Jenn's 1984 xl200r Rehab - Part 1 - electrical

Been a long time since I have posted anything here...  have to remember how it all works.

testing testing



Beginning work on jenn's bike ... weeks of studying diagrams - specs - and ordering parts -- more about 'parts' later - you know all the ones that are no longer available - no longer manufactured - no longer at a price you can afford if you are lucky enough to stumble on someone who is parting out his 84 xl200.

Here's just a partial list of parts I have ordered - probably about 15 more parts on another page somewhere... lets face it its hard enuff keeping track of the beer...

I've got more parts than the parts store


testing testing - upload a video test

nope- the videos I made seem to be to big (2-3 minutes only) to be uploaded so pics will have to do.

This bike sold brand new in 1984 for $1400.
Kelly Blue has it at $1650...  sellers online seem to always want more than Kelly and that's without even giving their bikes a wash.
My dirt bike sales almost always got 20% more than Kelly- but after all the work n new parts they were worth it.

What will this bike be worth tho? -- Unless someone is parting out their paper weight -  finding original parts has been near impossible - and when you do find some parts the inflated asking prices are impracticable. It's been a challenge.

The bike weighs 251 pounds dry - has a 2.7 gallon tank estimated to give 70 mpg / 189 miles max.

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I made at least 3 pretty big mistakes in helping my daughter purchase this bike... 4 mistakes if ya count me being there to help/ with my advice.

1. no experience with 1984 xl configuration - what's there- what's not -what works- what doesn't
2. having no experience in electrical - wiring - switches -
3. ... not realizing that most 1984 xl parts are no longer available on dealer sites...and private sellers who may be parting out their bike KNOW IT... and price them 3-4 times what you'd ever imagine they would be...supply and demand economics.

In my defense I DID say several times I didn't think it was a good idea to get this bike because it was hard for her to kick over - and it was in VERY rough shape. I recall she asked me if I thought we could fix it up for 200 bucks - I did a quick calculation in my head figuring none of the 30 dirt bikes i had fixed had ever cost more than 250 and told her YES - ...waaaay wrong. I should have stuck to my gut.

but I let that BIG HAPPY, THRILLED, GLOWING, SMILE on her face melt my better judgement -which i basically lacked anyway- see 1-2- 3 & 4. -- 8, 10, 15,Ect.  but we'll get to those numbers later :)  Wait til we get to paint and bondo

Oh, i guess then I should add a #5- which is you don't make out on what you sell a bike for - you come out ahead on what you BUY it for.   In this case, because of parts costs, I let her pay too much, even though we dickered it down 300 from asking price. Had I known what i know now, after ordering hundreds in after market n vintage parts, i'd have got it down another hundred or two, or convinced my daughter to walk away... like I said -a Dad, a daughter, and a roadkill bike seller walk into a bar.... refer to #4.

Soooo, now it's up to dad to fix his screw ups and make it right so that smile stays on her face.

BUYER Beware:
Finding vintage parts is going to be expensive - finding 'after market' parts is going to be a trust issue.- Will it really fit?

One of the first issues on this bike was a missing spring off of the rear brake switch.
Nearly every dealer/parts site listed it at $2.95... yet every one of them stated part was no longer available. ut-oh, this is not a good start.

Knowing then the part # from their site diagrams I continued to find the part no longer available everywhere.
I did stumble 3 times on private sellers & one dealer in the UK who also had it at under 3 bucks-- but they all wanted 27-30 bucks shipping... for a part no heavier than a dime.

That's when you have to focus on the image of what the dang part looks like and go find an after market piece and hope it works or can be modified.  In this case I found 2 china springs they stated would fit an xl200, for under 3 bucks for both, n free shipping... with a nip, tuck, bend, either worked fine when foot pedal deployed... One street legal problem solved. On to the 4 blinkers that WORKED - but 3 of them were snapped off and dangling from the brackets.
Dealer websites had them listed for $27.00 bucks each!! Freaking insane. I knew at this point I had really screwed up having my kiddo buy a bike I knew nothing about.
It occurred to me - we're not going to restore this bike back to original parts - so I best look at this whole project differently.
So what's a blinker do? It blinks - how difficult could it be to find a cheap one that blinks?? 27 bucks my ass.
So I read Honda generally always has an orange and blue or lite blue wires for turn signals.
Running lites will have THREE wires and dual filament bulbs.
The 3 wires being a ground- a blinker- and a low beam running light.
A 2 wire turn signal is one circuit - just a blinker n ground.
This bike is a 2 wire front and back.
Honda wiring diagram shows the blue wire on harness is on right side - the orange on harness is left side.
I didn't know this info yet when i bought 4 cheap 2 wire blinkers for 9 bucks and free shipping (f.s.)
so right now i don't know if i should have bought them capable of running lights - but the original ones on there were only 2 wire.
The blinkers are installed and working - but the switch that includes the high-low beam and horn has non-op issues. Or test-person issues.

