Brake light troubles, NEED HELP!!

1414 Views 14 Replies 8 Participants Last post by davewhoz, Nov 13, 2006

davewhoz

Discussion Starter · Nov 8, 2006

Strangest thing started happening. I have the new bonneville Fender Eliminator installed. For the past two weeks, the brake light has been going fritzy on me. I replaced the bulb, checked all the wiring leading into the harness, etc. It will sometimes work, sometimes won't.

Here's the weird part - the thing doesn't work with the ignition on -- no running light taillight, no brake light -- but when the ignition is switched to accessory or park or whatever the other switch is, the running light won't turn on, but if I hit the brakes, the light will switch on.

It only happens every other day though. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. I checked the fuses -- no problems there.

Any ideas how to fix?

1 - 15 of 15 Posts

kwajazz

· #2 · Nov 8, 2006

Dave, my first suggestion is WAKE UP!!! (it could all be a very bad, annoying dream, kinda sounds like one).

If that doesn't work, you're on your own. I do, however, have NB's taillight wire harness also. So I'll be following your travails with much anticipation, cause mine will likely start doing what yours is.

CYNCRZR

· #3 · Nov 8, 2006

Dave -

More than likely it's not got a good ground. To prove this strip the ends off a short piece of wire. Wrap one end around the bolt that hold the light to the mounting plate, touch the other end to a good ground. If the lights work, this is the problem.

The tailight is attempting to be grounded through contact with the frame through the mounting bolt. Mine was mostly not grounding so I built a wire and permanently grounded it through the wiring harness. You could do that or just have it ground through the frame with a wire from the mounting bolt on the tailight to the mounting bolt on the frame.

Hope this helps!

steelcap

· #4 · Nov 8, 2006

I had a similar (intermittant) problem with that same pice of kit. Turned out to be a bad connection where the wire connects to the little disk inside the bulb holder.

I canibalized the disk from my stock light, using the thicker wire alread attached to the stock rear light harness and hooked it up to the NB FEK light - no problems since then.

rabbid

· #5 · Nov 8, 2006

Dave -

did you see my post a day ago on the fender eliminator kit?!? same problems man! its drivin me nutts. i changed the bulb and checked the wires too! nothing! if i reverse the wires i get my brak light on all the time. if i put it back to mormal i only get a brake light and no running light. PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW YOU FIXED YOURS IF YOU GET A CHANCE....THANKS.

cafe666

· #6 · Nov 8, 2006

I've dealt with this same issue myself. Try pulling out your seat mounting screws and see if anything changes.

davewhoz

Discussion Starter · #7 · Nov 8, 2006

I'll have to give those suggestions a shot tonight. What does removing the seat mounting screws have to do with it?

After hearing the suggestions, I'll bet it's a bad ground. I remember seeing the ground lead connected by a bolt under the seat (that held the cover plate in place) that might not have been making direct contact with the frame, now that I think about it.. I'll try it out this evening and make up my findings report.

4Triumph

· #8 · Nov 8, 2006

davewhoz

I would think if it was a bad ground the brake light wouldn't have worked either? I think I'd look better at the socket and wires in it.

PolockJoe

· #9 · Nov 9, 2006

Pull it all off and find out exactly what wires go to what. Those cheap cateye's sometimes use different colors than we are used to....for example: on my cateye, yellow was ground, black was brake and red was running light.

Drove me crazy for a few days until i was finally pissed enough o pull the whole thing off again and inspect it .

davewhoz

Discussion Starter · #10 · Nov 9, 2006

Well, I *THINK* I fixed it. When I pulled the seat off, what appeared to be the ground wire for the brake light only (black, with metal ring) was attached to the bolt that was holding the plate that covers the bottom of the seat -- this bolt is seated in a rubber grommet that prohibited contact. So I got rid of the grommet, stripped some paint off the frame, and attached it properly.

When I fired the bike up, the brake light worked normally. However, knowing that the problem has been intermittant, I'll have to keep up with it for the next couple of weeks to see whether or not this was really the problem.

kwajazz

· #11 · Nov 9, 2006

On 2006-11-08 09:12, CYNCRZR wrote:
Dave -

......so I built a wire and permanently grounded it through the wiring harness. ......

I grounded mine throught the harness also, just clipped off the loop connector and put on a bullet pin and plugged in. It took a minute to sort out who went where, colors didn't match, plus I'm color blind.

kjazz.

davewhoz

Discussion Starter · #12 · Nov 9, 2006

On 2006-11-09 07:58, kwajazz wrote:

I grounded mine throught the harness also, just clipped off the loop connector and put on a bullet pin and plugged in. It took a minute to sort out who went where, colors didn't match, plus I'm color blind.

kjazz.

I don't mean to poke fun at all, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the image that was created in my mind thinking about you being color blind and looking at the wiring harness saying things like "green? red? blue? purple? oh f-ing eyes..."

connecting through the harness *is* probably a much better option. I'll probably do that tonight (though it will have to be *after* a long ride, seeing as since I haven't had it out in 4 days due to weather and the taillight.)

Thanks so much for all your help. As usual, this forum rocks.

-Dave.

[ This message was edited by: davewhoz on 2006-11-09 08:15 ]

rabbid

· #13 · Nov 9, 2006

haha.......anyway i guess i will give it a shot tonight as well....dont really feel like spending time with my girlfriend.

kwajazz

· #14 · Nov 9, 2006

On 2006-11-09 08:15, davewhoz wrote:

On 2006-11-09 07:58, kwajazz wrote:

I grounded mine throught the harness also, just clipped off the loop connector and put on a bullet pin and plugged in. It took a minute to sort out who went where, colors didn't match, plus I'm color blind.

kjazz.

Click to expand...

I don't mean to poke fun at all, but I couldn't help but chuckle at the image that was created in my mind thinking about you being color blind and looking at the wiring harness saying things like "green? red? blue? purple? oh f-ing eyes..."

-Dave.

Ahh that's okay. Can you image why my career as a clothing saleman was very short?! People used to believe I just had bad taste, now I carry a card that proves medically that I cant be trusted to pick out matching anything!!!!!!

kjazz

davewhoz

Discussion Starter · #15 · Nov 13, 2006

So I worked on the ***** bike this weekend, and thought I had it all figured out with the ground and in the harness, and blah blah blah...

So I take it out over the weekend to do a lil' bar hopping (I don't drink @ bars when I take my bike. I'm mostly there for the scenery...) when, while pulling into a parking garage, a cop pulls right up behind me lights flashing.

I didn't even think about what it could be.

But lo and behold, my taillight was out again. Luckily the cop ended up being a really cool guy and a fellow triumph fan, so it was no big deal. In fact, he invited me out to get a "cold one" with him sometime.

But, this alllll led to me taking apart the whole ***** bike and putting it back together again. And I realized what the problem is. It's trivial. it's stupid. It's mind-numbingly obvious.

So I took the housing of the tail light off, and just by chance, looked at the inside of the housing. Interesting, the housing had a nice melted circle right where the light bulb sits.

And then it hit me! the damned housing was just on too tight, and was pushing the bulb in, making it lose contact.....

So now everything is fine. Thanks again for all your help.

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