Neutral light goes off

[fbenach]

Hello everyone!!
Have a new problem here...

My neutral light goes off even if I´m in neutral position... it kinda blinks sometimes in neutral, and after some time riding, it gets stabilized and works ok....
I had a clutch cable rip exactly at the clutch lever some days ago and replaced it with a little bit longer cable my mechanic had while I buy the new one... but it started giving me the problem today.

I can start the bike with the lever pressed and everything goes ok, but with the light off and the lever unpressed, it doesnt let me start it... so, I guess is somehow an contact problem at the lever, but cant see where....

Any ideas??
Thanks in advance!!

[Bob_Roller]

Sounds like the neutral indication switch is going bad .

Not too uncommon to have problems with it, not a sturdy switch to begin with .

[montmil]

"I can start the bike with the lever pressed..."

Are you talking about the clutch lever or shift lever? Pressed out or pulled (pressed?) toward you? If I understand correctly, your neutral indicator lamp problem began with the install of a new/different clutch cable. I'm not familiar with the '79 model switch assemblies but have you checked the small electrical switch within the clutch-side handlebar switch assembly?

Could be the new cable has improper adjustment to push in the very small switch plunger.

[fbenach]

Thank you guys.
We checked the bike today and discover the light tends to go off and on when you move the direction (steering) side to side.
We will check the cable that goes to the sensor (I think there´s a relay involved somewhere) and the one that goes to the clutch lever.
The sensor seems to be ok.

[montmil]

No relay in the neutral indicator lamp wiring. Sounds as if you have an intermittent short somewhere. Not that many wires and connections in the circuit so tracing should not be that hard.

Make sure all connections are clean and secure. Full lock steering causing the odd operation? Might be a pinched wire near the fork/steering head.

[nhmaf]

This is a diagram that someone else had drawn long ago, but it illustrates the wiring scheme logically.   Basically, either the clutch switch (on one side of the diode) or else the neutral switch (which causes the light to illuminate) must make contact with the bike's ground/frame for the starter relay to be active.   If your bike starts with the clutch pulled in, at least that part seems to be working.  If the light flickers while turning the bars, there is likely an open circuit (or possibly a short to an adjacent power wire) in the wiring from the neutral switch (underneath side of the gearbox) which runs from (2) tabs on the neutral switch, up the left side frame tube to the steering head.    At one point the diode was inside of the headlight assembly, but I think that with all the R65 bikes - or at least all the R models from 1981 on had the diode buried into the wiring harness along the backbone underneath the fuel tank.   But it doesn't appear that you have a bad diode issue.  so I would look for abraded wires or loose connections from the steering head area.  But, also check the wiring down to the neutral switch.   If you had a multimeter it would be easy to check by clipping the leads to the terminals on the neutral switch and watching it as you slowly move the handlebars.