admit your stupidity, part two
 

ok, this trumps any dumbA$$ move i ever made in the past.
newyears evening, getting chev pickup ready for snoboard trip. i went to top off the windshield wash fluid. pop the hood, it doesnt open. panic (still hungover, sleepy). look and see two bolts holding the latchmechnism way in behind the grill. suprisingly, get the two bolts off with 10 diff tool combos. i dragged my gfriend out into the cold to pull the handle while i jiggle the hood. she ask, "which handle?"
i respond, "the handle on top!"
she says, "the one that says BRAKE RELEASE?"

mothereffer if i wasnt pulling the wrond damn handle! took me 1.5 hours to realign the latch! i shouldnt even be allow near tools!

cliff

This wasn't quite dumbass...just a "shoulda known better."

I was riding home from work on my VFR and I noticed that my headlight was out. I tried the brights, no go. Flipped the switch a few times. No go. Rode home like a bat outta hell to get home while there was still light.

Got home and left it in the garage where it sat until the weekend when I could work on it.

The PO had put in a high-wattage bulb for high beams so I figured I'd replace that first. But before I did that I popped the fuse cover off and checked the headlight fuse. Fuse was ok. Just for kicks I swapped the headlight fuse into the parking light fuse socket...still OK. Popped the headlight fuse back in its socket and started the bike. Still no lights (no lo beams, no hi beams, no light on the dash).

Sigh....off with 5 fairing pieces, both mirrors, and the headlight ass'y to get to the bulb. Swapped in a new, OEM bulb I had laying around. Put it all back together. Started the bike. No go. Headlight still didn't work.

Took it all apart and swapped bulbs again...but forgot to replace the rubber boot covering the terminals back on the headlight housing. Took it all apart enough to get the boot back on. Put it all together again. Started the bike. Still no go.

Just for *****s and giggles I did the fuse swap again. I put the parking light fuse in the headlight fuse, and the headlight fuse in the parking light fuse slot. Started the bike. Tried the light. It worked. Hi and lo. WTF???

Took the fuse cover off again and swapped fuses again. The headlight worked again. Buttoned everything up. Started the bike. The headlight stopped working. WTF????

Well, after hours of disassembly, reassembly, random component swapping and testing, it turns out it was the headligh cutoff in the starter switch. Most bikes cut off the headlight when the starter is depressed to send full voltage to the starter. The contacts are getting flaky, so sometimes when you release the starter switch, the headlight circuit is left cut.

All I have to do is wiggle the switch around when the headlight goes out. Eventually I'll replace it....

Well, if we were all perfect we'd be R Gruppe members!

Tabs, you cement my point. Thank you.