Diff'rent Strokers

[nomoregt4]

Evening guys,
I have a Yamaha TZR 125 R 4fl & I have a problem with my front side light & rear light illumination. This is the only thing stopping me from booking an MOT!!!

Front side light & rear light do not illuminate when the switch is to the on position.
Dipped & main beam light work, passing/flash button work, indicators work, horn works & the dash light works.

The rear brake light comes on when the foot brake/hand lever is pressed.

Any ideas why these don't seem to be working? I've had the switch unit off today & all seems fine.

There can't be that many fuses on this 125 & if it were a fuse blown, then I'd imagine the whole lighting system wouldn't work.

Can anyone give any help at all please?

Many thanks,

Richard.

[bobbyboy]

Richard,

Does the switch have 2 positions? 1st for side lights and 2nd for main?
If so, I can only see the 1st switch position contact at fault.
You say the switch is ok, but it doesn't take a lot for the contact surface to be poor. Try some vaseline on the contact surface too, it can help, honestly!
_________________
www.taffmoto.co.uk for your replacement fairing panels

[nomoregt4]

Hey Bobby,
Thanks for your reply. Yes the switch goes from the off position to the sidelight position, then to the main headlight.

Inside the switch housing looked all clean to me, but I guess there could be some contact issues with the first position for the side lights.

However, I would have thought the rear light would have come on when the switch was flicked to the front main light?

[bobbyboy]

Please dont take this the wrong way, but are the lamps ok?
On double element lamps, 1 could fail and the other work.
I'm presuming that the tail lamp is a double, so the brake lamp could work, but the night light could be u/s.
It'll probably be something like a 12v 5w/21w.
Your headlight could have a seperate, small 12v 15w type lamp thats gone too.
_________________
www.taffmoto.co.uk for your replacement fairing panels

[nomoregt4]

Yes the bulbs are all ok. I've checked the rear bulb & both elements are fine. The front side light is separate from the main headlight. I removed the old blown side light bulb & replaced with a new one.

[Howie]

This sounds very much like an earthing problem.

I'm not familiar with the Tzr125 though. I would trace the earths to side lamp & tail lamp just to rule out any corroded connection.

Its the fact your side lamp/tail lamp will not illuminate on either positions that leads me to think it cannot be the switch on the bar.

Check for green oxide on the bullet connectors too.

[nomoregt4]

Right, bit of progress made in garage today. I found out from my mechanic that the ignition has a 'parking light' setting (like you see on cars like VW's & Audi's when parked on the roadside).

Get to the position on the ignition where you lock the bars to one side, then turn key one more notch to the left & the front side light & rear constant light work, woo-hoo!!!!

But, they still don't work from the main switch unit.

My mechanic said it could be a faulty ignition switch & then continued to baffle the hell out of me with descriptions of wires going every where

There are two 'plugs' under the riders seat & one of these 'clicks' when turning on/off the ignition. Is this the ignition switch?

[StrokerBoy]

That clicking plug is a relay, basically another switch where one circuit is used to switch another. Normally used so that a thin wire low-current circuit (like those going to your bar switches) can energise a high-current circuit needing fat wires.

[2TV owner]

Just going to add my thoughts on this one,

If you have got the lights working via the ignition switch you have proved that all of the wiring from the lamps back to the switch area are good. All of the earths for the respective lamp units are good and both bulbs are good. This goes right back to one of the first posts that suggested that the prblem lies within the main lighting switch.

If you look at the colour of the sidelamp wires at the lamps and then trace them back to the ignition switch (both lamps will have the same colour for the feed). What you could do as a short term fix is join a wire through an inline fuse from the ignition switch at a point that is live when the ignition is turned on, to the sidelight circuit. This will give you sidelights all the time that the ignition is turned on, the headlamp will still work as normal as will the main beam. this will pass an mot as the tester can not fail the bike for not being able to turn the sidelights off. If you can post a picture of a diagram for the bike or send a link to where there is a diagram i will gladly help out tracing your problem.

Hope this helps

Justin

[nomoregt4]

Hi Justin,
Thanks for your comments. I'll mess around with the main switch on my days off & maybe source a second hand switch to see if that will work.

If not I'll try & find a wiring diagram & take photos of the actual wires on the bike & post them up for you.

Thanks again for your help Justin

Rich

[2TV owner]

Hi Rich,

No problem. Thinking about it if you look at where the switch joins into the loom, somewhere behind the headlight i assume. you will have all the wires associated with that switch. You will have one wire that will be live (12volts pos) all the time that the ignition is on usually red (this is assuming the lights will work with ignition and not only when engine running). this wire feeds all the functions of that switch so side headlight and main shuld be powered by the red wire. Side light wire could possibly be blue with a red tracer so if you join red to blue/red the lights should work this proves the fault is with the switch contacts. If you can find a diagram tho it will back this up. Try google images. hope this helps

[nomoregt4]

PM sent 2TV

[nomoregt4]

Another PM sent Justin