Brake Light Tail light Question

[conkers]

I just bought my first africa twin RD07A (1997) and now I notice My brake light and tail light is doing some funky stuff....

The rear light is really bright, and when I pull the brakes it gets just a little bit (almost indiscernably) brighter.
So I immediately thought what you are thinking... "some muppet as managed to rodger the bulb in upside down, therefore giving 21w for tail light and the 5w for the brakes"

But on closer inspection, only the 21w filament is getting juice, and it just gets (a tad) more juice when I operate the brakes. If I rodger the bulb in the wrong way around the same thing happens, only the 5w filament is now illuminated and gets a tad brigher when the brakes are on.



I already tried a search here and but couldn't find any reference to a problem like this, has anyone ever heard of this before?

Conkers.

[BobA]

Sounds like it could be a bad earth to the rear light unit maybe?

Check the green (I think) wire where the small loom from the rear light joins the main loom. If there's no/or a bad connection at that point, it may be giving you those symptoms.

Good luck

Bob

[dmc]

Try a new bulb first,

[conkers]

Took the bulb out of my brothers africa twin and tried swapping them, my bulb worked fine in his and his bulb didnt solve the problem.
I'll look at the wiring and see if that is the issue.

Conkers

[conkers]

Finally got tired of the dealer I bought the bike from (and they got it MOT tested too, with the brake light issue) So I got stuck in and sorted it myself...

It appears that a previous owner had cut two of the wires going to the rear light and swapped them! I guess he was trying to make the rear light work properly, but he had made a hash of it and instead of cutting and switching the rear light and brake light feeds, he cut the rear light and earth.... this was why the light was on bright all the time and got brighter when the brake was activated, with no earth I guess it was earthing though the front sidelights.... making it bright on sidelights and even brighter on brake light... when I switched the wires back to original positions, the rear light was acting as if the bulb was 180 degrees out of whack... (which it wasn't) I guess it is the wrong sort of bulb, as I have seen bulbs that are the other way around before. Anyway, I tried to remove the rear light to switch the wires inside, but it was not going to part with the mudguard without a substantial and unneccesary fight... so I then cut the third wire (the one mr muppet hadn't cut) and reconnected the wires so that the earth was where it should be, but the rear light and brake light are now switched..... bottom line is that it is now sorted and the lights are working correctly...

If you want a job doing properly, it's always best to do it yourself.

Conkers.

[Steve C]

Glad you got it sorted Conkers; and don't get me started on dealers...