R80ST Electrical Problem--please help

[Airbear]

Hmm, the accessory plug is likely to be an addition, straight from the battery. The clock may be an addition too, since a clock is not shown on the Haynes wiring diagram for the R80ST.

If you have probed around with a test lamp and found no life at all, it would appear that there is an open circuit in the red power wire that goes forward from the battery. So, if you can find the meeting place of a bunch of red wires (may be in the headlight - I'm not familiar with the ST) and connect a wire from that to the positive battery terminal - if things then work, you will know where the problem lies.

[Major Softie]

I've become more interested in Katie's implication that there may be animate doornails running around...

[Airbear]

I've become more interested in Katie's implication that there may be animate doornails running around...

Major, I don't think Katie was implying that doornails are actually able to move under their own volition. She merely cast doubt, or at least opened the discussion, as to whether they are indeed as 'dead' as the old saying confidently states. I assume that by 'doornails' she is referring to those nails that are driven through the vertical planks, horizontal rails and diagonal bracing in old style doors, and then bent over to provide tension. I recall being injured by one that had not been bent over sufficiently, but it was some decades ago and I'm unable to remember whether I considered the option that the injury was the result of malicious intent on behalf of the doornail. That doornails may be sufficiently sentient, and filled with such feelings of unhappiness with their lot as to contemplate causing injury to a mostly harmless child is a question that may now keep me awake at night.

[dougie]

I've become more interested in Katie's implication that there may be animate doornails running around...

As a retired carpenter I can attest to the fact that there are "animate doornails running around".
I know 'cause they bite!

[Deleted User 72]

I've become more interested in Katie's implication that there may be animate doornails running around...

As a retired carpenter I can attest to the fact that there are "animate doornails running around".
I know 'cause they bite!

As a retired carpenter can you describe how a doornail differs from, say .... a nail? See, the doors I've dealt with had no nails in them and were hung with screws. Just wondering.

Sorry to veer off track before your problem is solved, Katie. I thought you'd want to know.

[dougie]

As a retired carpenter can you describe how a doornail differs from, say .... a nail? See, the doors I've dealt with had no nails in them and were hung with screws. Just wondering.

[Jean]

In the interest of international peace, we will NOW refer to anything that resembles a centerline possum as being Dedder than Kathie's R80ST.
Back to the real problem...in order that the ST gets running before the snow is too deep for ridin':
I think (?-occasionally) the problem might be AT the battery. Have a REAL good look at where BOTH the battery connections go and see if something might be amiss there. The fact that YOU (K) wren't there and the movers did something uncalled-for might mean that more got messed-with than you are aware of; it may not be obvious what they did.
"It's hard to make things foolproof - the fools are just too clever."

Lacking that, by now you should have gotten the offered schematic, taken the gas tank off, and started following the wires.
My recall of the instrument panel on the ST is it is physically unlike any other in the 1978-1985 years. Did you get a (THE) schematic yet? I'm looking at the CLYMER schematic...there seems to be a common terminal at the headlight relay associated with the BIG RED wire that comes from the battery. If you DO not have 12v there (or at the headlight relay terminal), then there is a problem with that wire. SOMEHOW, somewhere.

GROUND WIRE: In or wired to the instrument cluster is a BROWN wire. It appears to have everything commonly terminated on it.
I cannot tell if it is grounded Inside the cluster or feeds back thru the cluster to a frame ground. IF THAT wire got pulled loose from it's "final ground connection", nothing will work.

Note to Softie, bear, etc. I DO have 2 of those nifty brass-case testers. You can still get them over-the-pond. One came in the tools with my R100s...and I picked-up one at a flea market from an old MB tool-roll. Same place I get metric wrenches.

[KatieR80ST]

Well I am certainly enlightened as to 1) the history of doornails, 2) what a doornail actually looks like, and 3) the fact that doornails are, in fact, capable of dying. Phew. Those questions did keep me up last night!

Unfortunately for this lively discussion, I am currently on a plane somewhere above Virginia, heading to the old homestead of Atlanta and tomorrow, to the Bahamas. I'll be gone two weeks and those keen discerning minds out there in Airheadville have probably already determined that I do not have the R80ST with me. So alas, all of this detective work will commence on or about Nov. 2, schematic in hand. Perhaps I'll have the old gal up and running so I can ride her to the polls and vote.

[Deleted User 72]

I feel so used.

[Airbear]

Unfortunately for this lively discussion, I am currently on a plane somewhere above Virginia, heading to the old homestead of Atlanta and tomorrow, to the Bahamas.

Ah, poor thing. Having to endure all that sun, white sand and crystal clear water when you would rather be at home wrestling with an electrical problem on your bike. Sympathy attached.