SOLVED - brake lights not lighting By trailheadmike (Read 24,154 times)

[trailheadmike]

I just noticed last night that my brake lights are not lighting up. The taillights are fine, but they do not light up when the brakes are applied. I replaced one of the brake switches about 4 months ago and I know that the brake lights were working at that time. It seems unlikely that a new and an old switch would go at the same time. Also, it seems equally unlikely to me that the brake portion of the bulb's filament would both go too.

My question is how to troubleshoot this. I have a meter so I assume that I test across the switch leads with the motor running and the brake applied? Can someone let me know what the next step would be if that comes up with a positive result? Thanks.

I have a Linhai version 260 if that matters.

[jct842]

You can assume the brake switches are working if your scooter starts. I would check grounds and plugs in the rear first.

[Bashan]

I agree with John, that would be the best place to start and easiest to fix. The brake light wire is usually green/yellow but will be the one off center on the back of the socket. Here's a turn signal troubleshooting PDF made by our good buddy Shalom72c. It's for a 150cc but they're not that much different. Rich

[tvnacman]

Mike , Go get at least one new bulb and try it . On my car about two weeks ago my headlights both sides and hi and low beams stopped working . I was certain there was an electrical problem . It was the bulbs , I could not belive that both went at the same time . What bulb do you have in there ? I would check the charging voltage just to be sure your not spiking voltage and burning them out .

John

[trailheadmike]

I finally was going to do some troubleshooting this afternoon but it was too cold. What I did see before I quit was that now the tail lights come on when I just turn the key (without starting). I believe this proves its a short some where - no light ever came on with just the key before. I'm thinking how I might have caused it, and right now the only thing I did was to add two ground wires to a screw-in-the-frame grounding point when I added some lights a month or so ago. I wonder if I ruined the ground in the brake circuit (but then again, it starts no problem.) Hmmmmmmm.

[Alleyoop]

What Lights did you add and WERE did you Splice into. The Lights you added what and when would they come on? It may be where you spliced into there may know be no conncection to continue the flow of juice.
So I would check where you spliced into for the new lights.
Alleyoop

[trailheadmike]

I bought two floods that I hooked up to the front of the scooter. I'm not sure it would be the splice because the only tap I made was for the on/off switch which I did from one of the dash lights for the speedo. The halogen juice came from a separate set of wires I ran off the battery to a relay. The wiring harness had a ground with a round end somewhere along the way that I stuck in under the frame ground screw I found.

[Alleyoop]

I would then check the fuses the flood lights probably draw a lot and blew something.
Alleyoop

[tvnacman]

The engine and frame ground ,work the same. Your getting most items , have you tried bulbs ?
John

[trailheadmike]

John-

To be honest I was hoping against hope that this was electrical because its a job and a half to access the rear bulbs on this scooter!! I guess there's no way around it and I'll just need to schedule some time to do it.

Thanks to all for the input.

[Bashan]

Your tail lights should come on with the key, they run off of the hotwire coming from the key switch. If you have one bulb for the tail/brake light then the tail light and brake light have the same ground wire, the wire coming off of the outer ring in the socket. If that's the case and your tail light comes on you should have a working ground for the brake light. That leaves the brake light filament as the culprit. If you have separate bulbs for the tail and brake light then you might have a separate ground wire for the brake and it's bad. Rich

[Alleyoop]

This is a 250 and they usually have a bank of fuses for the different lights and things. The fuse box is usually up front someplace some are inside the glove box. The main Fuse is on the POSITIVE Cable coming off the battery usually about 6 or so inchs away from the battery.
Alleyoop

[trailheadmike]

My model has the fuses in the way back of the glove compartment. I see a panel of six engineers arguing about how to make them as inaccessible as possible, and this was the consensus. I recently bought a potpourri of fuses to replace the chinese (one part of the pdi i never did) so i'll have a look there too. I read in an old post that you can buy a raised fuse block which is another thing for my list to make it easier in the future.

[tvnacman]

any luck Mike

[trailheadmike]

I haven't taken the time yet to fix, but the burned out portion of the bulb filament seems to make the most sense. I'll probably wait until spring to fix and replace with LEDs.

I broke the roll pins in my snowblower last year which makes the impeller useless, and you have to dissassemble the whole impeller assembly to fix. that's my current project with the snow predicted for this weekend!