Brake lt woes

my running light burned out and brake light kept working. i changed the bulb, thinking nothing of a burnt out bulb. now just a few rides latter, my bud stops me and say my rear running lt is out again, but the brake lt is good.
any suggestions as to where to start with this one. electrical is not my strong suit. come to think of it , i dont have a strong suite. Lol
I’m more of a jackass of all trades.

maybe this would be a good time to go LED ? when i get this cleared up, what do i need to go LED? is a bulb enough or do i need something more?
i have a zx12 lt waiting in the wings, but i need to modify a z1 tail for that 1 to look right. the zx12 light doesnt follow the lines of my kz tail as well as the z1. i will def want

Maybe your running light is shorted somewhere. I am not sure which of the 3 "bumps" in the light bulb socket is for the running light, but maybe follow that wire backwards to find the short. I will take a stab and guess maybe it's under the fender, did you maybe bottom out and wear away the insulation on the wires?

but then again, I am a jack of no trades :blink: :blush:

9am53 wrote:

Maybe your running light is shorted somewhere. I am not sure which of the 3 "bumps" in the light bulb socket is for the running light, but maybe follow that wire backwards to find the short. I will take a stab and guess maybe it's under the fender, did you maybe bottom out and wear away the insulation on the wires?

but then again, I am a jack of no trades :blink: :blush:

good point.
i did check all of the wires condition and there conection (just out of habit) the 1st time i replaced the bulb. but i supose i will just have to work my way back.

The conversion to led is really easy plug the wires in, and go, really. If you dont want the brake lamp failure light to flash on your dummy lights you have to buy a little conversion box (or remove the bulb) Mine lights up when I hit the brakes but (I dont mind it does the oposite and lets me know that my tail light is on!) My conversition is pretty easy the stock rear tail light of my 05 zx10r and some jb weld plugged the wires in and here ya go!

funny u should bring up the brake light failure light. i just realised that mine has allways come on and i thought that was normal. lol.
maybe i have other problems lurking in there.?
did u use a z1 tail?it looks great.
can u give some details on this convertion. mine looks like i will have to cut out the bottom of the slide drawer in the tail to fit in the zx10 lt. did u do that?

You should measure both the voltage getting to the rear tail light and the voltage drop from the battery. This can be a reason for the warning light to be on when braking. Also check for resistance and voltage drop on the ground to the rear light. Since the Tail light is always on, and the brake is only when braking, any issue will occur here first. Also a heavy vibration can take out the filament on a bulb. Then the socket its self could be corroded on the back side where the spring is.

Motor Head wrote:

You should measure both the voltage getting to the rear tail light and the voltage drop from the battery. This can be a reason for the warning light to be on when braking. Also check for resistance and voltage drop on the ground to the rear light. Since the Tail light is always on, and the brake is only when braking, any issue will occur here first. Also a heavy vibration can take out the filament on a bulb. Then the socket its self could be corroded on the back side where the spring is.

can u clearafy this for me please. i can measure voltage at the light but the drop from the bat makes me scratch my bal.s i mean my head. ican also check resistance at the light with my ohm meter, but what will that value tell me? terminals are all clean. but i may have a suspect conection. i know the pin block is broken at the back . i'll check that too.

Well part of that is to have you check the system voltage when running, at the battery, then at the tail light socket. If there is a drop in voltage of more than say .3 you have dirty connections or resistance in your switch and wires. Ground the same thing applies, there should be no resistance from your - battery cable and your ground at the tail light socket.
System voltage measured at battery,at over 3000rpm should be less than 15v.

The rear lighting on most Kawasaki's are color coded by the following wires:

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

Motor Head wrote:

Well part of that is to have you check the system voltage when running, at the battery, then at the tail light socket. If there is a drop in voltage of more than say .3 you have dirty connections or resistance in your switch and wires. Ground the same thing applies, there should be no resistance from your - battery cable and your ground at the tail light socket.
System voltage measured at battery,at over 3000rpm should be less than 15v.

Very good. i'll check the r to see if i have a drop of .3 or more.
Thanks.

The mount took a little manipulation with some sandind down on the corners to make it fit in there flush and a little drilling for wiring and a big glob of jb weld to hold it in place permanatly I used all new wiring to the light so as to not have to re wire it later (30 + year wiring starts to deteriorate) As for your current problem I would do just like they said and check your voltage while running but have you checked the continutity of the wire? The lower the reading on the screen the better for this test it should read 0 or a low 0.02 for low resistance and OL or infinity for no current. If your unsure take a small piece of wire you know is whole and put your tester on each end what ever the display says look for that. My 78 is the same wire colors as what mfolks told you.
RED,the running or tail light circuit.
BLUE(sometimes with a RED stripe), the brake light circuit.
BLACK with YELLOW stripe, the ground circuit.
Hope you get it...

Thanks guys i'll check it this week end. Now im pretty clear what i have to do. does the brake lt sensor read a change in resistance??
Jay did u use a z1 or kz tail?