver in the backside to release the connector.

Looking at the connector in this picture, I tried several different ways of pushing a stiff paperclip & also a small jeweler's screwdriver from the right side/along the wire trying to release such a clip. Am I just getting too frustrated with it, or am I trying to do something wrong? Any other suggestions?

Even though it snowed here again today, it's supposed to be nice weather later this week and I would like to start riding on a regular basis again.