Trouble with the tail/ breaklight circuit

[xsPete]

G'day,
Another one of my many questions on wiring this thing from scratch.

HEADLIGHT -I'm using a K&S handlebar switch (15-0055)
It has
Headlight main
Low Beam
Hi Beam as separate wires

I wired main through to power (fuseblock)
I wired low to low on the headlight
I wired hi to hi on the headlight
All this works great

TAIL LIGHT - Posh with 3 wires, red which I assume is brake, black/white which I asume is tail light, black which I assume is earth.

I hooked it up to Headlight main which I didn't mind at all as it comes on when the ignition is open, except lo & hi don't change

I hooked it up to headlight low beam it's on with lo but goes out when I switch to hi, the headlight still works though.

BRAKE LIGHT

Hooked up as continuity switch setup

If I hook the brake up without the headlight lo circuit it works.

As soon as I hook in the tail light it will work on lo only and the brake light doesn't work at all.

I'm stumped on this.

Any help appreciated.

Pete

 

[XSLeo]

Your Headlight worked fine till you hooked up the tail/brake light, correct?
On your tail light take it apart enough to know just which wire does what. If you take off the lense, remove the bulb and pull the wires out of the socket a bit so you can see which colors are to the bulb.
This tells you that those two colors are power to the tail and brake lights. The third color is ground.
Now with the ground hooked up run a jumper wire from battery positive and touch it to the power wires to the bulb, one color at a time. Which ever wire lights the tail/brake light bright is the brake light wire, the one that lights it dimmer is the tail light.
Now hook the one you determined is the tail light to power after the key switch.
This will light the tail light when ever the key is on.
Now hook the brake light wire to the brake light switches.
Try this it should work then.
Leo

 

[xsPete]

Tks XSLeo,
one thing i didn't do was dig around inside the light itself, I'll do that tonight and try again.
I'll also pull the battery from my other bike and try with that, I've only got a 0.8 amphr in the xs and it's starting to run dowm.

My preferred option is to have the tail wired to come on with ignition.

Pete

 

[xsPete]

Your Headlight worked fine till you hooked up the tail/brake light, correct?
On your tail light take it apart enough to know just which wire does what. If you take off the lense, remove the bulb and pull the wires out of the socket a bit so you can see which colors are to the bulb.
This tells you that those two colors are power to the tail and brake lights. The third color is ground.
Now with the ground hooked up run a jumper wire from battery positive and touch it to the power wires to the bulb, one color at a time. Which ever wire lights the tail/brake light bright is the brake light wire, the one that lights it dimmer is the tail light.
Now hook the one you determined is the tail light to power after the key switch.
This will light the tail light when ever the key is on.
Now hook the brake light wire to the brake light switches.
Try this it should work then.
Leo

Thanks XSLeo,
It looks like it was in the tail light itself. when I pulled the bulb, the contactors weren't lining up right and the stem where the bulb sits was crooked. Realigned and straightened and it's sorted.

Tail light with ignition on (how I wanted it)
Brakes good & Headlights good.

Now for the Chinese speedo with lights, indicators & neutral my son got for me off flebay



Tks Pete