rear marker light question

are the rear marker lights supposed to be on with key-on?

on my 81 kz650 the fronts turn on, rears do not. signals DO work on the rear. i also did find a broken wire on the left rear marker light.

Nope, they are only on when you turn on the blinkers. You are good to go.

Most bikes have front running lights. A dual filament bulb for the front only.


If you wanted to make rear running lights, you could either buy a set of front lights,or buy an automobile dual socket and wire it up. The downside of this is that you'd have to get red lenses to meet some Federal Spec.

If your good at wiring, the color codes for most Kawasaki's:

RED The running or tail light.
BLUE (sometimes with a red stripe) the brake light.
BLACK with YELLOW stripe, the ground circuit.

An electronic version would tie the light circuits together, I think Kuryakin and others make them.

okay. i just need to fix the broken wire then, and i'll be good to go.

i didn't think they were supposed to be on due to the orange lenses, but i just wanted to be sure.

Thanks!

Phildo wrote:

are the rear marker lights supposed to be on with key-on?

on my 81 kz650 the fronts turn on, rears do not. signals DO work on the rear. i also did find a broken wire on the left rear marker light.

On a stock bike, the rears are usually turn signal only. Some people put duals on the back to have running lights in the back too.

MFolks wrote:

The downside of this is that you'd have to get red lenses to meet some Federal Spec.

Or you can spray the amber lenses with candy apple red testor's model spray paint. Worked great on mine.