Rear light stopped working - break light works though...

[Rocker66 34,463]

There seems to be a lot of stupid design in motorcycles, and cars for that matter.  It's as if different teams design each layer of the bike's construction in turn, and the next team just have to bolt their stuff on in any way they can, no matter how complicated, and so on, until the bodywork goes over the top, held on with horrendously complex fittings, and hiding all the horrors underneath!

 

I would love to be involved in a fully integrated design process for a bike, where everything is designed to be fully complementary with everything else, and with simplicity of construction and maintenance being primary drivers for everything, right down to the location of the last nut and bolt.

 

Fred

I fully agree as to change the spark plugs on my Triumph Sprint the book stated that you first had to remove the rear light

[Guest normanzb]

my taillight stopped working today as well, brake light still does, did they program it to be stopped functioning at at this time?

Edited January 31, 2016 by normanzb

[bazza 3,629]

I aske my mate Murphy to check my lights were working ok

all well until we got to the turn indicators

 

.....

 

 

......

 

yes it is

 

no it isnt

 

yes it is

 

and so on

[MrP_Lon 89]

my taillight stopped working today as well, brake light still does, did they program it to be stopped functioning at at this time?

 

haha it would seem so

[bazza 3,629]

Unfortunately, yes. It's the one under the cover flap that's the problem. Stuck solid on mine, but I managed to et it out with a centre punch and hammer. Gave it a good dollop of copper grease when it went back in though.

I've also replaced the bulb with one of these...

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/380-Ultimate-Canbus-92-SMD-LED-Bulb.html

much brighter then the stock bulb for both stop and tail functions.

i can't help but think that these LED bulbs at £15 are the latest rip off.Like solar panels have reduced by 75% in the past few years.My side lights ( leds both orange for indicators and white) cost £6 and yet £15 to replace one bulb? someone explain?

[Derek_Mac 1,404]

 It's more the place that's linked is ripping people off expensive, Google finds lots of places selling identical bulbs for a LOT less of your Earth pounds.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Derek_Mac

[embee 7,288]

Someone on another forum offered a useful tip. If an allen hex socket fastener is stubborn, apply a bit of grinding paste (if you need to ask what that is, you won't have any  ) to the socket then insert the hex key. The extra bit of "bite" will help avoid it rounding out.

 

Sometimes you can find a next-size-up torx bit which will be a tap-fit into a damaged hex socket. I've used that one successfully.

[CFB 4,601]

 It's more the place that's linked is ripping people off expensive, Google finds lots of places selling identical bulbs for a LOT less of your Earth pounds.

 

Derek, there are sooo many different LED bulb replacements for this application, at very different prices from dirt cheap to bloody expensive.

I agree that some are a rip off.

 

Yes there are alternatives to the one I bought but most are a waste of money, even though cheap as chips.

The cheap ones are no brighter or less bright than the standard bulb.

 

It's a matter of doing the research to find what you want at the price you are prepared to pay.

I wanted a reliable replacement which is a decent improvement over OE. That is what I got so I'm happy.

[Grumpy old man 4,682]

Just thought I'd take the screws out of mine and apply grease to the threads, what a job, tight as hell.

[bob b 283]

Someone on another forum offered a useful tip. If an allen hex socket fastener is stubborn, apply a bit of grinding paste (if you need to ask what that is, you won't have any  ) to the socket then insert the hex key. The extra bit of "bite" will help avoid it rounding out.

 

Sometimes you can find a next-size-up torx bit which will be a tap-fit into a damaged hex socket. I've used that one successfully.

 

Now if we had a Tips & Wrinkles section Murray........ that tip would be just the sort of thing that we'd all like to see on it!

[aquaboy 105]

Pan head, that's what the profile of the head is

[michael 324]

Now if we had a Tips & Wrinkles section Murray........ that tip would be just the sort of thing that we'd all like to see on it!

No grinding paste in the garage?

Try toothpaste….not the opaque green or blue stuff, the white stuff with some grit in it. A useful alternative.

 

Not as good as grinding paste, but yer nuts will taste minty fresh.

[MikeBike 5,005]

I am always wary of bikes with a single lamp in the tail light too. After a bit of searching I came across this item on the auction site (item 281534453215).

 

At great risk I ordered one, what the heck, money is only money. At £3-25 I was expecting it to be gold plated ............ seriously though, an absolute bargain. It is virtually indistinguishable from the OE NC reflector, it works well as a reflector and all the LEDs work evenly. It even has an "E" mark! The Chinese will provide one on anything if you ask nicely I'm sure.

 

The fixing is M6 instead of M5, and you need to open up the location peg hole enough to allow the wires through, but otherwise you'd never know the difference.

 

Nice to have the reassurance that you're not likely to end up with no tail light. I wired it with the tail/brake spliced directly onto the std wiring sub-harness but with the earth going to a separate accessible fixing (Integra rear seat bolt) so I can simply disconnect it for the MOT (saves any questions if it is simply the reflector). If the LEDs fail at some point I can just disconnect it and it is a reflector as the original arrangement, otherwise a new one will not break the bank.

I ordered one and fitted it today. There were no instructions supplied saying which wire was for what. I guessed wrong or thouhgt maybe it didnt matter but I tested it before wiring as follows:

Lamp Black - Ground = Bike Green wire

Lamp Blue - Tail Light LED on= Bike Blue & Pink

Lamp Red - Brake Light LED bright =Bike Yellow and green.

 

I removed the tail light assembly and disconnected the connectors and disassembled the Tail/Brake light plug that plugs into the wiring harness. I poked a paper clip through the little rubber grommets and soldered the LED lamp wires on the appropriate connectors/terminals, then reassembled everything. If I was doing it again I might order new connectors and make an female to male insert piece between the original connectors with a branch off to the LED light and possibly also to another socket to feed up into the under pillion seat area for a future top case brake light. Reasssembling I greased the attachment bolts and covered the exposed screws under the tail with tape to keep the muck out.

 

How the wires were in the connector

 

[embee 7,288]

Very nice write up and very nicely done job.

 

Interesting that my 700 Integra has a completely different plug/socket design on the tail/brake connection. It is a very much smaller 3-way, using the same terminals as the indicator connectors (which look the same as yours). Maybe they have had some troubles with these, bearing in mind the relatively high current in a very compact connector. That's why I couldn't feed the wires into the connector as you have, a much nicer job, but the 700 connector is just too small to get an extra wire in.

Edited February 4, 2016 by embee

[Guest Mikeoc]

On 28/01/2016 at 15:05, Englishman said:

You would be unlucky for it not to be the bulb which is a 12v-21/5w, change it yourself, go on how hard can it be?  

 

Gonna pop by Halfords this weekend as my tail light bulb needs replacing - will any old 12v-21/5w bulb do? Also is it easy enough to get to, as I'm in the middle of a house move and my user manual is in storage, but i want to do this myself  

[Tex 36,817]

I just scrolled up from the bottom and saw the paper clip shot - WTF?! - for an awful second I thought you were using it as some sort of bridge!  

 

Good job, matey.

 

Note to self: read threads properly.. 

[SteveThackery 3,090]

I've read somewhere that you need to be careful when replacing filament bulbs with LED equivalents.  

 

Apparently the legality is dubious, because not all LED bulbs have the correct angle of illumination nor the correct light levels.  Too bright is also illegal.

 

It might be worth checking the law first.