turned a 2 wire into a three wire brake light brake switch doesn't work

[pnedac]

Good afternoon XSers,

I bought a couple of bullet lights as brake light for my XS build, put a sheet metal screw into the bulb housing to replace the missing third wire (ground) and I am now stuck on why it is not working.

My brake handle (switch) has a green/yellow and a black wire.

My brake light has red, black, and now a yellow (I have frame grounded the yellow)

I put black from the brake lights to the black wire to the brake switch

I put the red wires from the brake lights to the green/yellow on the brake switch and I fed hot power to them from the same wire I am using to give power to the headlight.

I have used a test light and I see that I do have power to the red to green/yellow curcuit, but nothing in the black to black curcuit.

So there is where I am lost as everything is conected, but no power.

I also tried feeding power to both the black to black and red to green/yellow, but I got nothing when I hit the brakes.

I am lost because it seems to be right and is in accordance with the simplified wiring diagram on this site, but I have no brake lights. I have lights back ther, but no secondary (brighter) lights.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

BTW I have fuses on everything so I would suspect that those would blow before I pop the light.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Pnedac

 

[trance]

bad bulb?

try adding power right to the wires at the light, to make sure you have a good connection inside of the light and a good bulb.

If that's OK, then check for continuity in the wires moving forward to the brake switch.

Possible bad brake switch?

I *think* you have the circuit hooked up OK, but it's possible that it's not. Try isolating the brake light from the tail light and try to get ONE of them to blink when you hit the brakes.

 

[pnedac]

trance,


I took your advice and checked the bulb. The filiment is intact and the bulb, like the units, are new. I also checked for continuity as you mentioned and I seem to be alright. I am not sure how to test the brake switch unit itself, but how would I know if the little plastice unit with the little button is working or not? I can confirn that there is power going to the brake lights. I have a power wire going to both the black and the green/yellow wires and they both seem to be okay all the way back to the brak lights.

Does the fact that the brake running lights turn on mean that the brakes must have a good ground? Just curious.

This has been getting the best of me all weekend. Perhaps I need to make a little video and perhaps someone can view it and point out the silly thing I keep missing.

Thanks for the support.

 

[lidirtrider]

Some of those aftermarket bullet lights are single filament bulbs/lights. Meaning they are only on or off. The red wire on the light is for power, and the black is the ground. Just adding a ground to the light housing will not give you a running/brake light. Even if you used a dual filament bulb it would be on or off.

It has to be a dual filament to be used as a running and brake light.

 

[pnedac]

I do have a general bot of confusion on this which perhaps someone could shed some light on.

How is it that there are two filaments in the brake light bulb, each of which need to be seperately powered, but I can take the brake light unit off and with the red to one side of a battery and the black to the other, it turns right on. I thought black in this case was the negative (ground) so how is it able to then power a second filament and I had to add a third wire to the base of the bulb tube to create a ground?

I feel silly, but I am no electrician. I have a wired up a few bikes, but this is the first bit of real trouble I have run into.

Thanks,

 

[pnedac]

Some of those aftermarket bullet lights are single filament bulbs/lights. Meaning they are only on or off. The red wire on the light is for power, and the black is the ground. Just adding a ground to the light housing will not give you a running/brake light. Even if you used a dual filament bulb it would be on or off.

It has to be a dual filament to be used as a running and brake light.

I think they are dual filament because the description said it can be used as a turn signal or brake light (came with yellow or red lenses). Here is the link

http://www.lickscycles.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=109&products_id=2242

It definitely came with two filaments, only one of which comes on.

Hmmm...

 

[visimpact]

Forget the colors. First make sure that your ground is correct on you brake housing. Find which one is the running light and which is the brake. Take power from headlight bucket and run to one side of brake switch take the other wire and run it back to the back brake light. Run power to the back brake light connect power to power ground the housing and connect the brake switch wire to the brake bulb. Power will be on when the bike is running Nd when u squeeze the brake power from that will go thru the wire running from front brake switch back to other wire connected to the brake bulb.

