HELP! Wiring woes

[Coyote]

Son and I finished up all the wiring in the headlight bucket today. I am left with 2 wires with no connection. One is orange and the other is brown. Both a female connectors. I'm not sure but I think that be normal. I put the battery in and turned in the ignition Tail light works and the rear brake light works with pedal and lever Turn signal light but don't flash. Thinking the amp draw wasn't enough, I added a third light to the circuit. All 3 light but still don't flash
Now things get weird. The neutral light is working and goes off normally with the ignition switch, provided the right hand switch is in the run position If I switch it to the off position and then turn the ignition off, the neutral light stays on and gradually dims. I don't know if it ever goes off as I didn't leave it that way for more than a minute. That one has got me.
Voltage with the key off checks 12.4 turning on the key it drops to 11.74 and slowly begins to drop from there. 11.74 - 11.73 - 11.72 and so on.
Gauge lights work, gear position does not. Electric starter works. Horn does not work. I know it's hooked up right because they are the only connectors that are slotted. Have not tried to reverse the leads, but I know it worked when bench testing.. The horn leads shouldn't matter should they?
So my main concerns are the 2 wires in the bucket with no home, the signals not flashing and that way goofy thing going on with the kill switch. Here's the order again.
Key on and off in run position, neutral light normal. Key on, kill switch switched to off, key off, neutral light remains lit but dims. Turn kill switch on, N light goes out
Basically, key on and off in run position, the neutral light acts normal. Key on and off with kill switch in off position, neutral light stays on.
I should point out that I did not fry the fuse throughout all the testing. never even got warm.

[Cliff]

Neutral light, sounds like a bad ground somewhere.

[GT750Battleship]

Hi,is the bike fitted with a front park light ? Is bike fitted with front brake light switch ? Think this one is white & brown wire ?,Kill switchs are know to cause weird problems ! Also bad earth at headlight mounts can be a good place to start
Regards,
Roger

[Coyote]

No front parking light. I didn't test the headlight yesterday because the shell is still open. I hooked it up anyway this morning. High beam works, low beam does not. Both beams work just fine when testing directly off the battery.. This is a 3 prong plug style headlight. When testing, I use the center prong as the ground and test the right and left prong to get both high and low beams. Looking at the headlight socket on the bike, the ground goes to the left socket, not the center. What gives with that? this part is brand new.
Concerning the non flashing turn signals, Is there a way to bench test the flasher unit?

[Coyote]

At rest, key off. all 3 terminals on the flasher have full continuity to ground. I realize that one is a ground, but should the other 2 be grounded as well?

[Coyote]

Scratch that photo and what I said about the headlight. The ground is not the center lug. Messing with test leads, I hooked it up the way the socket is laid out. Even though I go light before, low beam was very dim. Using the left lug as the ground, I get a nice bright low beam and an even brighter high beam off the other 2 lugs. So the socket wiring layout is correct. Still when I plug the headlight in, I only get high beam. It's bright and the high beam indicator light on the gauges lights up
Switching to low beam, the lamp simply goes out. I don't think it's shorting as it is not blowing the fuse. It act more like there just isn't any power in that wire. I must have something crossed somewhere. I always pay special attention to all my ground connections so I don't think I have a grounding problem. I am going to use my ohm meter to figure out which wire is dead in the circuit. It's either the yellow wire or the white one.
Just checked. It's the white wire. Using the engine as the ground, The yellow gives me 12 volts in the high beam position and just floats in the low beam position, The meter just floats in either position checking the white wire.

[Alan H]

Sounds like the battery is less than good.
The voltage shouldn't decay really and stay at 12.4 or thereabouts for quite a time.
The flasher relay has one earth and the other two terminals are power (orange) and light blue to common on the indicator switch.
Power goes to the gear indicator on orange and then goes to each position on the switch for whatever gear you are in, then earths in the switch so that only the correct number segments light in the gear indicator.
1=White/yellow, 2=red/black, 3=Grey/black, 4=yellow/black, 5=Brown/red, 6=light green/red (only on GT380 but wiring is there on most looms.)
Neutral lamp has orange to the lamp and blue from lamp to neutral switch. Sounds like you have either some wires crossed, wires damaged near the switch or a faulty switch. I've just been through the wiring on my 550A and the wires were damaged near to the switch and covered in crap/greasy oil deposits.
Check all the earths - especially the main one near the battery and coils to make sure the earth is actually connected to the frame. You will need to clean any paint off to get a good connection in these places. Put copaslip or Vaseline on the connection to protect it from corrosion.

[Coyote]

I've just been through the wiring on my 550A

That's what mine is. A 550A. Did you end up with 2 wires with no connections in the headlight bucket? White and brown? Maybe those are for the front parking light that is not used in the US. What color are the wires for your front parking light?

[Coyote]

I got the flasher working. Just as had originally figured, there was not enough amp draw even after adding a third light. I had 2 original stock turn signals so I robbed the bulbs out of them and put them in the cheap turn signals on the bike. Flashers work just fine now. The bulbs in these cheapassed turn signal are marked 6V 8W. No wonder the wouldn't flash. You would think by now I would know better than buying Taiwanese junk.

[Alan H]

I've just been through the wiring on my 550A

That's what mine is. A 550A. Did you end up with 2 wires with no connections in the headlight bucket? White and brown? Maybe those are for the front parking light that is not used in the US. What color are the wires for your front parking light?

Orange & white are for front brake switch, Brown and black/white tracer are front parking light.
Orange is main power line from ignition switch (in 'on' position), brown is from ignition switch (powered in 'on' position then thru' light switch) or straight from ignition switch in 'park' position.
White goes to brake light bulb, black/white tracer is earth.

I recently had an issue on the 550K I ride where the indicator repeater bulb was very bright and the indicators wouldn't flash. Found a loose earth wire in the headlamp bowl.

Some of the Taiwanese junk is actually OK so long as you check what you have and make sure the wiring is robust enough for the job. Usually it's all that's available nowadays.