Brake light switch adjustments

I've barely put a wrench on this bike in the month I've owned it.Partly because I don't know HOW to without some sort of a service manual. Mostly poking around looking to see what stuff does what and reading the owners manual see what's where. Before I took it to get inspected I wanted to be as sure as I was able that it would pass. I found in the owners manual how the rear brake should be adjusted and did so accordingly. The switch didn't need any. Now, that's the back. I've noticed on the front, the dual disc , that if I brake with it, I get braking before the stop light indicator on the dash lights up and actually have to squeeze a little before it comes on. Now I got a manual today, bought off ebay-$40, and my dinner time reading about the front switch and it onlt talks about replacing and bleeding. Any adjustment? Where do I go? Or is that just the way it is?

the front switch is pressure actuated theres no adjustment that im aware of,although bleeding the brakes definately couldnt hurt just as a maintenance thing.

oops!:whistle:

Post edited by: wireman, at: 2006/06/07 23:30

My 77 KZ1000 was doing the same thing.
I had upgraded the master cylinder(front) when I converted to dual disk a couple years back.I used the master cylinder from a 94 Honda CB600(I think)and it came with a brakelight switch attached to the lever assembly.At first I didn't use THAT switch,but used the factory one on the bike.(one small screw removed the Honda micro-swith...glad I kept it)
I noticed the same thing that You're experiencing,and the only way to get the brakelight to light up without having to pull hard on the lever,was to wire up the micro-switch that came with the Honda master cyl assembly.
There IS no adjustment on these factory Kawasaki pressure-switches,but bleeding the system of ANY air will help to apply proper pressure at the switch.
In My case,the whole front system WAS bled properly,but still,the switch would not activate the brake light,unless I was really pulling on the lever,making it totally unsafe for slowing down in normal city traffic,using the front brake...in fact,it got to the point where I would use the rear brake as well,JUST to activate the brakelight.
Problem solved...micro-switch wired up at the lever.

I was wondering if there might be some adjustment on the handle bar but didn't see anything.

I think what you're describing is fairly normal. I've adjusted the rear brake so that the light comes on with the slightest tap.
But the front brake takes a little squeeze to light the light.

Whatever you do DO NOT try and screw in the pressure sensor further thinking it will actuate sooner. It won't. It actually doesn't screw. IT WILL break off and you'll spend the rest of the day super glueing an activater onto your brake handle that you stole out of your friend's microwave. Not that I've done this of course....