( IF I NEED to go to a front blinker 3 wire dual filament for street legal- I am GUESSING that the third wire would then be tied into the white low beam circuit ---[  The 3 wires being a ground- a blinker- and a low beam running light] ) Only more experience will answer that for me now.

The blinkers brackets are also BENT and I couldn't straighten them up so I ordered corner brackets for couple bucks

The horn switch appeared to have continuity - the 2 wires TO the horn had power n ground using a test light. So I ran 2 wires from battery directly to the horn by passing the harness and the horn switch and the horn was silent...... i assumed this to indicate the horn was dead - I found several xl200 horns for 22 bucks and up............so i ordered a new after market horn for 7 bucks & f.s.(free shipping)

On to the non working head light  ... continuity test thru the head light itself showed zero BEEP- indicating the bulb filament must be blown - this is a *sealed* beam globe so ya can't just replace the bulb. (Although i saw one posting of guy who says he cut the quarter size socket off - used a srewdriver to poke inside and bust up the silver dollar sized bulb - shaking out the broken pieces and inserting an led sized socket n bulb - then jb water welding to seal it..... I may try that later and if it works out SELL it since the only 3 I found on net were all over 125 bucks.... I got an after market one for 28 bucks. Hooked it up to the wiring harness original was plugged into and-------- it doesn't light up....(i'm gonna re-do that test today since I'm not sure now if the key was ON)


plus, tho it said compatible with xl200 it's housing is deeper than the original and it won't line up with mounting bracket because the rear end hits the ignition. I'll have to modify/extend the bracket by an inch or so with flat bar i guess.

Anyway
so once again i ran my own wiring from the battery to a new switch to the light and it works great.
So right now I'm scratching head wondering wth is going on with the harness and old switches since i hear continuity in them....

working on a deal for a front brake switch right now - cause that doesn't work either

did i mention she wants it painted black and with a 1957 chevy surf green primary color/s??
Yeah- even that took 3 days to find the color code match - one place on net and even one place here locally... no rattle cans for this girl's vision.

thas where i am at right now... i'll be strippig it down for cleaning and paint once i get electrical working.

I'll get this story done someday and it will be nice, street legal,  and safe too

it's beertime
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July 3rd update:

after watching many more videos on proper use of circuit test light/s on - power & ground recognition-
I discovered that several of the wires i assumed were bringing power, were not -- which was strange cause dozens of times i got continuity thru them......... then i wouldn't get any - drove me nuts ---and i couldn't determine if it was the wiring or the switch or the TESTOR (testee??)

So another long story short... I was getting no power at the harness.
So I pealed back about an inch of electrical tape and out popped up a cut/ or/ broken brown wire -
pealing back another 4 inches of tape and there was yet another cut/or/ broken black wire - i traced the brown and found another partially broken/exposed wire. I guess now every once in awhile the cut/broken/ wires would contact each other and things would have continuity occasionally.
A couple days back a horn wire had power -- today it didn't.

So I then traced a couple wires up to some square box looking thing (it has never lit up so I don't know what it is or what it does)  next to the speedometer which had 3 tiny bulbs ( all 3 tested bad [ T-10 wedge 158's] ) and 2 of those 6 wires were certainly CUT for some reason.

I've read if the bike uses to much power for lights that the bike can stall at idle or under 3,000 rpm if the rectifier isn't capable of the wattage load........ I have no idea if these one set of wires were cut for this reason - or why---- but i ordered 3 new LED wedgie bulbs to replace the wattage hog halogens just in case...
Because of this halogen wattage battery draining problem I have also ordered low watts Hi Lo LED bulb for headlight  - and Daylite Running/brake stop/ LED bulb for tail light at 4 bucks total. Says they are compatible - butt what does China know... we;ll see.

