Brake Levers - Help!

[Omnius]

This morning i came out of my house to find my bike on the side with the remnants of the front brake lever on the floor It seems he wind and the gods didn’t want me to ride to work today...
It's a 2003, GS500 and I’ve just bought a new break lever which I’m hoping to fit when i get back home after work.
The only problem is that I’ve never done any kind of maintenance to a bike before and i want to know any tips from anyone who has had to do this before and if its harder to do when the levers are adjustable?

Thanks!

Edited by Omnius on Friday 7th December 17:55

[bimsb6]

good news ...... it's really easy to do ,undo nut under lever pivot point undo pivot bolt from top
remove bolt ,remove broken lever ,check new one is the same as old one ! reverse above process DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN BOLT OR NUT ! check lever moves and returns ,check brakes still work ,ride away .

[Omnius]

Thanks! I'm going to give it a go in a minute! Fingers crossed!

[bimsb6]

and??????????

[Omnius]

Sorry Bimsb6, i said thanks in another post! It was really easy to do, didn't take 5 minutes. I got back in later in the evening and when i turned it on i realised that the headlight was broken! Being inspired by your tips on my first bit of DIY i changed the headlight and... it didn't work...
Everything else works all the other lights and i made sure not to touch the bulb so i'm a bit confused. Someone said it might be the fuses but god knows where they are...

[Steve_T]

The fuses and relays for the electrics are most likely under your seat. You can check each fuse in turn by pulling it out and looking for a break in the fuse. I'd also check the connector to the headlight to see if it's corroded at all. This may be enough to stop things working. You'll need a test meter and a wiring diagram to trouble shoot further than this. There's nothing technically difficult about it, the hardest bit I find is mapping the wiring diagram onto reality, when I work out where the wires go around the frame.

Cheers,

Steve.

ETA : found one here: http://server6.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=g...

Edited by Steve_T on Monday 10th December 08:07

[Steve_T]

Looking at the diagram, it's wired much like my SV, however there's only a single fuse, which supplies power to everything on the bike. There's an orange wire returning from the ignition switch (this is the bit that I think is under the seat), so check that there's 12v there when you have the ignition on. When you turn the headlight on via the switch on the bars (probably the right bar), the orange wire going in, switches a yellow & white wire which goes out the dip beam/main beam switch on the handle bars (probably the left bar). The yellow&white going in, will supply power to the white wire on low beam, or yellow wire on high beam in the connector to the headlight. You'll need a test meter which can measure voltage and check for continuity to do these checks.

Steve.

Edited by Steve_T on Monday 10th December 08:19

[Omnius]

Wow, thanks a lot Steve! I'm gonna try and give it a go this afternoon, hopefully I'll be able to stop being afraid of the dark...