Electrical short - I think??

[Lawman]

On my 05 R1200RT where the six prong plug assembly plugs into the headlight receptical on the inside of the fairing to the back of the headlight assembly. Yesterday I noticed my lights were not working and traced the offending wire to the brown wire which is the on the lower right side of the plug. I can move it with my hand at the plug to make all the lights work, some of the lights to work, and none of the lights to work..Any ideas what it may take to fix it?

[Albert]

Billy,

I don't have any first hand experience with the plug in question so take this for what it's worth. Many multi-wire connectors incorporate individual connectors for each wire which are snap fit into the plug. I've seen cases where one of these individual connectors can slip out of it's retention mechanism and slide backwards when the plug is pushed on. You might try first unplugging the connector and visually inspecting the offending wire's interior connector. You should be able to see if the blade or receptacle (depending on the kind of plug), if further back inside the connector than the others. If that's the case, many times just pushing in on the wire will cause the connector to snap back into its lock. You can then just plug the connector back on.

 

Be careful removing the plug from the headlamp assembly as there is likely a locking tab of somesort that you'll need to disengage before the connector slips off. I'm sure you'll get some better advice than mine but this'll keep you from getting bored while you're waiting. Good luck.

[Lawman]

Thanks Al,

I've done that already and all looks good except I can see some discoloring on the interior connector that appears to have been caused from excessive heat..I did notice the plug getting very hot so it will be left unplugged until repaired..Thanks..

[Angel]

Hey Lawman,

No lIghts?

FYI: yesterday while shopping for a fuse block to mount on my bike... I came across a product that may help prevent this kind of random issue.

 

It was called liquid black tape... used to cover all exposed electrical connections.

Anybody have experience with this stuff?

[SageRider]

On my 05 R1200RT where the six prong plug assembly plugs into the headlight receptical on the inside of the fairing to the back of the headlight assembly. Yesterday I noticed my lights were not working and traced the offending wire to the brown wire which is the on the lower right side of the plug. I can move it with my hand at the plug to make all the lights work, some of the lights to work, and none of the lights to work..Any ideas what it may take to fix it?

 

What you are describing is an open circuit. That the offending wire is brown indicates that it is the common ground wire.

Causes could be:

1) dirty contacts. clean with plastic safe contact cleaner.

2) broken wire or bad contact crimp. inspect and repair.

3) damaged connector shell. replace shell. Investigate for cause of damage (heat from bad contact or heat from excessive load possibly caused by non-stock high wattage bulbs.)

[Ricoshay]

On my 05 R1200RT where the six prong plug assembly plugs into the headlight receptical on the inside of the fairing to the back of the headlight assembly. Yesterday I noticed my lights were not working and traced the offending wire to the brown wire which is the on the lower right side of the plug. I can move it with my hand at the plug to make all the lights work, some of the lights to work, and none of the lights to work..Any ideas what it may take to fix it?

 

A friend had the same problem with his 06-RT. A poor connection at that 6-prong connector on the headlight housing resulted in one of the low beams failing to light. The problem was that when the plug was inserted, the inner part of the housing mounted connector would recede into the headlight housing which resulted in a poor connection. He was able to get his finger into the inside of the housing to back-up the connector while we inserted the plug on the outside of the housing. I think he had to remove the rain cover from the back of the adjacent bulb to get access to the inside of the housing with his fingers.