Okay, so last week during a ride my wife noticed that my brake light isn't lighting.  I get off the bike and pull on the lever and sure enough, the tail light was on but nothing happened.  Not a problem, I just get replacement bulbs and that should fix it, right?  Wrong.  Okay, that's cool, I'll just order a new brake light switch and all will be well.  No such luck. I looked at the fuse and one of them was broken but the spare still looked okay.  So I pop that bad boy in and...nada.  What to do now?  Get on the GS board and find out what's up.

I've noticed that both filaments in the bulbs were lit up but I don't know if that's significant or not.  Also, I'm not sure if the brake lights are on or off because I haven't actually looked to see what they look like in a long time.  Thank God my wife noticed it or I might have been rear-ended.

I'm not an electronics/wiring guy but I do have a manual to help out.  I just don't know where to go from here.  Anyway, any leads on what's going on would be very much appreciated.

By the way, my bike is an 04 GSF with 10k miles on it.  I bought it with about 7k so I don't know what kind of maintenance history it has.  I've never had a problem with the bike but I'm going to assume that it's about time to start replacing things that are wearing out.

Thanks,

Mark

if both filaments are lit, then your brake light is stuck on.  check your rear brake switch, it is adjustable, maybe you'll get lucky

Awesome.  Thanks for the heads up, maybe that's what it is.

That's exactly what it is, unless it's the front brake switch, but that's far less likely. Has to be one of the two unless its a really peculiar short circuit, and that's very low liklihood.

Happened to me when I adjusted the brake pedal - just adjust the switch until it works right.

As for age and mileage, practically brand-new and barely broken in. Your old brake switch is probably fine.

...BTW, there is only one fuse (unless you have non-factory add-ons) - if the fuse in use is broken, the bike is dead. If there's actually a broken fuse and bike runs, your spare is broken, and not much good as a spare.

Quote from: DoD#i on June 16, 2009, 07:15:28 AM
That's exactly what it is, unless it's the front brake switch, but that's far less likely. Has to be one of the two unless its a really peculiar short circuit, and that's very low liklihood.

Happened to me when I adjusted the brake pedal - just adjust the switch until it works right.

As for age and mileage, practically brand-new and barely broken in. Your old brake switch is probably fine.

...BTW, there is only one fuse (unless you have non-factory add-ons) - if the fuse in use is broken, the bike is dead. If there's actually a broken fuse and bike runs, your spare is broken, and not much good as a spare.

By "spare fuse" I meant the extra one that (I assume) comes from the factory.  Still, I'd better get a replacement just in case.

Now I just need to figure out how to adjust the brake pedal and I'll be in business.

(Don't worry, I have a manual...and it has pictures)

The pedal you can leave where it is if your foot is happy with it. The switch has a screw adjustment that I recall as being fairly obvious if you are looking for the switch to be adjustable - i.e. a threaded mount of some sort.

Those dual-filament bulbs have two contacts on the base and offset pins on the sides. If you accidently fit them 180deg out all sorts of weird sh** can happen. Not saying that is what the problem is but its something you need to watch out for.