Tail Light and Meter Lights ('82 850L)

[Guest]

Ok, so I decided to tear into the problem of no meter lights or tail light on my bike. Brake light works. No tail or running light. Meter (Running) lights in the gauges don't work either. That was redundant.

I checked all the connections I could find and they all seem to be ok. Brown wire runs the tail light, grey wire powers the meter lights. I used a test light to check the brown and grey wires at the connector coming out of the ignition switch.

Here's what I found:

Tested the red and orange wire. Test light comes on.



Tested the brown and grey wire. No test light.




So is it my ignition switch?

Thoughts? Solutions?


Edit: I'm thinking about jumping the brown and grey wires off of the orange wire on the ignition switch side of the harness. Anyone want to talk me down from the ledge? Think this would work?

[Tatratbiker850]

itll work since the lights dont come on til the ignition is on anyway. wont work on your blinkers tho, unless you put a toggle on those.

[Good Times]

itll work since the lights dont come on til the ignition is on anyway. wont work on your blinkers tho, unless you put a toggle on those.

Signals are working fine.

Well, jumped the power from the orange wire. Blew the fuse. Figured it was too much load with the added circuit. Put a little bigger fuse in. Cooked my tail light. Brake light still works, but melted my wires on the tail (running) light. Checked my connections and the wires on the wiring harness. Got it off before there was any damage to the harness. Only the wires on the light melted. Close one. Buttoned it up and put everything back like it was.

I should have a "new" light on the way soon. Putting a stock light back on (PO had a cheap aftermarket on) and taking it to someone who knows more than I do about the wiring. It's got me stumped.