Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Tail light problem

Swapped out my tail light and all I get is the brake light, I first just rough wired it up to see if every worked and it did. I then cleaned up the wiring and put it back together and the problem started . Any thoughts ?

Think I may have the wires boogered up. Bike light has red blue and black wires. Red and blue go to bulb and the black is on side of light fixture/socket. New light has just red and black wires both going to bulb, any suggestions on how to wire this. Thanks, Craig.

Is it a dual filament bulb? By that I mean, red goes to one filament, black to the second and a common earth. Or is it just a single filament bulb, red (live) and black (earth)?

New light just has the 2 wires , red and black going to the 1157 bulb. Wire harness on bike has 3 wires. red, blue and black. The Triumph light has the red and blue going to the bulb and the black on side of bulb socket. I wired the new black to the blue and red to red and grounded the black to a mounting bolt. I'm thinking I should go with black to black and red to red but I don't know what to do with the blue wire ??

Did some searching around and found that the red is the tail light, blue is the brake and black is neutral. I'm thinking I should twist the red and blue together and put with the red on new light and black to black. I'm afraid to experiment not wanting to fry anything.

I think your new light is simply missing the ground. The side of the bulb (the ground) needs to go to the black on the loom. Many aftermarket lights, don't come with a separate ground supplied. Goes back to my last question, do you have a single or dual filament bulb. If it is a dual then red/black go to red/blue (you have to contact the brake to the brighter filament, so that is glows brighter) and the black goes to ground the light.

I just checked the code of your bulb, it's dual filament. You need to attach the side of the bulb to the black on the loom. You don't actually have to do that directly; if the light is metal framed, then you just have to make sure the side of the bulb, is in permanent contact with the bulb holder, and the light, then clamp the black wire from the loom to the light.

thanks Martin62, really appreciate the help, think I'll solder a ground to the side of the bulb holder.
BTW I like the look of your black 05 BA, trying to get that look with my 05 speedy which is what prompted the bobbed fender tail light change project.
Thanks again.

that did it, thanks again.

Glad it was something simple CWW. Must be my day for 'D'oh' moments. The 'check engine' light came on in my wife's RAV4, I checked all the usual stuff and couldn't find anything wrong, so then 'bit the bullet' and bought an OBDII reader....only for the clever little gizmo to tell me the error code was because the engine coolant was low! No doubt it would have cost more then the OBDII to have it 'repaired' at the local Toyota dealer.