Hello Everyone,
I originally posted this in the cruiser forum, then thought better of it and posted here as well.
I own a 1998 LC1500, recently purchased used through a dealer (2400 original miles, runs like a dream. Original tires, about to replace them due to weather checking). This bike is clean, and I have been over it a couple of times looking for major defects. None, well... one found so far.
The bike came with bags, windshield and accy light bar. I thought I had a bad headlamp bulb because I had no high-beam. I pulled the bulb today and it ohm'ed out fine. Took the voltmeter to the bike to check the high-beam circuit... hmmm. When the switch is in low-beam mode both power feed wires (high and low beam) complete the circuit. On high beam the circuit is broken on both feeds.
Now, here is where it seems strange to me. When I checked the polarity it appears that the "common" (that I would normally refer to as ground) wire is actually the hot or positive wire, and the other two (high and low beam feed) are the "ground" or "negative" wires. So if I am reading this correctly someone has cross-wired the headlamp to be a "positive ground" circuit and that is why the high-low beams do not function. My thinking is that whoever put the accessory lamps on botched it up, but I looked at their wiring and it looks very clean, not cobbled together.
Any ideas before I start chasing down a problem? This bike is "negative ground" correct?
I originally posted this in the cruiser forum, then thought better of it and posted here as well.
I own a 1998 LC1500, recently purchased used through a dealer (2400 original miles, runs like a dream. Original tires, about to replace them due to weather checking). This bike is clean, and I have been over it a couple of times looking for major defects. None, well... one found so far.
The bike came with bags, windshield and accy light bar. I thought I had a bad headlamp bulb because I had no high-beam. I pulled the bulb today and it ohm'ed out fine. Took the voltmeter to the bike to check the high-beam circuit... hmmm. When the switch is in low-beam mode both power feed wires (high and low beam) complete the circuit. On high beam the circuit is broken on both feeds.
Now, here is where it seems strange to me. When I checked the polarity it appears that the "common" (that I would normally refer to as ground) wire is actually the hot or positive wire, and the other two (high and low beam feed) are the "ground" or "negative" wires. So if I am reading this correctly someone has cross-wired the headlamp to be a "positive ground" circuit and that is why the high-low beams do not function. My thinking is that whoever put the accessory lamps on botched it up, but I looked at their wiring and it looks very clean, not cobbled together.
Any ideas before I start chasing down a problem? This bike is "negative ground" correct?
