I figure I should ask these while I'm still a nooB because they seem like dumb questions.

1.)  Is the rear brake light only supposed to turn on when I hit the foot brake, or should the hand brake also close the circuit. (cause mine dont, and I can't find it in Clymer)

2.)  Do the rear brakes have a squealer on the pads?  Mine are hideously noisy and I don't wanna go into the wheel if it's just normal noise.

Note the switch on the brake lever..

Disco & short wires, see if lite comes on,, check for V there,


Brakes arent worn out, bet on it.

Yea,, I got that.. look up on the hand brake lever, unhook the switch, check for 12 V,, IF you got 12 volts, a paperclip will short them together, make a U shape,, lite otta come on.,


CAREFULLY clean the dust outta the rear drum.,

Dont breathe it in,, Its a pretty crude setup,, big clunky & simple, youre not gonna lose anything. Gotta pull the wheel,, Unhook the brake, I put the wingnut back on & keep all the goodies on the rod. Spacers are different, pay attention, Marksfor aligning the rear wheel arent known for their accuracy, align rear wheel with eyes open,. OHH,, & dont get the little chrome thing upside down,, or youll have NO marks,

1.... front brake should operate brake light...  Like JOG said, test the switch...

2... Adjuster marks will get you real close,... use them, lightly snug the wheel,.. and double check using a yardstick, laid against the tire... sight down the yardstick and see that the tire looks to be running parallel to the swingarm, beltguard, and bike in general...

(Surest way to quiet the rear brake, is to use the front more)... ...

Well, I didn't get to the rear wheel today.  I opened up the switch to check it and it's beyond repair.  I spent a long time cleaning, retesting, re-soldering connections that were busted, and in the end the switch is just dead.  It's a really crappy switch design, they didn't happen to upgrade it in later models did they?

It's basically a pair of rails with a sliding copper square that electrically connects the two if the switch is moved past a certain position, and disconnects it if its moved back.  However, the rails have worn down so far that the square no longer connects them, and in trying to fix it, the copper piece disappeared into a hole in the floor (oops).

Quote:


People say to me all the time,... "How dumb are you?"...

Now, that's a dumb question... ...

Not half as dumb as I look,... I'll tell you that...
Not even close.....  ...