prodaytrader
Member
I have posted a few threads about how my cruise control hasn't been working and how I was recently told my brake lights were flickering and how I figured the two must be related. I purchased a replacement hand brake light switch because I figured the switch was bad. When I started to disassemble the hand brake unit I discovered that the switch tip appears to be snapped off. It would seem that someone at some point either didn't shim the hand brake or from over use the switch tip snapped off. There is lots of switch left including all of the rubber grommet, but what appears to be missing, when I compare mine and the one I bought, is the round knob at the end of the switch tip. I have something of a delima, now that I know what's going on.
My first thought is that I can replace the switch with the new one, but that has two issues to it which is that the switch wires are so long that they are supposed to be run through the wiring harness down the handle bars and connected somewhere towards the engine block somewhere. This would be OEM installation I suppose. My second option with the switch is to splice the wires somewhere in the brake housing which would save tons of time and energy, but could lead to issues. I am pretty good with wiring and could do a bang up job splicing it, but there is always a risk doing things this way.
Keep in mind that the switch is around 60 dollars, assuming I can return the switch because it is still unopened, my other thought process is to repair the switch by gluing a tip onto the old/existing switch. I could use some pretty good epoxy for the job and I have plenty of access and available work surface to make it work. This has obvious draw backs as well. The epoxy may wear out, break, who knows. The worst that would happen would be that my brake lights come on and stay on if the switch repair didn't hold. The existing surface of the switch has a small hole in the center which would work pretty good for screwing or pressing something small into that hole for additional support. I could also put some sort of shim on the brake as a means of closing the gap to the switch this way. As I recall the hand brake lever has a small protrusion at the end which might allow me to wrap wire around it to install some sort of shim.
Should I attempt to repair the switch myself, replace the switch at a cost of 60 bucks and if I replace the switch should I splice the switch in or run the wires to wherever they suggest I run them which would probably takes hours to do? I really would like to save the money if I can. I just dumped 300 bucks on a oil cooler and another 30 bucks on an oil change. If I can save the 60 dollars I would just assume do that, but not at the cost of doing a shotty job I suppose.
My first thought is that I can replace the switch with the new one, but that has two issues to it which is that the switch wires are so long that they are supposed to be run through the wiring harness down the handle bars and connected somewhere towards the engine block somewhere. This would be OEM installation I suppose. My second option with the switch is to splice the wires somewhere in the brake housing which would save tons of time and energy, but could lead to issues. I am pretty good with wiring and could do a bang up job splicing it, but there is always a risk doing things this way.
Keep in mind that the switch is around 60 dollars, assuming I can return the switch because it is still unopened, my other thought process is to repair the switch by gluing a tip onto the old/existing switch. I could use some pretty good epoxy for the job and I have plenty of access and available work surface to make it work. This has obvious draw backs as well. The epoxy may wear out, break, who knows. The worst that would happen would be that my brake lights come on and stay on if the switch repair didn't hold. The existing surface of the switch has a small hole in the center which would work pretty good for screwing or pressing something small into that hole for additional support. I could also put some sort of shim on the brake as a means of closing the gap to the switch this way. As I recall the hand brake lever has a small protrusion at the end which might allow me to wrap wire around it to install some sort of shim.
Should I attempt to repair the switch myself, replace the switch at a cost of 60 bucks and if I replace the switch should I splice the switch in or run the wires to wherever they suggest I run them which would probably takes hours to do? I really would like to save the money if I can. I just dumped 300 bucks on a oil cooler and another 30 bucks on an oil change. If I can save the 60 dollars I would just assume do that, but not at the cost of doing a shotty job I suppose.
