Circuit repair for clock bulbs?

[GrahamB]

Does anyone know if it is possible to repair the connection to the small bulbs inside the clocks? Most of mine do not work & I have replaced all the bulbs. Noticed for the first time last night, nothing lights up on the rev counter side at all & speedo is very dim.

[AdieR]

If you have a wiring diagram, locate the wires to the lights, and make sure they're all intact, clean and tight all the way through (esp earth points).

What kind of state were the bulb connections in when you replaced the bulbs?

[GrahamB]

The connections are circuit board type. All looked fine but obviously not. Can't remember what the old bulbs looked like. I kept them but will probably never find them again unless I don't want to.

[AdieR]

The lights will have a feed (either from a fuse via the light switch, or via the ignition switch, I'm not familiar with the thou but on my FZ6 they come on with ignition), and an earth on the bike's frame, a rusty / bad earth can cause high resistance which would cause dim lighting.

If there's any connector blocks / multi-plugs, make sure they're clean and tight as they can suffer with water ingress and corrode. Bear in mind wiring to clocks will naturally be routed near the headstock and can be affected by steering action.

Chances are you'll find damaged / poor wiring connections are causing the problem, rather than a fault with the circuit board itself - wiring is subjected to vibration / movement, chemical attack and temperature fluctuations (wiring routed near engine suffering constant heating / cooling).

If you have a multimeter, you can try testing for battery voltage (especially on your "dead" bulb holders, the contacts can weaken with time, and pcb tracks can break).

If its an "ordinary" circuit board, it should be repairable if you're handy with a soldering iron, if its one of those surface mount component boards they can be a bugger requiring specialist gear to re-make joints.

(Apologies if I'm "teaching Granny to suck eggs", but in my experience people often overlook basics when diagnosing electrical faults).

[GrahamB]

Cheers AdieR. I was wondering if it was a common fault with the thousand. I will investigate.