The orange wire is the hot wire. The white wire is the ground wire. If the white wire is not grounded and you put the bulb in the socket the power from the orange wire flows through the bulb and into the white wire making it hot. The bulb will not light until it has a path to ground for the electrons in the circuit.
The whit wire grounds at the headlight switch when the know is turned all the way CW.
Your headlight switch may not be grounded or the white wire may have a break in it.
Put the bulb back in and run a jumper from the bulb socket to a good ground and the light should come on.
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thinking of just installing a basic on/off switch - cutting white wire and put bulb side of wire to one connector and just installing a direct ground wire to other. will work? any other ideas?
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Do this,---Get a multimeter and check the orange wire at the light socket for 12 volts between the orange wire connection and ground.
Then put the meter on resistance and check the white wire at the light socket for zero ohms between the white wire connection and a good ground. You should get zero ohms, if not the white wire is not grounded and the light will not work, remember the light switch knob has to be all the way to the left.
I don't like to see work arounds like you're contemplating, When the fix is easy. It can create more problems. All you are going to do is switch the white wire to ground just like the headlight switch does.