No lights, indicators or horn working
 

Hi, my xt660x 06 starts fine and runs good, although i have no main beam, high beam, indicators or horn working. Parking lights and brake lights are good. Have checked bulbs and fuses which are fine. Any ideas, mot due end of month :-(. Bike has been left outside in our lovely uk climate partially covered. :confused:

Sent by me.. Off me..

All those would be affected by the left hand switchgear.

Ok, could this be just condensation or something more serious? Indicators stopped working first followed by the main beam and horn.

Sent by me.. Off me..

Open the left hand switch gear and dry with hair dryer and then fill with WD40....

WD-40 over time becames a sticky varinish-like non-conductive coating, more like an insulator. It will also attact dirt and increase wear in the switch and contacts too. It may disperse the moisture initially, but will lead to trouble in the long run.

Use contact cleaner in moderation then sparingly apply proper contact grease . Your bike will thank you in the long run.

All sorted, chased the wires back under the fuel tank. The connector under there from the switchgear had come loose ( possibly due to an attempted theft a couple of weeks ago :mad:) thanks once again for pointing me in the right direction.
Dave

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Yes electrical switch cleaner is better than wd40.blowup

Is this the same stuff as dielectric grease or silicone grease?

It is pretty much the same as dielectric grease but contains a friction reducing lubricant, which is why its better for moving contacts, rather than multiplugs and connector contacts. It does not contain silicone - which is generally bad news for electronics.

I was trying to get some dielectric grease last year and found it hard to track down. Someone on another forum recommended Servisol silicone grease and I bought some on eBay. Since then I have been lathering it on every time I break apart a connector, covered the battery terminals and so on. Have I been using the wrong thing? On the tube it says:

• high electrical insulaton
• waterproofs/repels moisture
• excellent lubricant
• high temperature resistance

Good stuff, or wrong stuff?

Erm, yes and no!

Silicone grease is ideal for external applications where you want to keep out moisture and prevent electrical leakage; the best examples being on the outside of a distributor cap, HT leads and spark plugs connectors (and I stress outside). It has high temperature resistance and infinite resistance which is ideal on your plug leads. It is also good stuff for lubricating O rings and keeping rubber in good condition.

The problem with products containing silicone when used inside electrical connectors is that where even the tiniest amount of arcing occurs it will break down converting into silicon carbide, which means it isn't good on switch contacts where some arcing is inevitable. Silicone grease should never be applied to (or near to) a switch contact as the accumulation of silicon-carbide can cause the contacts to prematurely fail.

Bottom line is, silicone grease is good stuff, but only if used outside of electrical components!

Dielectric grease has completely different properties, some are indeed are silicone based, but all have additives to inhibit the reaction that produces silicon carbide. However, the best ones are hydrocarbon based. It�s a little confusing , there is silicone grease and silicone dielectric grease, each one is designed for a specific purpose.

BTW - The best dielectric grease is generally accepted to be Contralube 770, which is used in the aviation industry. Cool as well as it fluoresces blue under UV light so you can see which connectors have been treated!

Well thanks for that. You learn something every day. I'm fairly happy that I have packed as many connectors as I can with the Servisol, as all it needs to do there is keep the moisture out. I'll have another think if I get round to dismantling any switches etc where arcing is a possibility.

Contralube now on my shopping list :)