low power in electrics. - Causes?

My VX800 is hevily customized and its pretty much entirely a different bike with the exception of the engine.
So, nothing is stock.


The light was rotten. Its a rubbish 4" pathetic thing and so in my effort to help it, I swapped this out for a twin 4" thingy that helped make it look better.

The thing is no better!

On full beam, I cannot see teh road, and the best it has given me, is a smallhalf moon on the road about 3 feet in front of the bike, other than that, absolutely nothing, so I truly mean its utterly useless.

So, I have got an LED Headlamp and thats every bit as awful... Well, ok, its a bit better but night time riding is simply not possible.

There is definitely 12v going through to the lights, and the little light as well as dip and full all work, but poorly.

I plopped the Battery from my Honda CB into it for a quick play, before I spend on another battery, but that was just the same.

I got a new REG/REC and after searching for the location, I found it mentioned in a thread on here and sure, thats where mine is too and I have NOT yet replaced it ( Im disabled and cannot get onto the floor very easily so some jobs are seriously problematic for me )

But will the Rec/Reg do this? It seems to be more likely to be the battery, but the one from the Honda is relatively new and it does not help the VX one bit, so is it the battery?

Can anyone offer anything that might cause me to have poor lights?

Oh, another thing it does...

The Rediator fan spins and when I turn the lights on, it slows the fan a huge amount and then also on dip and full beam, the fan spins really slowly... Its audibly noticeable.

Similarly, the headlamp does glow a little more when I rev it.

That again, points to battery surely?

I am sorry if this seems silly to ask, but I had an accident a few years ago and I am re-learning from scratch.

Heavily customized like a lot more electronics drinking electric juice? It seems to me your might might be doing some ground leakage of sorts. Cinnect multimiter in series to the positive and turn on the light. It should draw the right amps as per specs. If not then something is wrong. My wiring at the rec/reg was fried so take a look there. Good luck

No, not more electrics, its still mostly stock there.

The headlamp WAS a small single, but that was iffy so I bought a cheap DUAL and it was useless, and then the LED was also just as useless.

The Rear light is now a smaller one under the seat, with the numberplate on the left side with a tiny white light to show the numberplate at night.

If anything, there is LESS draw on the electrics.

Yes, I have bought a new REG/REC and a few other bits. The other week I was caught up in some dence fog and that must have been so wet, that I had serious issues with it stopping all the time all the way home after that... Stalls but after a minute or two, it would start up again.

So, I got a few other things that I am going to do, and these require taking it off the road and so I will change them all then.

Most does not need doing, but I will do it all the same.

Coils, HT Leads, Spark Plugs and Caps, REC/REG, Temp Sensor, Horns, and the carbs are running rich as hell and so I have a full carb refurb kit so the carbs are gettign stripped down too!

I hope to go through the entire loom to find any issues as to why it failed me with the wet fog and of course the low power in the electrics.

Actually the same symptoms were experienced by me when my regulator rectifier wire harness was shorting. It would stall and only start a few minutes later. Check your harness.

Ok I definitely will do.
I had a few wories when I could not find it, but I know where it is now...

I have the new one ready and I am going to do it along with a load of other bits all at the same time once I get a few days off work.

Thanks for that.

Ok, this is an update but probably not going to help.

I have tested the replacement loom and it was a load of cack. There was some wires among it, that were corroded and I decided that the job is simply not worth doing unless the loom was a good one.

So, I still have the same electrics, or at least its mostly the same.

I have gone through most of it, and I have been using a soldering iron to make sure that any connections are not dry, and that any connections on the wires are both crimped properly and soldered to make sure that they all have good contact.

It has clearly made it vastly better as it runs great, even in the pouring rain.

The only issue I have after rain now, is that it takes a few seconds to fire up and a further 5 to 10 seconds for the rear cylinder to start popping and then running properly.

This is a carbing issue and I am going to get teh carbs sorted out soon enough as a mate is going to help me.

I have changed the Coils, renewed the HT Leads and caps plus put 2 new spark plugs in. I have also fitted the reg/rectifier but this has NOT helped the electrics in any way?

I am told that there is a bad earth and I have tried looking but not found the culprit still.

I am looking for a short now somewhere and not just a poor earth, as I have made a number of earth points without it helping and so there must be something that is shorting the earth??

The front lights are now LED as they are much brighter than normal, but yet its still far dimmer than it should be. I also get issues when I am indicating to turn, and the lights dip along with the indicators lighting up... Also the horn is two tone when its flashing too!

I really need to sort out my Shed to get the bike fully inside, so I can actually work on the thing through winter and perhaps just get the Honda back on the road as a winter hack.