CL350 headlight and other wiring questions

[gtxtom]

I'm making decent progress on my bike and I thought I was done with the wiring, but I have a couple issues at this point.

1. My friend gave me a headlight/bracket from a '66 Harley. I shortened all the wires and put in a 3-way (lo-off-hi) toggle switch. The problem is in key position 1, the switch works normal. In position 2, the light is on regardless what position the switch is in. Is there any way to get the switch to work as designed in position 2?

2. In sticking with that, I can't get the gauges to light up when the lights are on. I tested the headlight out on my work bench and the gauges did light up, but now I'm not seeing it. Any ideas?

3. I have some extra wires and just want to confirm that I don't need them. There's a black wire that 2 more wires could connect to, and a green wire. I have removed a bunch of stuff like starter, signals, etc. and I thought I got rid of all of the unnecessary wiring, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything before removing the wires. They're right by the coil and ignition switch wires.

 

[mydlyfkryzis]

You have something crosswired.

The tailight is connected to the ignition switch. TL2 in the schematic, and is a brown wire. the brown wire is powered when the ig. switch is on, or in park (The 2nd position).

The Headlights and rest of the lights are on with TL1 and Ign on the switch, which is brown and white (TL1) and Black (ign).

Since I don't know what switches you kept or removed, I am not sure what wires go where.

But, The headlight control should be on the Black Wire. The Dash lights on the brown and white wires.

You really need to get a schematic so you can visualize what wires go where.

Your "Dashboard" switch should be high and low beam only, no dash lights. The ignition switch controls the instrument lights.

Without knowing what you wiring you removed, though, it's hard to tell what you have...

 

[gtxtom]

I have been studying the diagrams a lot. So do I need a tail light hooked up for the headlight and/or gauge lights to work properly? I didn't have one installed while testing the headlight. Like I said, the headlight switch I installed works normally in position 1 so I would assume that it is wired correctly.

 

[mydlyfkryzis]

sounds like a feedback....the headlight switch should be on the Black wire, not anything else. that is the position 1 on the switch. Position 2 on the switch has power on both position 1 and 2.

The green wires are ground. You may have the ground and low beam mixed up.
Green is ground.
White is low beam.
Blue is High Beam.

The blue wire is siamesed, it also goes to the High Beam indicator, However, you may have that disconnected?

The taililght, since it is on a different circuit (TL2), should not affect the headlight at all, unless you crossed the wires up.

 

[gtxtom]

That's how I have it wired. The headlight is grounded to the case, the white wire is low, the blue is high, and the black is common power.

I took the wires and bulb out for the high beam indicator.

I'm just having a hard time figuring out why the switch is completely useless in ignition position 2 only? For example, the bulb on the bike right now doesn't have a high beam. It's a single filament bulb. In position 2, with the headlight switch set on the high beam or any other position, the low beam is still on. I know the switch is wired properly, but don't know what else is affecting it.

 

[SONICJK]

For what it's worth when I have my ignition switch in position 2 nothing works either. Never understood what it is for anyway?

 

[gtxtom]

So I don't need to have the key in position 2? I just assumed it was like a car where it had to be in the furthest position to start.

 

[SONICJK]

Nope starts and runs in position 1. Won't run in position 2 anyway.
It's apparently "parked" mode, I guess if you pull over on the side of the road at night you use that key position to leave the lights on so people can see you.

 

[Flugtechnik]

^ Truth


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[gtxtom]

Oh ............... :-[ lol

Ok, now I just need to figure out why the gauge lights are inop.

 

[SONICJK]

Gauge lights are easy,
Basically you can do one of two things,
Connect the black wire from the gauges straight in line with the headlight, that way anytime the headlight is on the gauges are on.

Or you can just hook them to any black wire on the harness which should turn them on all the time. This is the route I went when I had gauges, you can't see the light in the daytime but it's nice for around dusk when the light isn't quite needed yet

 

[gtxtom]

Well ... lesson #2 learned. Just because all the gauge bulbs were working for a couple seconds doesn't mean they all won't blow ... Check the bulbs first.