Topic: Tail light quick fix?

[dangerdavison]

My tail light was not coming on when the key was in the run position and would only come on when the key was in the parked position. When the bike was running I had brake lights and everything else just no tail light. I ran a test light up and down the bike and could only come up with a possible bad ignition switch so I ordered a new one to no avail. My quick fix was to splice the brown wire to the black wire at the ignition switch which works perfectly. Can anyone see any problem with this?

[Gordon]

Headlight needs to be on for the tail light to be on. 

We really need to know what the bike in question is before we can help. 

[Spanner 1]

Your tail-light fuse (5A) is probably blown as the brown tail-light wire should be ' hot' with ign. on....., in park the brown gets it's power from the main (15A) fuse; in other words replace the 5A fuse and should restore normal function...... look at the fuse block carefully, front and back, test the fuses and clean the fuse-holders.......my2c.

[dangerdavison]

Fuses are good and I cleaned and inspected the fuse block thoroughly. Gordon, the headlight comes on and everything besides the tail light works fine (hi, low, blinkers, indicators and brake). It looks as if the previous owner messed around some with the wires in the head light. What i don't get is that when I have the wires spliced it works exactly how it should. I will probably end up rewiring the whole thing but until then am I ok to ride like this or will I end up making more problems for myself? I appreciate the input.

[dangerdavison]

sorry, its a 1976 cb750k.

[Spanner 1]

Your description still points to a bad tail-light fuse.... is the brown wire at both sides of the 5A tail fuse holder showing  +12 volts with the ignition ' on ' ? Also there is one color mis-match in the headlight ( which is correct ). The brown with white tracer wire goes to black!

[dangerdavison]

I'll double check it. Thanks Spanner.

[dangerdavison]

EUREKA!! Spanner you're a genius! The brown/white to black was totally missing. I never realized my gauges were out too (just thought the bulbs were out). Thanks a ton man, now I don't have to worry about getting home before the sun goes down.

[Spanner 1]

Glad you got it sorted-out......