 

[visimpact]

Look into where the wires run inside housing and see whicjph is which. U should be able to test it on a battery to make sure it works as a dual light brake running

 

[trance]

I think they are dual filament because the description said it can be used as a turn signal or brake light (came with yellow or red lenses). Here is the link

http://www.lickscycles.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=109&products_id=2242

It definitely came with two filaments, only one of which comes on.

Hmmm...

1) pull out the bulb
2) look carefully inside of it. You should see 2 curly wires if it's a dual filament bulb.
3) look at the bottom. Does it have 1 or 2 silver dots? 1= single filament, 2= dual filament.

From looking at the product, I suspect it is single filament. It does NOT say that you can use it as a tail light AND a brake light.

single:

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=sing...w=177&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:73

dual:

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=dual...dsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:10,s:0,i:102&tx=167&ty=44

 

[aldo5468]

I think "or" means it can be connected as either a brake light or a directional signal, but not both, in which case the red should be power and the black should be ground.

 

[pnedac]

Well some good observations here. I will certainly have to take a good look at what I am dealing with in a little bit and see what I find. If this turns out to be a one trick pony, I will be pretty disappointed. More to follow. This is driving me nuts, but like nature, it will get worked out in time.

Thanks for the support on this gents.

 

[lidirtrider]

OK, so the terminology can be confusing for these aftermarket lights.

If it had two wires than it is a single filament. The description says turn OR brake light. A little decieving in the description. It will work as brake light, but NOT a running/brake light. Meaning, it will be off, and when the brakes are applied, assuming it is wiried properly, it will illuminate. I used to work in a motorcycle dealer here in NY and we, ran into this on an almost daily basis.

I will try to clarify this a little more. "Filament" refers only to the actual bulb. Like someone else said, one curly wire inside the bulb, Single filament. 2 curly wires in the bulb, Dual filament. Single filament is either OFF or ON. Dual filament is, again assuming it is wired correctly, OFF, ON (with smaller, lower wattage filament lit) or ON (with both filaments lit, brighter light).

Now, onto the housing. If it only has 2 wires, it is a single filament system. Black is ground, red is power. If it has 3 wires, it is a dual filament system. Black is ground, red is power for one filament, and the 3rd wire, usually red with a white stripe, is power for the other filament.

I hope this helps. I don't much about alot of things, but I am certain about these cheap little lights. I used to sell tons of them, and would have to give this speech almost daily.

 

[5twins]

Not to add more confusion here, but sometimes a dual filament combination brake/tail light only has 2 wires and grounds through the housing. The 2 wires are power to each filament and the ground is established when you bolt the housing to the bike.

 

[pnedac]

Well everyone, it is with profound pleasure that I inform you that I got it! 5twins, you are right about it being two wire, but dual filament as this was the case. I had to drill a small sheet metal screw into the inside of the light nearest the bulb tube and ran the ground out to the frame. I actually just disconnected this whole curcuit and used alligator clips and the battery to make sure that things were working. I then reconnected every (properly this time) and voila! Running lights (black from the brake lights to black at the brake switch) are powered with the same wire as the headlight, the red wires from the brake lights connect to the grn/yellow on the brake switch and the ground, which I had to add, is grounded to the frame. I do believe that in many cases the brake light housing itself is to be the ground, but this light(s) has a seperated piece inside where the ground needs to be and there is a rubber gasket that would not allow for it to really ground.

That was probably about as frustrated as I've been with my XS, but like anything else patience pays off.

Thanks again to everyone!

 

[trance]

I actually just disconnected this whole curcuit and used alligator clips and the battery to make sure that things were working.

well that's great news!

what you did (quoted above) is exactly right - start at one end and work your way back testing along the way to find the problem. sounds like in your case it was just hooked up wrong or maybe a bad connection.