About a year ago I had a short in my brake light wiring that I found to be in the handlebar switch. Rather than replace the switch or the affected wiring I just unplugged the switch wire from the harness inside the front outer fairing, thus eliminating the short and leaving me with brake lights activated by the rear brake pedal. Now the short has returned and I checked everything by unplugging the rear brake light switch, no help, and unplugging the harness under the seat that goes to the rear lights, no help, the short remains. All other lights and systems work normal. Any other ideas before I'm forced to use the dealer?
Short in brake lights
- Thread starter dd1228
- Start date
I guess I am having trouble figuring out what you call a "short".
Were the brake lights on all the time initially and when you unplugged the front hand lever momentary switch at the harness, the brake light extinguished properly, and only activate when pressing the brake pedal...correct?
Now the brake lights "short" means the brake lights are all on again and now even if you unplug the foot brake switch plug, the lights are still on...correct?
Use your ohmmeter (with the ignition system off) with one lead to chassis ground, and ohmout the two isolated plug connections and see if one side is grounded. There should be high resistance because you have unplugged the connector. Now you will need a schematic, because you want to verify neither side is grounded (pull each switch socket and ohm out to confirm continuity. A common culprit is cut insulation as it passes thru a holddown clip or similar.
Were the brake lights on all the time initially and when you unplugged the front hand lever momentary switch at the harness, the brake light extinguished properly, and only activate when pressing the brake pedal...correct?
Now the brake lights "short" means the brake lights are all on again and now even if you unplug the foot brake switch plug, the lights are still on...correct?
Use your ohmmeter (with the ignition system off) with one lead to chassis ground, and ohmout the two isolated plug connections and see if one side is grounded. There should be high resistance because you have unplugged the connector. Now you will need a schematic, because you want to verify neither side is grounded (pull each switch socket and ohm out to confirm continuity. A common culprit is cut insulation as it passes thru a holddown clip or similar.
turnerbend
Active Member
I'm having the same problem. Found that the cruse control light on console would go out when fuse blew. It would happen mostly when I would sharply turn handlebar in either direction while parked. Open up flairing and move wiring around but did not find any bare wiring. Fuse blowing has ceased for now. Still looking. Good luck.
D
dbmg
Guest
This means that the hot side of power is going straight to ground. There has to be a pinched wire that is grounding to some metal on bike or has part of the harness been pinched and grounding out.. It maybe as simple as a affected brake light socket causing it to short out......
Check by the neck where the harness goes around the neck. There's an abrasion point there on a lot of bikes.
You have to try to isolate the section that the short is in by disconnecting different parts of the harness until the short doesn't blow the fuse and go from that point out away from the battery.
turnerbend
Active Member
Thanks Glider, will check.