I haven't fixed the wires yet cause I'm busy celebrating and taking a HEAT break.
I can only work in garage during mornings and after sunset when it cools down. Too dam hot in there even with door open - sweat just pours into my eyes --no sense being miserable.

Pics of bad wires to come...update 7/4

 The brake switch now works after i prepped and twisted the broken black wires together.
(this repair is only temp until i solder them n get some butt connectors and heat/moisture/ shield wraps.)

 As you can see one of these brown/white stripe wires is completely broke or cut/ the other almost broke in half about midway up the fender- hard to see the break here - (that one showed power)
Prep & twisting wires together got the speedometer indicator light  working and power to the horn lead - but new horn isn't here yet to see if it operates.
I also got a running light at the tail light (tho it appears to be running both filaments...and pressing brake dims it to one filament brightness...that doesn't seem correct to me. Not sure)

At least now some of the craziness is solved- this intermittent thing where something worked then didn't 10 minutes later was driving me to drink.

Now I can just crack one to celebrate!

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update 7/5

Well i figured out why the tail light was running both elements...
The brake handle was snapped in half when jenn bought it and I had removed it - and I'd just push the brake switch button in when i tested front brake.... well ya release the button and the wiring thinks you have pulled in the brake lever  - which i hadn't installed yet -- so the bike was responding to a full time brake is ON, you shade tree fix-it jackwagon.
I tell you- if it weren't for utube videos I'd never figure out what is going on - or why. Thank you toobers. ( Especially the MotorcycleMD!)

When we bought the bike the head light wasn't working - it was a sealed globe/n/ bulb n no continuity to the bulb at all... I had unplugged it and also found NO POWER at the white nor blue wire... i bought a low cost head light ( If you could find a 1984 xl200 light they wanted $130 bucks plus shipping)  and plugged into same 3 wires the original was plugged into and get nothing - unplug- still no power at harness blue or white...
But when I run power and ground directly from the battery it lights up... I don't know why I'm not getting power.... maybe the hi-lo switch??? I get continuity tho--------
 i don't get it yet- it'll be another of those 2 AM bolt upright from sound sleep - ooooooooooooooooh, may be if I...... kind of fixes... Like last night when I suddenly snapped awake and asked out loud... did i have the blinker ON when i turned key on n got no power to those 2 orange and blue indicator wires  I repaired???
Funny how that chit decides to give the test light power reading when you turn the dam blinker switch on.

just another blood, sweat & beers day at the garage.
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7/6
 Not having any continuity in the hi-lo beam switch i decided to take it apart even tho i had already ordered another -Horn-Blinker-Hi Lo switch for $6.99 n F.S. to see if i could understand the wiring inside it.
Once i opened it i saw an ugly dirty mess inside n couldn't get to the wiring without taking it completely apart. Electronics parts cleaner did nothing to clean it up while it was together.

Having watched (theMotorcycleMD) video on turn signal switch repair / cleaning/ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob4JWFQ6aTc

I figured what better practice than to take one apart that isn't working than to do one someday that is working - and get in the middle, or end, of it and have a big UT-OH...where does this go? - where the hell did this part fall out of?  ect...
so, thank goodness, i took a few pics as i went (n needed to refer to later on 3 part/s locations).
another long story shortened - blue n white hi-lo wire inside had no continuity
the blue and white yellow stripe wire did not
white and white yellow stripe wire did
....pause for beer
the solder joints looked fine - i took a q-tip and CLR and pushed it in as far as i could cleaning under the toggle switch itself... weird- now blue n white yellow stripe wire had continuity...blue n white did not.
The original headlight as we got it was plugged into a blue- a white - and ground
tho it didnt work - the headlite itself was no good either (no continuity- blown sealed bulb)

another thing is - there are only 8 wires inside this switch
only 8
but there are 9 wires going up/the loom as well as 9 pins in connector...
i assume this means there is a wire inside the weather protective loom shield that doesn't reach up to the switch -- what that wire is - or what it does ............ i don't know.... i hesitate to cut it open to see and compromise the weather shield....   other identifying which wire it is that does not reach the switch - so i can figure out why it's in the harness 9 pin connector. itself.... but not in the switch.

i'm so confused.

even a jack daniels break won't cure this one.

so i'm beyound scratching my head right now.

