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Afraid to ride in the dark...

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Old 04-01-2015, 06:34 AM
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Afraid to ride in the dark...

My brake light works fine but the tail light doesn't turn on when I start up the bike. I replaced the wiring harness to resolve some other issues hoping it would also fix the taillight but to no avail.
Can anyone tell me what I should be looking at to get this fixed?
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Old 04-01-2015, 06:51 AM
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Did you check the bulb?

James
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Old 04-01-2015, 09:29 AM
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Originally Posted by thedeatons
Did you check the bulb?

James
The bulbs work since they are the same bulbs the brakes use.
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Old 04-01-2015, 09:31 AM
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Its a dual filament bulb. Replace it and go from there.
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Old 04-01-2015, 11:12 AM
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You should replace the bulbs, on filament can burn out leaving the other one.

Look on here for the wiring diagram to find what wire colors to test. There is a bundled of bullet connectors in the tail. Your tail lights are likely unplugged if the bulbs are fine.
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Old 04-01-2015, 01:50 PM
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We had a customer that rolled in on a Triumph. He said "look at this" and he pulled the brake lever and the headlight came on. He said "I know this is not possible. I looked at the schematic and they two circuits are separate." My boss told hin to go up front and buy a tail light bulb and that we would put it in for him. The trouble was, the tail light filament broke, since it is the lightest of the two filaments, and it fell down onto the brake light filament. When the brake switch was engaged the circuit sent power through the lighting circuit to the headlight.
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Old 04-01-2015, 03:39 PM
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Jim that is a crazy story. I thought one in a million dilemas only happened to me!
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Old 04-01-2015, 04:26 PM
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Thumbs up

Report back after you check suggested bulb. If you've never seen one they look like this:


If one of the two burn out, you will loose either bright brake lighting or the dim running light.
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Old 04-01-2015, 07:54 PM
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Damn that's a big *** bulb!

Last edited by captainchaos; 04-01-2015 at 08:02 PM.
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Old 04-02-2015, 04:39 AM
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No, according to Wolverine, that's a suggested bulb.
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Old 04-02-2015, 06:01 AM
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Originally Posted by VTR1000F
No, according to Wolverine, that's a suggested bulb.
lol
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Old 04-02-2015, 08:16 AM
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Thank you for enlightening me! Didn't know about the dual filiment. I'll pull them and take a look.
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Old 04-02-2015, 11:15 AM
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Lightbulb

Originally Posted by VTR1000F
No, according to Wolverine, that's a suggested bulb.
You're pretty bright to have noticed that.
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Old 04-02-2015, 12:06 PM
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I know. Blink, and you could miss it. This kind of attention to detail is the filament that runs through everything I do. It gives great illumination to...eh, I'm done. I'm getting burned out on this.

Last edited by VTR1000F; 04-02-2015 at 12:06 PM. Reason: editing
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Old 04-02-2015, 12:20 PM
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What an illuminating thread!
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:25 PM
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I already did illumination. Thanks for playing.
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:44 PM
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Oh missed it, I must have been blinded by the light. It is an incandescent thread though!
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Old 04-02-2015, 02:05 PM
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Touché. Nice usage.
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Old 04-02-2015, 04:26 PM
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You guys are really bright.
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Old 04-02-2015, 04:47 PM
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Old 04-02-2015, 05:16 PM
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Wow, Crux, that was funny six hours ago.
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Old 04-02-2015, 05:25 PM
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Old 04-02-2015, 05:26 PM
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I'm aglow with happiness that this thread has went this far.
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Old 04-02-2015, 08:35 PM
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.
Attached Thumbnails Afraid to ride in the dark...-bill-lightbulb.jpg  
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Old 05-21-2015, 07:32 PM
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Figured I'd finally update this thread with what I ended up doing with the taillight. I bought one of those ebay led taillights. I just installed a new wiring harness and there was no way I was going to cut it up. I sawed off the piece the bulb goes into and wired it to the new taillight so I could just click it in. Also got some male thingys to wire the turn signals to. It's not as pretty as stock but it's exactly what I wanted to do.





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Old 05-21-2015, 07:45 PM
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Good job, just hope you weren't riding around invisible all this time! I wouldn't have cut the harness either.
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