Brake Light/ Tail Light

[johnycon]

IM WORKING ON A 81 1100 GS CHAIN DRIVE. I BOUGHT THE BIKE LAST YEAR AND THE BRAKE LIGHT NEVER WORKED, ALTHOUGH I DID HAVE A TAIL LIGHT. LAST NIGHT AFTER PROBING WIRES TRYING TO FIND A SHORT, I NO LONGER HAVE A TAIL LIGHT. I CHECKED THE BULB AND BOTH FILAMENTS ARE GOOD. I HAD 3 WIRES COMING OUT OF THE TAIL LIGHT: BROWN WHICH IS THE TAIL LIGHT AND A WHITE/BLACK AND A WHITE ONE. SO STARTING JUST BEHIND THE TAIL LIGHT I PROBED THOSE WIRES THE BROWN SHOWED POWER AND AT THAT TIME OF MY TEST THE TAIL LIGHT WORKED BUT THE OTHER TWO WIRES DIDNT HAVE ANY POWER EVEN WHEN APPLYING THE BRAKES. SO I MOVED FORWARD NOW IM IN BETWEEN THE TAIL LIGHT AND BATTERY COMPARTMENT. THE BROWN HAD POWER BUT AGAIN THE OTHER TWO DIDNT. SO I MOVED INTO THE BATTERY COMPARTMENT UNRAVELING TAPE AND PROBING WIRES. AT THIS POINT THE BROWN IS NO LONGER SHOWING POWER. I CHECKED THE TAIL LIGHT AND IT ISNT LIT. I CHECKED TYHE BULB AGAIN THE BULB IS STILL GOOD. WHILE DOING THIS TESTING I NEEDED TO HAVE THE KEY ON. SO NOW I CHECKED THE BLINKERS THEY DIDNT FLASH BUT WERE ABLE TO LIGHT. I CHECKED THE HORN SUSPECTING A LOW BATTERY EVEN THOUGH THINKING IT WOULDNT BE DEAD THAT QUICKLY, THE BIKE DIDNT START EITHER. SO YES THE BATTERY WAS DEAD. SHOULD THAT DRAIN THAT QUICK SAY 2 HOURS WITH JUST THE KEY ON. OR DOES THIS INDICATE FURTHER CHARGING PROBLEMS. a MECH. PUT A STATOR ON THE BIKE LAST YEAR. I PUT THE BATTERY ON A 2 AMP CHARGER OVER NIGHT. I WENT OUT THIS MORNING TO CHECK ON THE TAIL LIGHT STILL DIDNT LIGHT. THE HORN PEEPED A LITTLE THE HEAD LIGHT WAS ON AS WELL AS THE LICENSE PLATE LIGHT. SOMETHING ELSE IVE NOTICED IS THE BLINKER LIGHTS ON THE FRONT OF THE BIKE COME ON WITH THE HEAD LIGHT THEY DONT FLASH BUT LIGHT UP. THE REAR BLINKER LIGHTS DONT COME ON WITH THE HEAD LIGHT. IM ASSUMING THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO COME ON THOUGH IS THIS CORRECT. IF SO THEN THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE REAR ONES ALSO. I DID CLEAN THE CONTACTS IN THE FUSE BLOCK, THEY APPEARED TO BE NEW THOUGH AS THEY LOOKED LIKE NEW METAL, I CLEANED THEM ANYWAYS. IVE INCLUDED ALL THIS INFO IN HOPES OF THIS PAINTING APICTURE OF MY WIRING NIGHT MARE. COULD SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME OUT.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP

JOHNYCON

[BassCliff]

Cooking with electrons

Hi Mr. johnycon,

It sounds almost as if someone modified your bike to give you front "running" lights. This is not uncommon. Do your front blinker bulbs have one filament or two? Are your blinkers LEDs? Are you working with a wiring diagram? Is the diagram different than the actual wiring on your bike? Have you tested the rear brake switch? Since your tail light quit working, it sounds like you may have broken a connection while doing all your probing. It may be time to start replacing connectors. If you're going to replace connectors I would suggest crimping or soldering blade connectors instead of bullet connectors. But fresh, new bullet connectors are better than no connection. Have you got crimpers and a soldering iron? Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[johnycon]

Thank you Mr. Bass Cliff, Im using a clymer repair manual wiring digram in the back of the book. The thing that confused me is it shows what they're calling a check panel. located toward the front of the digram. the wires from the brake light switch/connector go to this panel. The three wires from the tail light ass. go to this panel too. what was puzzling is I thought those three wires coming from tail light ass. would go to the brake light switch. what is this check panel. where is it located or do I not have the right diagram. Ive never used an ohm meter before so I really I dont know what to buy or how to use one. Im new at this stuff and just trying to get my bike running. I appreciate all the assistance you guys can give!

Thank you

Johnycon

[Steve]

Cliff, (and johnycon),

Suzuki started including running lights with the front signals on the larger bikes, and in later years it filtered down to the smaller bikes. Not sure what year any particular model got the running lights, but it might be factory, not a modification. Are the front signal bulbs single- or dual-filament? If they are single-filament and light up, you have problems. If they are dual-filament, the low intensity side should light with the headlight. The rear lights have never been wired to come on with the head/tail lights, as they are yellow, and only to be used for turn signals.

