Electrical woes

colab

Been Around the Block
My bike (cb750) had been working fine and I decided to clean up the wiring. Added an LED headlamp and noticed that high/low beam function was swapped. Went to start it up and the bike lit up for a second but then the neutral light in the display dimmed and became very faint as if the battery was dead. Tested the battery and it seems to have a full charge.

Fuses seem ok.

Do I have a short? Or is this a symptom of a rectifier or stator problem? I don't know where to begin.
 
When you change something, and stuff doesn't work, then change it back to see if that problem goes away.


If the problem goes away then you know it's something to do with the changes you made.


Otherwise you start thinking of other problems it "might" be and next thing you know you've spent $$$ changing out stuff that still works.
 
The swapped high and low is curious. But I'm more concerned with the bike behaving as if the battery is dead though the meter indicated a full charge.

When I install the battery and turn the key the neutral light comes on at full brightness for a second but then quickly dims so it's barely lit.

This is true with or without the headlight installed.

I've cleaned the terminals with a wire brush and looked around for any obvious signs of a short. But I don't know what to do next.
 
Without some more information, its very difficult to provide an answer. The symptoms you're describing could be dozens of different things.

Was everything working before you made any changes? If so, what did you change? Try undoing it and see if anything gets better.
 
Everything was working after the changes. But after I charged the battery it started acting up.
 
Double check the connections for the battery terminals and make sure everything is clean and tight.
 
Battery was showing a full charge as per the charger... but it was actually not holding the charge. New battery... Problem solved.

That said, I might rewire the bike to clean up the mess. Is installing a new wiring harness relatively easy to install?
 
It's not too bad, but count on a full eight hour day if it's your first time. Tank and tail usually have to come off the bike along with the dashboard and headlight, depending on make, model, and year.
 
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