sidelights not working

[BristolFJ12Russ]

Hi people,

So after 6months under a tarp my FJ fired straight up but I have a few electrical niggles, at first the indicators werent working.  I checked for damage to wires and connections, everything fine.  Anyway next day indicators now work!

Drove to a friends and about to come back at night and i notice that my sidelights arent working, realise im not going anywhere and turn key all the way left and walk away - then see that the tail light is now on?  is that a parking light function?

Anyway looked again today - indicators still fine, that parking light function not working and still no sidelights front and rear.  Brake light and headlight working on normal and dipped.  All other electrics working.  I checked the bulbs and they are ok.

Is there some kind of relay that could be at fault?  wiring generally looks in pretty good shape but electrics are witchcraft so i need help!

ah sorry realise i have posted this in the wrong section, will try and delete and repost

[red]

Hi people,
So after 6months under a tarp my FJ fired straight up but I have a few electrical niggles, at first the indicators werent working.  I checked for damage to wires and connections, everything fine.  Anyway next day indicators now work!
Drove to a friends and about to come back at night and i notice that my sidelights arent working, realise im not going anywhere and turn key all the way left and walk away - then see that the tail light is now on?  is that a parking light function?
Anyway looked again today - indicators still fine, that parking light function not working and still no sidelights front and rear.  Brake light and headlight working on normal and dipped.  All other electrics working.  I checked the bulbs and they are ok.

Bristol,

There is no one relay, but I suspect that you have bad grounding for those lights (which may or may not decide to work).  Check every place that the ground wires connect to the chassis or the battery terminal (negative side).  Connect a dedicated new ground wire to the lights, if you can not find a problem area, and see if that will "fix" the problem.  You might also unplug and re-connect the lights' grounding wires a few times, to clean any corrosion from the connectors.

Some bikes have a "parking light" function at the ignition key.  If you turn OFF the key one click too far, the bike is OFF, but the taillight will be ON.  This is usually a useless drain on the battery; then you would have a dead battery by morning.  Otherwise, you may have a sticky brake lever (hand or foot), which does not come to the fully closed position.  Clean and lube the hand and foot lever pivots, and insure that they do go fully to the "rest" position.  It is also possible that the brake light switch (either one) is sticky or faulty.  Clean or replace a bad switch as necessary.

Keep us posted.

[Motofun]

When doing all that unplugging re-plugging, don't forget to use a little dielectric grease and save yourself future rework.

[great white]

Sounds like you've got a little corrosion in a connector somewhere or at a grounding point. Trace the wiring back from the light and check the connections.

[red]

When doing all that unplugging re-plugging, don't forget to use a little dielectric grease and save yourself future rework.

Motofun,

Dielectric grease, as the name plainly says, is an insulator.  Most greases are insulators.  Better to use silver-conductive grease, which prevents corrosion also, and makes much better connections.  You do not need much - that silver stuff can migrate, causing other problems, but a little goes a good  long way.  It's fine for ground connections, but not for power leads.

[great white]

The reasoning behind using dielectric grease is you can fill the connector without shorting the various pins in the connector yet seal out oxygen/water that causes the corrosion. The pins are in contact with each other and that's what gives you your electrical continuity, regardless of what you fill the connector cavity with. So if you want to seal a connector from the elements and prevent corrosion, dielectric grease is what you want to use, not a conductive medium.

40+ years as a mechanic, aircraft technician, flight engineer and mobile electrical engineering. Got a little bit of a clue as to what I'm talking about here....

[red]

The reasoning behind using dielectric grease is you can fill the connector without shorting the various pins in the connector yet seal out oxygen/water that causes the corrosion. The pins are in contact with each other and that's what gives you your electrical continuity, regardless of what you fill the connector cavity with. So if you want to seal a connector from the elements and prevent corrosion, dielectric grease is what you want to use, not a conductive medium.  40+ years as a mechanic, aircraft technician, flight engineer and mobile electrical engineering. Got a little bit of a clue as to what I'm talking about here....

great white,

You should not be filling any connector cavity with conductive grease, of course.  An artist's paintbrush on the female pins alone is all the conductive grease you need there.  I have similar work experience, maybe a bit longer, but each rider can decide for their own gear.

Clean new pins are always the best choice, anyway.  You can get "import" connectors and pins for our bikes from a number of Internet houses.  In many cases, only the pins would be replaced, in the original connector housings.

[great white]

The reasoning behind using dielectric grease is you can fill the connector without shorting the various pins in the connector yet seal out oxygen/water that causes the corrosion. The pins are in contact with each other and that's what gives you your electrical continuity, regardless of what you fill the connector cavity with. So if you want to seal a connector from the elements and prevent corrosion, dielectric grease is what you want to use, not a conductive medium.  40+ years as a mechanic, aircraft technician, flight engineer and mobile electrical engineering. Got a little bit of a clue as to what I'm talking about here....

great white,

You should not be filling any connector cavity with conductive grease, of course.  An artist's paintbrush on the female pins alone is all the conductive grease you need there.  I have similar work experience, maybe a bit longer, but each rider can decide for their own gear.

Clean new pins are always the best choice, anyway.  You can get "import" connectors and pins for our bikes from a number of Internet houses.  In many cases, only the pins would be replaced, in the original connector housings.

Actually, I prefer to remove the original "unsealed" type of connectors (ie: molex type used by the OEMs) and replace them with the "weatherpack" type connectors. Fighting corrosion is all about keeping the environment out of the junction as much as you can. Packing them with dielectric grease is one way, replacing them with better connectors is another (and more permanent). The only place replacing them doesn't work is where the wire bundle terminates in something like a module or cluster. Evne then, there's a way around it, but much more involved than most on these boards would want to get into....

[Charlie-brm]

The reasoning behind using dielectric grease is you can fill the connector without shorting the various pins in the connector yet seal out oxygen/water that causes the corrosion. The pins are in contact with each other and that's what gives you your electrical continuity, regardless of what you fill the connector cavity with. So if you want to seal a connector from the elements and prevent corrosion, dielectric grease is what you want to use, not a conductive medium.

40+ years as a mechanic, aircraft technician, flight engineer and mobile electrical engineering. Got a little bit of a clue as to what I'm talking about here....

That's correct. I was questioning this very thing but that was long ago and not for long. I looked into it through sources outside of hobbyist chats. On a microscopic level, there is metal to metal contact that displaces the dielectric. That's all that matters - contact equals conduction. The dielectric grease everywhere it remains is doing its job. If you want to get bored some evening, study "Tribology."