[JDerrick]

Would a front turn signal off of a 1982 Honda cm450a work on a cm450c. They look the same on eBay and mine just went out today. They said they only have five left.
Hopefully someone can answer my question soon. I've never seen a police car while riding my motorcycle until tonight. I went past a city police car and a state police car, but they both let me go by without incident. I'm really not interested in breaking any laws.
Peace to everyone!

 

[JDerrick]

Well hell, my running lights are out now except for one. All of the turn signals work. That that one light is always on, the left front side.
I guess it's time to call it quits on this motorcycle. Because I don't have the money to try to trace down a wiring problem. I guess I'll just try to ride it until I get a ticket. Save up for a newer used bike in the meantime. Hopefully I can find one that looks as well as this one within my budget.
I was just beginning to have fun riding. I am very sad now. I don't want to call it quits though. I may take it to a mechanic and ask him how much he will charge to try to find the problem. If he can give me a reasonable estimate I Will have him try to do it.
Yesterday when I was riding in the sunshine. I thought only my front Right light was out. But then this morning when I checked them, only the left front one was on. As I said before, all the turn signals are working. But they won't stay on for running lights.
It seems there are two elements in each light. One that stays on all the time and another one that goes on for turns. I'm willing to listen to any advice on this subject.
Thanks.

 

[WintrSol]

You say 'running lights are out now except for one'; aren't there just two, shared with the turn signals up front? How many more, and where, are any others?

Have you tried just cleaning the bulb socket with a stiff brush and contact cleaner, then replacing the bulb with a new one?

 

[JDerrick]

You say 'running lights are out now except for one'; aren't there just two, shared with the turn signals up front? How many more, and where, are any others?

Have you tried just cleaning the bulb socket with a stiff brush and contact cleaner, then replacing the bulb with a new one?

Well the four "turn signals" usually stay on all the time. That is what I called the "running lights" And then an extra filament within the bulb turns on when the turn signal is turned on. The rear two and left front "running lights" are not coming on now, when I start the bike. The left front light comes on though, as soon as the key is turned on, as did the others, prior to me noticing the problem.

 

[RogerC60]

Well the four "turn signals" usually stay on all the time. That is what I called the "running lights" And then an extra filament within the bulb turns on when the turn signal is turned on. The rear two and left front "running lights" are not coming on now, when I start the bike. The left front light comes on though, as soon as the key is turned on, as did the others, prior to me noticing the problem.

Try what WintrSol said. If that doesn't fix it, then you need to start tracing the wiring.

 

[WintrSol]

It is unusual for the rear signals to also be running lights, unless a previous owner added that. Are the lenses red at the back? If not, it's technically not legal.
In any case, if cleaning the sockets doesn't help, you probably have a broken wire where they all come together; that is often in the headlamp bucket for Hondas. If a PO added the wires and sockets to make the rear signals into running lights, you'll probably find a splice that doesn't look like it belongs, especially if it has unmatched wire colors.

 

[JDerrick]

Thanks guys! My next day off, which is Friday only, I'll try to do what you told me. I don't see how three lights could go bad at once, without it being wiring though.
I will start by trying to clean the sockets though.
After thinking about it some. It happened recently and I layed the bike down in a parking lot Sunday. They may have come loose when I layed down the bike. Or a wire may have snapped.

 

[OldVet66]

Check your voltages if the filaments in any of those bulbs are blown. Overcharging can do that and would also affect bulbs that are on all the time faster than any others. It can also affect the headlight if the voltages are high enough. I had the same sort of thing happening on my bike before I sorted out the electrical system when I first got it.

 

[JDerrick]

Check your voltages if the filaments in any of those bulbs are blown. Overcharging can do that and would also affect bulbs that are on all the time faster than any others. It can also affect the headlight if the voltages are high enough. I had the same sort of thing happening on my bike before I sorted out the electrical system when I first got it.

Thanks for all the advice. I checked the bulb on the front, with a multimeter. Then I checked the other bulb that was known to be good. I measured the ohms on both of the filaments. And sure enough the one on the right was bad.
So I went to the local AutoZone and got a new bulb.
The lights on the back were never coming on. Unless I turned the signal on. But I checked them and they only had one element, so I guess they were never bad after all! Duh...
I am now so happy again! I haven't layed my bike down this week either. Thank God! Hope and pray everyone else here is doing good!

 

[hogcowboy]

You did good figuring out things with your multimeter. Some just give up and take it to a dealer. Nothing wrong with that but it's so much more rewarding when you can figure stuff out yourself. No matter how simple it seems to look later.:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[RogerC60]

The lights on the back were never coming on. Unless I turned the signal on. But I checked them and they only had one element, so I guess they were never bad after all! Duh...
I am now so happy again! I haven't layed my bike down this week either. Thank God! Hope and pray everyone else here is doing good!

That goes back to what WintrSol said about rear signals not being used as running lights. Glad to know you're legal :smile:

And congrats on keeping it upright! Prayers back at you, too.

 

[Critter]

Feels good figuring it out doesn't it?

 

[JDerrick]

Feels good figuring it out doesn't it?

Yes it does feel great figuring out something electrical on a bike! I had some electronics training in the Air Force back in 1980. So minor electrical problems won't be too hard to figure out.
And I have held my bike upright all week again!
The shifting lever has been welded and has been a little bent by me laying down the bike on the left side. So right now I am having to "kick" and "stomp" it into gear, instead of just flexing my ankle. I have bent it back, some, but don't want to bend it back so far, that I'm going to break it. I think I found a new one on eBay but I'm not sure if it will work. I'm waiting for replies to that question on another thread. Or I will call a couple companies, that I found out about, by googling it. They are for different bikes but hope they are interchangeable.

 

[R&dcycles]

When lights come on at times when they are not supposed to or turn off when they are supposed to be on with known good bulbs grounds can be an issue. Current flow is simply a difference in potential, not just a positive/negative thing. So if you have a bad ground for example in the lighting circuit current will try to find a way to ground. Like all things in nature current is lazy and will ALWAYS find the route of least resistance. This route may be the filament of another bulb that shares a common power lead what you get is the bulb with the good ground now fields the current for both bulbs, which will make the well grounded bulb to be brighter than normal, but the other to be on but dim. Look for the dim ones wiring. Under normal circumstances the resistance of the other bulb is higher than the route to ground as designed so the feedback issue described before isn’t an issue, but it’s a great troubleshooting tool when things do go wrong.

Always check voltages on all terminals of a bulb socket. If you attach the black lead of your meter to the - terminal of the battery (not just to the bikes frame) and probe ALL the light socket including the outer shell which is usually ground, you can see if there is any stray voltages where they don’t belong.

So for a typical blinker/running light socket you should see from the battery - to the center 2 pins 12v and to the outer shell 0v. This is normal. But if you see say 5v on the outer shell, it is still a lower potential so the light will light up, but there is an issue here where another circuit is back feeding some voltage back through looking for a ground. This is also why you use the battery and not the frame as this stray voltage may be residing on the frame, which will show 0v from frame to shell and maybe close to 12v at the center elements. I hope this isn’t too confusing, if it is let me know what part and I will try to reword it.

It’s best if you can download a schematic of the bike’s wiring or the separate circuits to assist in finding where everything goes. Laying a bike down, then suddenly gremlins pop up... first you need a friend to buy you a bell, then start looking in the area where the gremlins were able to jump on (ie where the bike hit the ground).

Hope this helps.