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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Brake light not working but its not that simple...
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Message started by Reesetricted on 01/08/11 at 02:21:46

Title: Brake light not working but its not that simple...
Post by Reesetricted on 01/08/11 at 02:21:46

This is either a stupid question or I have done something stupid. Im prepared to be stupid. Here goes...

My bike is on a(DIY) jack without wheels(and all that implies) and without the seat. It has not blinkers as it is a bobber. i installed LEDs today,,= while its undergoing its present upgrades, and decided to rewire the brake light. The brake light wiring was kinda sloppy and I wanted to run it through the swingarm and zip tie it stealth-like. I havent even put a key in the bike for the past couple weeks as I have been working on it. I turned it on to make sure I had wired the light properly and it didnt come on.... NOT SO FAST.... I jiggled the bulb around (I had removed the cover of my trailer style light to clean it, and they is abundant bulb grease in the socket since it is almost on the ground and those things arent quite water tight.) and it came on. I pressed the rear brake (the cable of which is not connected to anything) and it remained illuminated on "low", as in, the brake indicator didnt come on. I pressed the front brake, same thing. I was concerned that I had switched the wires (though I was pretty sure i hadnt) during my heat shink/zip tie party, so i switched the wires. This time it was bright! Bright like I was depressing the brake.... but i wasnt. Again I pressed the brakes and again the light was static. Sooo... My question is this- Have I accidentally unplugged or fried or otherwise broken the brake switch or is there some ground that is not present to make the darn thing work properly? Oh, and where might I locate that switch if I happen to need to replace it? Thanks in advance.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Ed L. on 01/08/11 at 07:04:21

Make sure you have a good ground going to the socket. The lights should have a seperate ground wire, it is not like an car light where the socket is always the ground.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by verslagen1 on 01/08/11 at 08:44:23

The light came on, so you got ground.
Ed's right, don't depend on the frame for ground.
check the hot side of the switches to make sure you got heat.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Reesetricted on 01/08/11 at 13:39:23

Where are the switches located? Are there 2? 1 front and 1 rear? It would be especially strange it they both went out or lost ground at once.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by MotoBuddha on 01/08/11 at 15:11:24

Here's a test: put the incandescent bulbs back in and see if you still have the problem.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Reesetricted on 01/08/11 at 18:55:32

Oh sorry I wasn't clear enough... The brake light bulb in question IS incandescent. The LEDs I installed are under the rear fender and gas tank aimed down on the engine and towards the front wheel(or where it should be). I didn't remove the tank just placed them on the rim and poked the wires through the cavity with a piece of bamboo.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Routy on 01/09/11 at 07:01:40

As I remember, if the rear brake is disconnected, the pedal can be pressed way beyond its stoplite switch limits, inturn over stretching and runining the spring that actuates the switch, so then your switch may not be activating properly. Keep in mind, sometimes if you adjust your rear brake, the stop lite will quit working, untill you go back and adjust the switch to compensate for the brake adjustment.

I would suggest you find the switch, and see whats going on, and how it operates before fighting the wiring. You need a 12v test lite too.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by thumperclone on 01/09/11 at 08:55:31

the front sw is at the brake master cyl,i can hear mine click
rear is above the lever,
they work independent of each other

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Reesetricted on 01/09/11 at 12:38:52

thanks for the info. I actually tried to post last night but I guess it didnt click 'post'. I traced the rear brake back to the switch but still couldnt locate the front(I didnt take off the tank). I can hear the front brake click when I engage it as well. Im baffled. I think Ill wait to put the bike back together and see if it doesnt miraculously start working... I mean what are the chances that both switches go out at once...?

This is something that has occurred to me repeatedly(which is why I included it in the description).... Since the bike is not actually touching the ground, is it grounded?

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Reesetricted on 01/09/11 at 12:49:46

Ill see it I can play with the rear switch as well, couldnt hurt(too much).

As a side note, the LEDs work great.

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l33/JoshRReese/LEDinstallSMALL.jpg

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Max_Morley on 01/09/11 at 13:10:11

The tail light assembly needs to grounded back to the chassis ground. It is possible for the low current flow tail light filament to use the stop filament for a ground path and the tail light filament to serve as a resister preventing the stop light filament from working. GM did that on the front turn lights of their 88-98 PU trucks and we had alternatively flashing turn signals on them. Use a jumper and test to make sure the light assembly is grounded. Max

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Reesetricted on 01/09/11 at 14:30:53

Now that is genius problem solving. Ill bet(and hope) thats the case. Ill check it out.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Ed L. on 01/10/11 at 16:28:46

Yup, like I said make sure the ground wire is grounded properly. I had the same problem when I installed aftermarket rear lights.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Reesetricted on 01/11/11 at 00:05:15

When that solved it i was going to give you props Ed. Obviously I didnt think it was the ground as it was lighting up. Well.... it wasnt. After I ran a ground straight to the battery and to exposed frame and there was no change I opened it up again to see if the bolts I was grounding were actually connected to the bulb as I thought they were. I took out the bulb and wiped it and the socket clean of grease. When I went to put it back in I notced it didnt want to go... I looked at the spikes on the side of the bulb and matched them up with the slots (rather than just sticking it in and rotating it until it fell into place). It still wouldnt seat. I was sure I was doing it right (and was pretty frustrated) so I pushed the bulb hard enough to where I was afraid of it breaking in my fingers. It popped into place and I rotated it. Evidently 1 side of the seat was stuck and wouldnt depress to accept bulb. I was pretty much blindly inserting the bulb expecting it to work as it should. As it turns out the bulb was only seating one of its contacts at a time and thus the mystery is solved.

Basically I cant screw in a light bulb without the help of 6 people. FML and God help us all.

I didnt take it back out to see if I broke the socket, it works and thats all I care about for now.

My friend called today and said that they ran out of tan ostrich leather and that they are doing it in pink. He could have made it a bit more believable. Who the hell would dye ostrich pink? Thing are coming together!!! Estimated completion, 2 weeks from today (monday). Then no more taking my bike apart for any reason except it being broken. Im hoping for engine failure around Dec of next year. My buddy has all manner of bore and planing gear, even a flow table, that I think would work out nicely with the recommended power adders.... or i might pickup a scrap heap and strip it. I like the idea of a thumper beating my 4 cyclindered friends, who presently envy my bike but make fun of its inadequacies. All the guys that race love sitting on it and fantasizing about tracking it or motard or whatever... Its just so darn light... Stripped with a peanut tank, street fighter mask... hehe. Im off to craigslist :)

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Arnold on 01/11/11 at 09:06:56

Same thing happened to me with turn signal bulbs, why are those sockets so darn hard to put bulbs in? I broke one bulb while taking it off.

Title: Re: Brake light not working but its not that simpl
Post by Ed L. on 01/11/11 at 16:27:27

Yeah, I've had a bulb breakin my fingers and it caused me to bleed >:( good to hear you got it figured out.