The three wires at the tail light: yes, the brown one should be hot when the key is on. The white one should be your brake light and should be hot when you squeeze the front brake lever or step on the rear pedal. The white/black wire is your ground. It should not be hot. If it ever does become hot, you have a grounding problem.

Battery: you say it lasted two hours with the key on? That is just fantastic. Really. When you turn the key on, the headlight comes on, too. That is a 5-amp draw that will drain a battery rather quickly. The fact that it lasted two hours at least tells you that it used to be a good battery. If you charged it back up right away, the damage would be minimized, but lead-acid batteries don't like to be discharged very far. When doing your troubleshooting like this, leave your charger attached to minimize the drain on the battery. A low battery will cause the blinkers to not work, and will only let you get a "peep" out of the horn. Charge the battery fully (at a slow rate, like your 2-amp charger) and try again.

Now to your original problem, the brake light: Check to see if the white wire at the tail light is hot when you activate either the front or rear brake. Best to check operation of both of them to be sure. If the white wire is hot, then you have a grounding issue, which is not all that unusual. Follow the white/black wire to where it is attached to the frame, take the wire off, clean the surfaces and put it back together. In fact, you might want to do that with ALL the connectors in the wiring harness. Just start in the headlight bucket, take each connector apart (one at a time, so you can get it all back together correctly), use some contact cleaner (Radio Shack has one of the best), then use a little dielectric grease (bulb grease at AutoZone) when you put the connector back together. The grease will coat the pins, slowing down the corrosion that is inevitable. Work your way back, there are several connections that will be found under the gas tank and around the battery box./ fuse panel area.

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[focus frenzy]

I know what the problem is!!! just went through the exact same thing with this evil anti-christ project bike.

suzuki for some realy stupid unknow reason decided to put the tail light and brake light on their very own individual fuses and then decided to hide those two fuses.

they are located behind the headlight. the tail light is a tiny 2amp fuse and it is easy to blow that fuse when the tail light bulb is in and working and you add the load of a conventional test light.

check the connection terminals in the fuse holder for the brake light (5amp) I found that corrosion on the fuse ends had caused the ends to heat up and melted the contact down enough for it not to make contact.

PS: the license plate light still works as it is not on a fuse at all! powered straight from the ignition switch!!

[Steve]

Must be something unique to the 1100s or the chain-drive bikes, as I have not seen any fuses in the headlight bucket on any of my bikes.

In the 81 850 and both of the 82s (650 and 850) that I have here, there are five fuses in the panel. I think that is similar to most GSs after 79 or 80. The top fuse handles the headlight and tail light. The second fuse handles the brake, turn signals and horn. The third fuse handles the ignition. The fourth fuse is the main fuse, the fifth fuse is for the ACC terminal.

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[focus frenzy]

Must be something unique to the 1100s or the chain-drive bikes, as I have not seen any fuses in the headlight bucket on any of my bikes.

In the 81 850 and both of the 82s (650 and 850) that I have here, there are five fuses in the panel. I think that is similar to most GSs after 79 or 80. The top fuse handles the headlight and tail light. The second fuse handles the brake, turn signals and horn. The third fuse handles the ignition. The fourth fuse is the main fuse, the fifth fuse is for the ACC terminal.

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its a oddity of the 80 and 81 1100E's at least and the kicker is the fuses are not shown on the wiring diagram.
I got a 82 and 83 1100E here and they just have the standard five fuse panel. my 80 1000G "had" just the standard five fuse panel. (it's wired custom now)

when I started on the project bike I was thrown for a loop when I saw those two fuse holders up there and then couldn't figure out what they were for till I realised the wiring colors were pretty much only used for tail and brake light.

[Steve]

Thank you. I learned something, I can go home now. \\/




















Wait a minute, I am home.

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[johnycon]

Thanks to all you guys!! I never would have found these fuses either in the light pod. Thank You!! I will be looking though you can bet on it. do you think I wrecked my battery now. Did I understand right? like it wont be as strong as before, cause its a new battery. so does anyone know what the check panel is that they show on the wiring diagram. Nice that Suzuki threw that little surprise in there and dosent even show it on a diagram. Ill check this stuff out and let you guys know. there is also a silver metal box in battery compartment area too about the size of a pack of cigs. whats that thing?

Thanks Again everyone

Johnycon

[Steve]

Do you have lights in the speedo or tach that say "Tail Light" or "Brake Light"? How about "Head Light"? All these functions can be monitored by a check panel, but I don't know what all Suzuki monitors. There is circuitry in the panel that determines if your light is drawing enough current when you turn on the brake light. If the panel does not see enough current, it means that the light did not come on. Now, it might not have come on because it is burned out, or might have a broken wire, either the hot wire or a ground. Same thing for tail lights. If a certain amount of current is not being passed, it assumes there is a problem and turns on the warning light.

NOTICE for those who change their lights to LEDs...
if you have a check panel, it won't see enough current and might give you a warning, even though your LEDs are working.

Did you wreck your battery? Probably not.
Now, was it operating at its full capacity before you started? Probably not.
Too many of us blindly believe the sales person when he/she says "It's fully-charged and ready to go", or, "It has a dry-charge, so just add the acid and you will be ready to go". Sadly, this only allows your battery to operate at about 80% of its full capacity. Here is an article that was presented on the BMW board, but it applies equally well to any wet battery. I am under the impression that AGM batteries are not affected quite as much, but should be given a full charge before applying the first load, like starting the bike.

http://home.jps.net/~snowbum/newbattery.htm

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