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Upon starting both head and tail lights burn constant. Holding throttle just above idle and the lights brighten up a bit. When blipping the throttle to higher RPM’s the lights "flicker"…bright/dim/bright. When holding the throttle at the higher RPM’s the lights will intermittently flicker on/off. Both headlight and tail light flicker simultaneously. The flickering is random in frequency…almost like a loose connection.

I will add I am currently having a switch issue. The switch does not consistently click on/off. I’ve pulled apart the switch and cleaned it hoping to correct the issue. It got better but is still not right. My next step will be to remove the switch from the equation…jump out the switch.

That said…could it be something else? Lighting coil, voltage regulator, etc…

Any thoughts? Just looking for ideas before I dig deaper. Hopefully it's the switch.

Thanks, Toby

What year is your bike, Toby?

juliend wrote:What year is your bike, Toby?

2000, 220cc

It's not the switch. I unplugged the wires from the switch and pluged the lighting wires directly together...so the lights come on automatically with starting.

The same thing happened again. The flickering on/off at the higher RPM's is VERY quick and does not happen everytime.

Any thoughts on what to try next?

Thanks, Toby

Check for bad connection/short to ground or broken frayed wire from the stator yellow wire to the switch or the red wire from the switch to the
lights being broken or shorted to ground.

Check regulator operation, look in the book for that one.

If that is not the problem measure the ac voltage from the yellow wire
to ground using an analog voltmeter on a 250 ac scale and watch for the
same results as the lights flickering but the needle bouncing around.
If that happens problem will exist in the stator winding or the wiring between the stator and where you have connected your meter.

TWMOODY wrote:Check for bad connection/short to ground or broken frayed wire from the stator yellow wire to the switch or the red wire from the switch to the
lights being broken or shorted to ground.

Check regulator operation, look in the book for that one.

If that is not the problem measure the ac voltage from the yellow wire
to ground using an analog voltmeter on a 250 ac scale and watch for the
same results as the lights flickering but the needle bouncing around.
If that happens problem will exist in the stator winding or the wiring between the stator and where you have connected your meter.

TW...

I checked my grounds and they all appear tight. Much of my wiring is covereded so I didn't dive into that effort just yet.

I decided to check ac voltage at the stator wire connection under the seat. This is when I realized my digital meter is only selectable between 200/750 scale. Even though at the wrong scale I still attempted to see fluctuations on the throttle. Set on 200 the reading bounced between 26 & 28 at idle. On harder revs I seen numbers as high as 75-80. The readings swung so fast with throttle I couldln't hold anything steady...not to mention I was having trouble holding the leads and giving it throttle.

I need a better meter.

In the process I also hooked my switch back up. You can tell a noticable difference in idel speed when turning the light on/off.

Would any of this information shed any light at all on possabilities?

Maybe the stator itself is shorted. Pull the flywheel and look for a damaged wire in the coil.

The reason I didn't tell you to check grounds was that the lighting system uses separate grounds for front and rear but your problem is affecting both lights at the same time so the ground side of the picture is not your problem.

As stated before use an " Analog voltmeter " cheap, 6-8 bucks quality made in china type meter to check that voltage. You need to be able to see the needle sweep back and forth if there is a problem and the digital will
not show you that.

Slick_Nick wrote:Maybe the stator itself is shorted. Pull the flywheel and look for a damaged wire in the coil.

I'm far from the "electrical guy" but that's what I was thinking. I figured if the stator was trash I wouldn't have any output but a slighlty damaged wire...vibrating under higher revs could possibly be it.

Your stator thread and videos are inspiring but at the relative costs I'm tempted to just buy a new stator and voltage regultor and install them. After all this is a "new to me" bike and to me I can justify replacing these items than cannot be readily fixed with a wrench in the middle of no where.

TWMOODY wrote:The reason I didn't tell you to check grounds was that the lighting system uses separate grounds for front and rear but your problem is affecting both lights at the same time so the ground side of the picture is not your problem.

As stated before use an " Analog voltmeter " cheap, 6-8 bucks quality made in china type meter to check that voltage. You need to be able to see the needle sweep back and forth if there is a problem and the digital will
not show you that.

You know...I may have a cheapy laying around here somewhere. I need to start digging. Thanks.

Well...I found the problem...I think.

Two days ago I called Ricky Stator.com to research stator options...they tell me no way its the stator rather the voltage regulator. I bought a $20 universal voltage regultor from them.

The next day I talked to Jeff Fredette while ordering some supplies. He says, "no doubt it is the black wire attached to the side of the headlight bulb socket. It's loose and losing connection."

I checked the headlight wire last night. Nope. Headlight wires look good...not to mention this didn't make sense due to both lights are flickering yet are on seperate ground wires.

Tonight the voltage regulator shows up. Nope...same thing.

At this point on my ADHD kicks in and I switch thoughts. Tomorrow I'm picking an LED for the rear so I decide to pull the rear tail light bulb to see how bright the headlight burns without it. I pull the bulb and take note the bulb is a 1073, 12v/23w. The headlight gets bright...and to my suprise the head light is no longer "flickering" on the throttle. I then put the bulb back in and still no flicker.

I pulled & replaced the bulb a few more times, switch back-n-forth between the regulators, took a few short rides...no flickering.

So there was a short in the connection to the rear bulb. Neat.

Toby from MO wrote:Well...I found the problem...I think.

Two days ago I called Ricky Stator.com to research stator options...they tell me no way its the stator rather the voltage regulator. I bought a $20 universal voltage regultor from them.

The next day I talked to Jeff Fredette while ordering some supplies. He says, "no doubt it is the black wire attached to the side of the headlight bulb socket. It's loose and losing connection."

I checked the headlight wire last night. Nope. Headlight wires look good...not to mention this didn't make sense due to both lights are flickering yet are on seperate ground wires.

Tonight the voltage regulator shows up. Nope...same thing.

At this point on my ADHD kicks in and I switch thoughts. Tomorrow I'm picking an LED for the rear so I decide to pull the rear tail light bulb to see how bright the headlight burns without it. I pull the bulb and take note the bulb is a 1073, 12v/23w. The headlight gets bright...and to my suprise the head light is no longer "flickering" on the throttle. I then put the bulb back in and still no flicker.

I pulled & replaced the bulb a few more times, switch back-n-forth between the regulators, took a few short rides...no flickering.

You obviously disturbed the short to ground.
Most likely in the tail light socket.