I have the following problem with my bike: The main beam light stays on on the instrument console. The indicators are permanently on, the switchgear does not operate them, the horn or the main beam. The lights are not on. The brake light and rear light are operational. It put itself right then as soon as I indicated the main beam light came on. The horn sometimes switches the engine off. I have replaced the switchgear and disconnected the battery but still have the problem . The bike starts and runs fine apart from this. Does anybody know what's causing it?
Hi chap, dont know where the earth points on the rr8 are, but this definately looks like an earth problem. What you need to do ithink is strip the fairings off, particularly the front and find any earth points that are being used. They need to be bare metal and clean and tight. The way to check these with a multimeter and do volt drop rests. That is put the meter to dc volts. Put one probe onto battery neg and the other on the earth point that you are checking. Max allowable reading is o.2 volts. If you have anything higher you have found your problem. Ie a high resistance in that particular earth path. This is normally paint, dirt or loose connection. Or could be complete open circuit, in which case you will see full battery voltage. Dont forget when you do these checks you need to have load switched on. Having the ignition switched on will do. Hope this helps
Thanks for your quick reply racman. Can anybody advise where the earthing points are? Removing the fairings on that bike is a right pita.
Hello, as far as know they all share the same earth directly under the seat it's difficult to miss once the seat is off.
I'm not that up on electrics but the bike starts fine and the rear/brake light work fine. Would these work if it was the main earth?
hi ,the main earth would be the one from the battery to earth ,the one under the seat is a collection of individual wires all with eyelets on them and all held on by one 6mm bolt I would start by cleaning them all up and see how that goes .
Possibly, cos if it cant find its own earth, electricity will find the path of least resistance, ie any other earth path, which is why you need to check them all
Thanks to racman and all the gear for your help. Found the earth point under the tank, cleaned and refiited the earths but it did not work. I removed the left hand side fairing disconnected and cleaned the electrical connections and it cured the problem, for now
