SR250: Brake light and neutral indicator stuck on

Hi All,

I've got a 1985 SR250 that's copped a bit of a hammering in the four or
so years I've owned it. Actually I bought it from a guy who posted a
for-sale ad in this newsgroup and have lurked ever since.

At the moment, the brake light is always on. Less importantly, so is
the neutral indicator light. I disengaged the rear brake light switch
(one of those ones where there's a spring connected to the brake pedal,
attached to a kind of unit with a matchstick kind of thing). I prodded
and pushed the matchstick-resembling piece but nothing happened. It's
made of metal, and when I moved it near the frame a spark jumped across
which suggests that it is live. I'm pretty sure that's not meant to be
the case.

I did a bit of online research and a bad earth somewhere looks like it
could be the cause. I had a look at the wiring diagram and checked
where the earths were: The negative battery terminal, the starter
motor, the spark plug (of course!) and then one near the ignition, one
down near the front sprocket (I think this is the earth for the neutral
switch). Given the neutral light is stuck on, I had a good look at
this one which was indeed a bit loose. However when I made sure this
had good contact, the neutral light would be *on*, even though the bike
was in gear, and when I disconnected it the neutral light went off.
This had no effect on the brake light. There's also an earth in each
switch housing on the handlebars, but I kind of think it's unlikely
that anything would have gone wrong with those ones - a fair
assumption?

Every other earth that I've found looks OK, and I have cleaned them
all. Not sure what else could be wrong... a short circuit? Dodgy
neutral switch? Something else? I loosened up the front brake pretty
heavily and the light stayed on, so I'm pretty sure that the brakes are
not actually always on. At the moment I've got the fuel tank and seat
off and the headlight out of its chamber and haven't noticed any bare
wires or anything...

If anyone has ideas for other things to look for it would be
appreciated.

On a related note I'm planning to make a website with some photos and
basic descriptions of what I'm doing in future jobs. There's a long
"to do list" and I'm treating it as a bit of a project to learn
maintenance, though a lot of the jobs will get put off till winter 2007
when I won't be riding as much. If people are interested I'll put some
details here as I do things (or post a link to the website once I've
made it).

Happy riding,

-- Mark

 

damn lurkers

if you disconnect the rear switch and the light is still on then you have a
prob with the front switch

the brake light and neutral light are independant

the neutral light is prob a switch which goes to ground when in neutral
sounds like a bad switch

look at the front switch , sounds either stuck on , if you have too much
freeplay
in the front lever the switch can stay on as its not pressed in far enough

 

Greetings

The SR250 has a single wire (green?) going to the neutral light switch that
is behind the left hand engine cover. The cover is the metal thing that is
on level with the chain, not the plastic side covers.

That has more than likely moved in or out enough to give an open circuit (or
died). Try screw it in a few turns or out a few turns, ONLY after you have
recorder how many turns left or right you are doing, or else it'll be hit
and miss (though that can work too).

The rear brake may just need adjusting too. Look at it closely and you'll
see that it has the ability to rotate on a plastic screw out (i.e. Make it
longer). Adjust that (assuming the spring is still inside the switch?).
Eventually the light should go off.

If it is the front switch, go buy another microswitch from Jaycar or Yamaha
as you can do much with them.

Happy trails....


Hammo

 

Thanks J5 and Hammo. I had a look at the front brake and indeed it was
that switch that had come loose. It was about a two minute job. Man
that's annoying, I'd really stripped the bike down trying to trace the
problem. At least I learnt a lot about it in the process

I am familiar with the wire Hammo menitioned - it's sky blue according
to the manual - that goes to the neutral switch. When I connect this
the neutral light comes on (no matter what the gear). So I think the
switch might be dodgy. I unscrewed it to have a look, and then oil
started dripping out everywhere and I decided to postpone that job
until my next oil change.

Thanks again,

-- Mark

 

Yeah, it'll be not so much a switch as a little contact thingy which
touches another thingy in the gearbox (often a little leaf spring on
the selector shaft) ... so the other end of it is in whith all the oil
and shit.

For little tiny jobs like replacing an O-ring or whatever, it's often
easier to lean the bike over the other way so you can get to them
without dumping all the oil. Steady as she goes.

-----sharks

 

Have a shot at putting it in gear and then screwing it in until the light
goes off. It may be a tedious task (or as you suspect, rooted).

It is indeed a simple switch so it is potential gummed up with all sorts of
gunk.

All the best

Hammo

 

Is it that SR?

WOW!

Often_intrigued at hot mail com

Cheers

H

 

G'day Bruce,

Yep the old SR is still going, despite two crashes (one was more of a
slip than a crash) and a bit of time with minimal riding. Needs a bit
of work done but nothing too major. And Hammo has seen the bike too?
Small world!

-- M

 

Do you need a carby?

Cheers

H

 

G'day Hammo,

Don't need a carby at this stage - about six months ago I took it off
and a mate of mine at work helped clean it with the aid of a lot of
Nulon. Before that the jet was blocked and was causing problems. I
will keep it in mind though if my current one bites the dust.

Bruce - my new email is firstname dot lastname at gmail dot com. You
may have sent the email to my old address....

-- M