New to Buell & I may have ****ed up my XB12R already

[XB12argh]

Brake light would'nt work, pulled seat and some connections to test, then the majority of fuses, now the bike has no sign of life, needles on the gauge cluster are stuck halfway up and I have no Idea what I did wrong. I removed the negative cable and still nothing.... please someone help,
Thanks....
(oh yea, I'm an idiot when it comes to working on bike, but very mechanically inclined... on cars)

 

[dave_xb12r]

Double check your grounding. These bikes are really picky. Sometimes fuses look fine when they are really blown. Do a continuity check on all fuses.

 

[XB12argh]

[confused]

Dave,
I thought I did, I'll go out one more time and run through it again, I just took both connections of the battery and made sure they were secure and pulled the main fuse, everything fine so far, I'm very upset with myself, bike was running great w/the exception of the faulty brake light... now, no signs of life
Is this some security feature or something,
Thanks,
-ERIK

 

[XB12argh]

Man, good advice and boy am I embarrassed, you were right, the 15amp key switch fuse wasnt plugged all the way in. Solved it[smirk] Got any advice on that brake light, doesn't come on at all when front or back brake is depressed, I read and noticed the brake light switch is above my rear brake on that banjo bolt, is that difficult to replace?

 

[dave_xb12r]

This may be dumb for me to even mention, but are you sure you hooked it back up right (+ to + and - to -)?

 

[Ronin1]

Check the battery cables themselves, one of mine pulled right out of the crimped (so they said) terminal. I re-crimped all the cables and added heat shrink to them.

Jim

 

[XB12argh]

Yes Dave, Yes Ronin
Not dumb comment seeing how I had failed to put back a fuse correctly, got any advice on that brake light switch?
Thanks guys,
I appreciate the timely response of these, it really helps...

 

[ASH]

N ot sure about your back brake switch, but Buell's are bad for the front brake switch to go bad on the XB's. Like $9.00 switch from the dealership.

 

[XB12argh]

easy to change???

 

[dave_xb12r]

check the bulb?

 

[upthemaiden]

the light bulbs in tail lights have two filaments, one for normal light and one for the brighter light. Did you check to make sure the bulbs are actually good? They might just need replaced.

 

[XB12argh]

Yea checked that, both were good but changed it anyway

 

[Rays]

The brake light has power supplied via the front brake switch or the rear brake switch. Both of these are wired separately to the Brake/Horn/Muffler Actuator fuse so it is unlikely to have two switches / wiring failures on the power side.

Does the horn work? If not double check that 10Amp fuse.

On the XB12X at least the duplication is up to the connector where the tail light itself plugs in so double-check that point to the tail light (if you haven't already done so).

Just do things carefully and not all at once - absolutely no need to go into areas that aren't impacted, remember the first oath for a doctor - 'Do no harm'.

The ground connection in the rear is common to the tail light and the brake light. So if the tail light works then that should be OK for the brake light.

To dig deeper, the connections to the front brake light switch are reasonably easy to get to and if you unplug then from the switch and bridge them with a piece of wire / paper clip etc (with the ignition switched on), very easy to test the circuit.
The connections to the rear switch is tucked in behind the heel guard but it can be tested the same way.

 

[XB12argh]

Hey Rays good info,
I unplugged the back switch ans bridged it, light came on.. havent messed with the front one yet, horn works fine... will I have to bleed the rear brake if I take off that switch?

 

[ophawk]

Just test the leads from the rear, continuity test see if you have voltage key on/ brake off to one of the leads, key on brake applied voltage to both leads.

 

[Rays]

Haven't pulled it off myself but it is a pressure switch as I recall so you probably would need to bleed the brake.

The front switch is much easier to remove as it is mechanical. I recall reading somewhere that it is the same as some Japanese bikes (Kawa ZX11 maybe?).

As posted above the genuine HD supplied switch isn't super expensive.

You might be able to resurrect it with WD40 if it is the switch itself.

You have beaten the odds by having both switches inoperative - perhaps one has been crook for a while and went unnoticed with the other working?

 

[XB12argh]

probably right,
I'm gonna go pull the front one off, I'm up late anyways, dont have to work till late tomorrow, hope you guys stay up late, you're like buell dictionarys, thanks

 

[dave_xb12r]

where do you live XB12argh?

 

[Rays]

It is mid-afternoon in Australia and I am trapped in front of my work laptop as an IT duty manager so it is no trouble at all.

This is an unpaid, at-home gig so I can duck out to the shed and reference one of the Buells if need be.

 

[XB12argh]

Austin Texas,
and yall?
Nice rays, glad to see productivity