brake on/off - not much change in taillight brightness

raytracer

.040 Over
Joined
Apr 4, 2007
Messages
60
Anybody else experience this? I had someone who was riding behind me tell me they couldnt see when I was braking because my tailight never changed intensity. When I got home and looked at it, it does go brighter when I engage the brakes, but not by very much.

I suppose it might have something to do with they way I hooked up my plate relocation kit.

Has anyone else dealt with this and know the problem?
 
Mine would work when cold but after riding a few minutes it was like the brake light would get stuck. Had the dealer replace the pressure switch and everything worked great. That was about a year ago and still no problems.
 
Sounds like it aint grounding/earthing very well, you must have disturbed it whilst pissing about with it :wink:
You didnt change the bulb did ya....
 
I pulled it apart and can't see anything obviously wrong with it. One thing I noticed is that the bulb has two filaments in it. They are both lit when the brake is not depressed. Upon depressing the brake, one of them goes a little bit brighter, but not by much. I guess I'll try a different bulb.
 
This is going to sound silly, but try putting your bulb in 180 degrees from where how it's current ly intalled. You can also check the two leads that provide light power with a multi-meter. The second filament has higher resistance so is brighter, check you wiring diagram to make sure you have the unit properly grounded. You can also check the pressure switches to make sure that the front and rear aren't fighting each other. Good Luck.
 
Its the bulb mate, as Atom-Murderer says, it sounds like it needs turning 180, or its buggered, Sounds like its using the brake light filament for normal running, which is the brighter of the two, and its activating the lesser for the brake hence its only going slightly brighter when ya brake :wink:
 
It sounds like you have the wiring wrong. There are three wires - a ground that connects to the base of the lamp, a brake filament (the thicker and brighter one), and a tail light.

If both filaments are lit, then you are not getting the ground to the correct point. By the description you have given, I would guess the ground is connected to one of the filaments and the tail light to the other. The brake light wire is connected to the base.

Find out what wire is the ground and make sure it goes to the shell base of the bulb. Then connect the other two. If the brightness of the brake is less than the tail lamp, swap the wires.

The color code of the wiring from the bike is:
Black is ground
Yellow is the tail light
Green/Purple is the Brake light

You should not be able to turn the bulb 180 degrees because it is keyed to go in only one way.


HTH,
Tom
 
I pulled the bulb again and reseated it - seems to be better now for some reason. I"m not sure what you guys mean by grounding wire. The wire for the ground goes through the sheath to the harness, just like the pos/neg wire. No visible damage that I can see along the wire.

I'll check it tonight, see if it really is better. Night is when you can really tell it's not working right.
 
There is no positive/neg wire. There is a black ground wire, a taillight yellow wire, and a green/purple brake light wire. The bulb has two filaments, a bright one for the brake light and a dim one for the tail light. One end of each filament connects to the base of the bulb (the ground). The other end connects to the base contacts.

Go back and check the wiring to see where you crossed them up. If both filaments come on together without applying the brake, then you have the ground (black) connected to one of the two base contacts and the tail light yellow connected to the other base contact. I bet you have the brake light wire (green/purple) connected to the base shell.

Tom
 
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