Horn, blinkers and brake light: DEAD!

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Paul S Wilcox

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First, I must admit that I HAVE been monkeying with the wiring on my '88 Vmax. Mostly detailing the wiring looms while cleaning and touching up the frame. (Obsessive and Compulsive are my two middle names!)

Today I noticed that the horn, blinkers and brake light don't work. Nothing, nada, zip. And yet, everything else functions fine.

All the fuses are good and I checked and rechecked all harness connections.

Is there some electrical component or part of the wiring that would affect all three of these things at the same time? Yesterday everything was perfect.

Has anyone ever experienced (and solved) the above?

Thanks,

Paul
 
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P.S. -- The tachometer isn't working either.

Is there any circuit or component that the horn, blinkers, brake light AND tach all have in common?
 
Hmm. Odd. The turn signals and brake light share a 12V feed, but the horn is a separate circuit. If I were you, I would go back and revisit harness connections. Disconnect, clean and reconnect them. All of them if you can - or those you can get to. On a 30+ year old motorcycle, that’s never a bad idea. My guess is that you have a bad connector somewhere. Might check the ground wires up behind the right scoop.
 
Sean atMorely's Muscle is going to loan me his electric test kit to help narrow down the problem by process of elimination. I'll keep you posted!

Paul
 
Deoxit is good for cleaning the connections, separate the plugs, inspect the M-F connectors, spray them, and re-connect/disconnect them several times. If you see any green crud, or frayed wires, time to get to work to fix 'em.

https://caig.com/deoxit-d-series/
 
Start with the signal fuse/holder as all those components share that fuse.

Mark

Sounds like a good lead! I was too-lazy to check the wiring schematic for that one. Spent 45 minutes trying to get a 'lifetime warranty Craftsman' pair of tools replaced. It didn't happen, but I got 1,000's of points added to my account. Better-than nothing. It's sad, the Miami FL Sears store by-me, has a tool selection about 1/3 of the size it used-to be. My Craftsman 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" sockets, wrenches and corded electrical hand tools are probably 40+ years old and are still serving me whenever I need them. I have a 40+ year-old 12" 240 volt radial arm saw I bought new, still doing its job, too. Seeing them go down the tubes is very disappointing. Ironically, you used to be able to buy an entire house in a kit, from Sears, they pioneered catalog sales, which was the internet of its day.

https://www.vmaxforum.net/attachments/yamaha-v-max-custom-wiring-diagrams-4-compressed-pdf.28837/
1990+ USA

Check the lower right corner for the fusebox detail

VMax fusebox detail 1990+ models.png
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the schematic. No wonder I didn't see a fuse for those other circuits!
 
The hive is a powerful tool when members work together to solve things.
 
PROBLEM SOLVED! Even though all the fuses were good, one of the wires leading into the fuse block was corroded and had a bad connection. Now everything works perfectly. THANKS to all for weighing in on this. Special thanks to Sean at Morley's Muscle for his willingness to send out the loaner test kit, even though I no longer need it.
 

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