Hitchcocks Forum

Hi all... one for the sparkies out there. A couple of days ago I noticed that my pilot lights (on my EFI Electra) flash when I put the indicators on. There was always a slight flicker in the past, but it seems a little worse recently. The pilot lights are LED (bright, but low power) and pretty much flicker on and off against the flash of the indicators... But... other lights also flicker with the indicators too (I say with, but when indicators flash on, others flicker off and vice versa). The head light does it too (I upgraded to one of those Philips Motovision bulbs) as does the neutral light in the instrument panel and the tail/brake light... To add to this, ALL lights dim slightly at low revs, and brighten at high revs. Most noticable is the indicator 'indicator' light on the instrument panel, and the headlight....




So... the question... where to look and what to test?




To add to the story... I made my own rear wiring loom cos the stock one is made of chocolate. I am pretty sure the issue is not there.

Bad earth/ground, effi experts will be along soon to show you were to look

Hi Michael. I agree that it is definitely an earth problem. I had a similar fault with my EFI and eventually traced it to water sitting in the taillight mounting which had got into the wiring. Maybe your new rear harness means that the fault is not there, but it will be that sort of thing. I spent ages going through all of the connectors, resoldering poor ones and checking everything. Frustrating, but worth doing before the winter! Good luck

Urgh... again! I disconnected EVERY connection, cleaned and replaced if necessary in January or February this year becuase of a similar problem.


The tailight doesn't form a watertight seal so the problem might be there, but it was only recently changed. Would I solve the problem by making a new earth somewhere? EG tailight to frame, headlight casquette to frame and main harness to frame?

I had a problem with a Photovision bulb where the low beam filament was not connected to the negative/ earth terminal on the bulb. The bulb worked, presumably by getting the earth from the bulb casing, but it caused no end of weird problems when the lights were on, starter not working, ignition cutting out, lights working when they weren't turned on etc. This may be a one off, certainly a replacement bulb cured all. It could be an earth fault though. Try disconnecting each bulb in turn and see if it makes a difference. Leave each one disconnected, if there is no difference, and move on to the next. If one is removed and cures the problem leave it out and replace each one in turn, one at a time. This should isolate the circuit causing the problem and you can check the wiring to that light for bad connections and earths. Does this happen at all revs or just low revs? It may be the battery power / charge is insufficient to take the load. A voltmeter across the battery should check the charge state and battery voltage.

I had to reword an efi yesterday water was getting into where the fuses are causing a short resulting in the bike cutting out in the rain I put a new fuse box in the chrome toolbox side panel on the Electra efi hope we've now sorted this stopping business in the rain although this efi is 5 year old with 18000 miles on the clock and pulls a sidecar I find the efi electrics shocking!! Atb paul

Paul, that ECU unit with all those wires running from it will be a worry as they get a bit older and a few rub through

Cleaned up the earth connections in the tail light and that helped a bit. Also a block connector in the headlight had a few loose connections. The lights are better, good enough but not perfect. At least I don't look like I'm flashing folks out of junctions when I signal now!!

Hi guys--------- Hello MICHAEL, yes-- in a Earth Return electrical circuit the "Earth" part is the vital part that makes it work...........A classic fault which you might have seen out on the road is a car pulling a trailer with a home-made wiring loom, etc...When the brakes are applied it can look like Blackpool illuminations if one "consumer" ( Electrical-speak.... for a bulb in this case)isn't FULLY earthed...Some of the 12 volts does get through---hence the bulb may glow dimly -----but the rest has to find the shortest route back to the battery ie via other "consumers", whichever offers the least path of resistance.----------Wet weather..or damp conditions.. have the effect of magnifying this as well, but CORROSION is usually the main culprit....If this is a new event in the bikes' life then any of the previous events are likely..The trouble with Royal Enfield is the relative poor quality of manufacture, assembly etc. so bad design now becomes a possibility as well. eg. light/none pressure contacts within a connector block... A whole new can of worms to open, alas.... Finally, INTERMITTENT electrical faults ( now you see them ---- now you don't) are perhaps the bane of the automotive world....I spent 25 years in the trade and to this day will get the COLLYWOBBLES when dealing with said faults !!! ----------- NIL DESPERADUM ----------------

I had a faulty brake light bulb in a van once that caused the headlamps to flash when the brakes were applied. Very embarrasing when pulling up behind someone at a junction! Led to one driver getting out and accusing me of impatience except it was dressed up with a bit more colourful language!