Neutral light

[little_dave]

Well; there was a break in the clouds and rain yesterday, so decided to take the sporty out for its first run this year after fitting the resprayed tank (see thread:Tanks); I digress, anyway got the bike out of the garage, she fired up very quickly,seeing as she hadn't been run for a while, but, before then I noticed the neutral light wasn't working! I went for a 50 odd mile run and the bike ran perfectly except, no neutral light. According to the book, it's a fairly major job to check the neutral switch, but I was wondering if anyone had this problem before and is there an easier way? I have to check the light itself first obviously, it could be a blown bulb, but it was working perfectly before I put "Baby" to bed for the winter. Any help would be very welcome! Cheers Dave

[midget]

Snap is it a winter thing !! I went on the Durham egg run yesterday same problem so any help as little Dave says would be helpful.The weather was fantastic dry and sunny.

[telboy]

i had this problem on the wifes 01 sporty, bit of a bugger job coz to get to the switch you have to drop the back pipe and remove the pully cover.
then slack off the wheel and remove the pulley then you're at the switch and thats the easy bit,when we took out the switch we noticed that the neutral light indicator switch pin (cost 41p ) was missing and that means the gearbox needed to come out.
hope it's just the switch dave

done the search here's the thread

http://www.harley-davidson-hangout.c...dicator+switch




telboy

[Tones]

Just a quicky

As its not a thing that has just happened, i.e. it's after a period of storage.

The quickest and easiest check is to open and reseat all the electrical connectors, (pertinent to that particular circuit), this will clear any build up of oxidation on the connector metal surfaces. You may find that is all that is needed.

[Bluey]

While you have the electrical connetions apart use some WD40 and spray the conections, this will help keep the oxidation at bay!. It's also worth checking the actuall switch connection behind the pulley housing. It might be oxidised, clean and check it.

[little_dave]

Tones, you might be right, I went out to the shed to check again and I noticed in the shed that the oil pressure light is not working as well. I've got the headlamp connector apart and according to the wiring diagram in the handbook, the oil & neutral light seem to have a common earth, I'm going to check with a meter to see if there is any current reaching the bulbs, if there is then it must be the earth? I'm not that great with electrics, but would that be the cause?

[little_dave]

Correction, it's not a common earth, but common power and it's working, it obviously earths through the switches to the engine, but still no joy yet! I've noticed on the wiring diagram, there's a single connector from the neutral switch, but whereabouts is it

[Tones]

Looking at my wiring for an 05 model, (they don't change too much year on year). there is a commonality for the oil and neutral in 2 places.
Near the oil and neutral lights, (Orange on my diagram) and either where the wire connects to the speedo or (not both) connector which goes to wiring harness.
Also check your 15A fuse marked instuments, having looked at the diagram, all it seems to feed is the oil and neutral indicators.

[little_dave]

I'll look at that in the morning, but it seems odd that both switches are u/s, I can understand one but surely the fuse would go to the orange wire as that is definately live, as it swung the meter needle when I touched the positive to the connector prong and earthed the negative to the frame. I can't see anything else to check to.

[little_dave]

Took the manual to bed last night and read up on the lubrication system, I found the oil pressure switch, so I just took the plug off, earthed it against the engine and on with the ignition, the oil light lit up! So I put the plug back on, wriggling a bit to get a good contact, no joy! My question is, do I have to get a new switch or can I take it off and work at it to get it working or is it repair by replacement? Another point is: As the bike has been sitting for a while, there wouldn't be an airlock there that would cause it to misbehave, the oil did run down into the crankcase, but it was soon scavenged when the engine started, so anyone had any experience of this before, I would like to find out before going to the dealer for a new switch. Cheers Dave