How do I wire up a universal tail light.

Bike is a 1982 kz750 e3

Bikes rear brake light switch is the only thing I want to hook up to the light. Front brake will not be needed. So rear brake light switch has 2 wires. One blue and one brown. See pic. My universal light has 3 wires. One yellow, one green, and one brown. See pic. So what do I have connect to make this work? Thanks for any advice.

Green to blue, brown to brown and yellow to nothing.

hey where did you get that one it looks nifty. and more importantly how much did you drop for it?

Looks like a Highway Hawk to me.

Got it off eBay for like 10 bucks

DobbinsCMA wrote: Green to blue, brown to brown and yellow to nothing.

Are you sure? I tried this and nothing happened. Maybe another ground is bad?

The brown and blue wires in the first pic are for the brake light switch. The brown is constant power to the switch. The blue wire leaves the brake switch and travels to the rear of the bike. There should be a 5 or 7 wire harness that runs back to the rear of the bike. Three of those wires should be connected to the brake/tail light.

Later, Doug

My harness when I received it was modified multiple times. Some good some bad. Bike runs very well tho. Wiring just seems a little sloppy. Wanting to add a tail light at this point. The harness is wrapped up so the wires may be in there. I was able to easily unwrap the two switch wires. Should I unwrap more of the harness or work with what I got so far? I feel like I have a very good connection with the wires that were suggested to connect but still no light. What gives?

What is the black wire? Seems to have had something wires to it but pulled apart.

Waynecarpenter wrote: . The harness is wrapped up so the wires may be in there. I was able to easily unwrap the two switch wires. Should I unwrap more of the harness or work with what I got so far?

You cannot hook the brown or blue wires for the brake light switch to the taillight and get it to work.

If the harness is in really bad shape, you might as well unwrap the harness. I would start at the blue wire from the rear brake light switch and follow it. You should end up at a splice in the main harness. One direction will go toward the front to the front brake light switch the other will head toward the tail light area.

My suggestion to you is to get a service manual if you don't have one already or at least a wiring diagram, and study it. If you really are doing a bare bones harness, unwrap the harness and strip out what wires you aren't using and fix what you are using said manual or diagram.

Later, Doug

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.

Ya sorry man. I just guessed because no one had answered it at the time and I hoped my answer would bump it. Great list Mforks