High beam on when on low beam!!

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nickwoodrow
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High beam on when on low beam!!

Post by nickwoodrow »

Hi Guys. Not sure where this model should be posted but I have an r1100 rs 1995. Hoping electricals are similar? Always riding bike with low beam on, today I was getting flashed by other users and realised my headlight was on full beam even though the left hand High beam rocker was centered. If I selected parking light on right hand switch or the off position I can flash the high beam rocker on and off and high beam works as per normal (Hope that makes sense) so I presume the rocker isn't jammed on. ? Where might I start any investigations please? Thanks in advance.
Doug
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Re: High beam on when on low beam!!

Post by Doug »

That sounds to me like your high/low beam switch is malfunctioning.. I'd start there, but maybe someone else has experience here. I'd guess the controls are similar to other R bikes.

ps- welcome to the site! :)
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nickwoodrow
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Re: High beam on when on low beam!!

Post by nickwoodrow »

Thanks for your welcome Doug. I have Ben a keen a member of this forum for many years bit forgot my log in details! Anyway with bonus good weather this morning I was able to compare both switch sets with spares of my old k100 which are identical. It appear that somehow some solder on the rocker switch side had "moved" causing it to be touching another blob! Running a pen knife blade between them cured the problem. Soldering seems OK but not sure how it could have happened. Many thanks for your suggestion.
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Re: High beam on when on low beam!!

Post by Doug »

Awesome, glad you got it sorted! Thats why we're here! :)
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CycleRob
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Re: High beam on when on low beam!!

Post by CycleRob »

nickwoodrow wrote:It appear that somehow some solder on the rocker switch side had "moved" causing it to be touching another blob! Running a pen knife blade between them cured the problem. Soldering seems OK but not sure how it could have happened.
Nick, That switch has had 20 years of use (you do not say the Odometer reading) and when you change beams the sliding contact tries to move the (solidly?) mounted stationary terminals. The factory applied grease can also make a conductive copper powder paste between terminals from normal wear on a high time high mileage bike. All that rubbing/wiggling also eventually makes the mount in the circuit board or plastic housing get a little bigger each year until they can touch together. What you should check if this happens again is if the (wobbly?) terminals are able to touch again by gently trying to manually move them together. You may have found them lightly "welded" together from a sputtering/arcing 60Watt headlight load heated connection and only temporarily separated them, while they still may have the ability to touch together again. If so, then careful bending or using solder to tighten the terminal strip's mount holes will be the cure.
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