I can hook new headlite (off the bike) to bike ground and touch the battery positive n get a hi beam light -
I forget right now which two wires i used and got the low beam to pos battery (I'll makea  note next time i'm downstairs)
so right now my inexperience has me baffeled as to what is going on with this headlight - switching - and wiring.

On the positive side i learned HOW TO take apart - clean - and put together a blinker switch.
My kidd's gonna have the cleanest non-working Hi-Lo switch ever!!

Seeing how badly the electronics cleaner had done on the horn and horn connectors i took some CLR to the horn spades............and guess what --- the freaking horn works now (although still intermittently)
it'll beep 3-4-5 times - then stop for 3-4 pushes - so i probably didnt get contacts cleaned well enough in the switch --
i have a new switch coming ($6.99 f.s.) so we;ll see.
Tail light is working, front and rear brake lights working, blinkers are working, horn is semi working,
indicator gauge lights are working... and only blinkers were working when i started.
i'll take tiny successes right now.
gotdam head light.

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update 7/18

...so a lot of things have transpired since last posting butt i didn' figure anyone was actually reading this RockyX11 story that goes on and on & on- but daughter says some friends are waiting for updates....

so here's one for the head light books.

after all those hours n hours of videos - all that research - all those forums i read- all the 3 A.M. tests I ran down stairs to do after strokes of inspiration! A week or more of scathing my head - ....  i finally run across this one sumbitch hiding out in the interweb darkness who states in no uncertain terms... "Yeah, and ya'all gots ta remembers that a whole generation of these head light critters will only works, and light up---->> IF YOU START AND RUN THE BIKE...

He didn't exactly say it like that... but I did...ARE YOU FOCKING KIDDING ME??????

i've got to START IT? to get it TO LIGHT UP???

omg

and so.....the saga continues...
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update 7/19

 so lets face it - if you've come this far down the electrical rabbit hole yer either one sadistic sumbitch enjoying my mental anguish and suffering - or, like me, you don't know shit either, and hoping sooner or later i will figure out why your head light acts like my dead head light..

So if you recall all of my other lights and horn are working just fine now that i found and fixed the broken wires and cleaned the inside of the horn/blinker/hi-lo switch... they all work and run off of the battery - or a DC system of power.
Yet the head light won't respond.
There simply wasn't any power going to it.
And as i discovered the head light system on THIS bike (and some others) will only come on & operate when the bike IS RUNNING.
This is because the light runs off of AC power delivered by the stator/ alternator/ and not the battery.

I read once that Thomas Edison said while figuring out how things worked, " I had not failed - I simply had found 10,000 ways it didn't work."

As my brother wrote - it may take time - but he's got this.

So yeppers- it's taking time to learn how things work before i can figure out why they don't :)

I was able to find ONE wiring diagram for the xl200r. That took awhile to understand too - as I'd never more than glanced at a wiring specification before.
Having spent that week tracing wires - fixing wires and seeing what suddenly began to work - made understanding the diagram a lot easier.

 As I think I already wrote somewhere- when i ran leads directly off the battery to the now functioning/clean/ hi- lo/blinker/ horn switch- and from the switch directly to a new head light using alligator test leads, it worked fine.
DC powered.
So I now know the switch works and also the head light is functional.
BUTT
Up til then i didn't realize bike had to be running - & on AC power.
So here's where i figure something isn't right BEFORE the switch.
What is before the handlebar switch is:
wiring - connectors - an AC regulator positioned above a DC regulator - or the alternator supply.

My problem right now (having watched many videos on TESTING AC_DC regulators and alternator at wiring is--- i already began dismantling the bike for cleaning and painting...  if it bugs me enough i'll probably put gas tank back on to fire it up once i think i understand how to test the ac system --- but probably NOT.

I've a lot of things to do  - cleaning - de-rusting (soaking in CLR and Vinegar bath knocks crap out of rust in 24) bondo- sanding priming painting sanding clear coats - trying to remember where this bolt and that piece came from.
Thank goodness for a camera.

Where is that camera anyway>??

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