No tailight

I have an 82 Kawasaki kz750 twin. Runs great. Went riding the other day and the positive cable come loose and must have arced off of something. Bike died and when I got home got it back running but now have no taillight. I have hi and lo headlight and when I hit the brake pedal I have stop light but no constant tail light. I have checked all fuses and wiring everything seems ok but im not getting any juice from the red wire coming off the back of the ignition switch in the on position and when I turn key one more turn forward it turns headlight off but than I get power to red wire on back of switch. could this be a bad ignition switch?

Did you try another taillight bulb. I think they have dual elements. One element can work while the other wont.

No chance of hard wired fuse on that circuit or wire?

Already replaced taillight. Tried 2 different ones. And no fuses already traced all wires.

So this is the only problem due to the short? you checked all other functions.

This happened to me one time. I chased it for two days and Patton had me check all grounds. I found a bad ground, after fixing the ground my taillight worked.

The only difference between you and I is that all functions were not working.

Please be aware that a fuse can look 100% good and still be faulty.

The forum should be able to get this straightened out, hang tough.

good luck

Replace all fuses regardless.

You can burn contacts in a switch or connector from a hard short.

Color Codes On Most Kawasaki’s (written for 1980’s bikes)

HEADLIGHT
RED with BLACK stripe, High Beam.
RED with YELLOW stripe, Low Beam.
BLACK with YELLOW stripe, the ground circuit.

BRAKE/TAIL LIGHT Can be an # 1157 dual filament bulb
RED, Running or Tail Light.
BLUE,(sometimes with a Red stripe) Brake Light Circuit.
BLACK with YELLOW stripe, the ground circuit.

LEFT FRONT TURN SIGNAL Can be an #1157 dual filament bulb
GREEN, Left front turn signal circuit.
BLUE, Left front running light circuit.
BLACK with YELLOW stripe, the ground circuit.

RIGHT FRONT TURN SIGNAL Can be an # 1157 dual filament bulb
GREY, Right front turn signal circuit.
BLUE, Right front running light circuit.
BLACK with YELLOW stripe, the ground circuit.

LEFT REAR TURN SIGNAL Can be an #1156 single filament bulb
GREEN, Left rear turn signal circuit.
BLACK with YELLOW stripe, the ground circuit.

RIGHT REAR TURN SIGNAL Can be an #1156 single filament bulb
GREY, Right rear turn signal circuit.
BLACK with YELLOW stripe, the ground circuit.