Topic: wiring a tail light

[flyin_]

I have been messing around for a few days now trying to get my tail light to work.  the brake light works fine and I know the bulb is not burned out.  I was tracking the brown wire (tail light wire) to find any possible problems through the fuse box up to the ingnition switch.  After a while I found a broken wire on the bottom of the ignition switch.  After cleaning it up and re-connection the wire it still does not work. 

So, is there a way to safely connect the brown tail light wire to a hot wire and still have the tail light on a fuse.  I assime the ignition switch is bad.  Is there a reason I can't connect the brown tail light wire to the red wire at the ignition switch? 
I suck with electricity

Please help so I don't ruin somthing

[Bodi]

The wiring is complicated because of the parking light function on the ignition switch. When "ON" the ignition switch connects the brown wire to a wire coming from the "tail" fuse, so check your fuse and fuseblock. (assuming you have a bike with several fuses, not the early ones with one fuse).
In "PARK" the brown wire is connected to the red (?) wire from the MAIN fuse. I have used the parking light maybe twice in 20+ years.
So if you splice the brown wire to any black wire (ignition on power) you'll have the taillight on but no parking light function - disconnect it from the ignition switch though. I would trace the wiring from the TAIL fuse and check the brown wire is good between the switch and tail light. Sometimes the ignition switch itself is buggy, there are several little brass bits held in with tiny springs and they can go loose.
The red wire is always-on power from the battery via the MAIN fuse: if you connect anything there it will be on and running down your battery even with the key OFF.

[madbunny]

did you check the bulb?
 i've seen a fair amount of old bulbs in my time.
the soldered tips on the bottom of the bulbs can melt over time and lose contact with the socket.
dead bulb with what looks like a perfectly good element...

[flyin_]

yeh the bulb it good 100%.  I tested 2 known working bulbs. 
What exactly is the parking function?  Tail light on with no power running to the electrics through the ignition?
So if I disconnect the brown wire from the ignition switch and splice the brown to any black wire I should be good?  Should this splice be made before the brown wire goes through the 5amp fuse or can I splice the brown onto a black directly from the tail light?  Or...if a fuse is preferred can I just put a 5amp fuse in line with the brown tail light wire spliced to a black. 

Sorry if these are dumb questions.  I'm learning, honest

[madbunny]

parking function is for short term curbside parking so yo' scoot don't get flattened if it's the only thing on the side of a dark road.

[Bodi]

Well, I did say it's complicated.
I don't have a diagram in front of me so some details might be fuzzy:
With ignition ON, the red wire connects to the black wire. Red comes from the MAIN 15A fuse, so now black is powered through the 15A fuse so the ignition and regulator are powered.
At the fuse block, the HEAD and TAIL fuses are fed from the black wire.
The headlight power wire from the HEAD fuse goes from there to the headlight switch group. The taillight power wire from the TAIL fuse goes back to the ignition switch. There are 2 TL (taillamp) wires on the ignition switch, TL1 and TL2. One of them (don't recall which) is the power from the TAIL fuse, with the key at ON it's connected to other TL wire actually going to the tail light, powering the lamp through the TAIL fuse.
With the key in TAIL the taillight wire is connected straight to the red MAIN fuse power wire so the lamp is on. The TL wire from the TAIL fuse is not connected, the black is not connected.
With the key OFF, there are no connections between any wires on the ignition switch.

In PARK the key will come out with the tail lamp on so your bike is more visible to traffic, and easier to find if you park in the woods at night. Some markets also have a small bulb in the headlight assembly for a front parking lamp. There's a brown wire in the headlight shell harness for just that lamp.