How to Brake Light Fix Option: 2

[liquidfire0012]

<a href="http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a352/liquidfire0012/?action=view&current=clutch.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a352/liquidfire0012/clutch.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Yes there is a sticky on how to make your brake light go on when you hit your brakes, but i was wondering if there is a better way to do so.

The black piece which has the (2) wires coming throught it. My question is to those who have done or know this mod:

How can you remove those wires from that black piece without damaging anything or cutting them off?( i tried and i tried, but that piece just dosnt wana come off, and pulling them out dosnt seem to work either)

Which of these wires is the wire that signals the rear brake light in the picture, is it wire labeled 1 or 2?

Can you simply leave one of the wires where it is at, but only re-wire the one to the front brake?[/color]

This would be better if it worked, because you would still hold your clutch when starting the bike, instead of using your front brake to start.

[Torquehead]

The reigning "Sticky" thread is quite direct and correct. I got lucky as my X18 had this correct when received, no mod required. A neighboring town's bike/atv store that sells X-bikes, he says its hit and miss between all of the bikes he sells. ...odd...

Anyways, while working on one of his bikes, Ive taken pics to answer to your yellow sentence:

1) Start by pulling back the rubber protector.



2) Use two small flat end screwdrivers and push on on the tabs shown. The other tab is on the opposite side of coarse.



3) As the tab is pushed in just pull the whole plug out of its block.



4) And here you have it.



Now to answer the light orange questions: No, its a simple DC circuit and requires both wires to complete the circuit. No reason to re-invent what pre-exists.

5) To complete this, just pull the wires and the switch guts out to expose the switch fingers like this.



6) Cut the switch's fingers off.



7) Add blue push-on terminals like these.



8) And install them onto the other switch. (The switch I assume all other bikes have if yours didnt come already fixed from factory....seen here.)



9) Now, if you have this switch as his bikes do, the activating pin you see at the bottom of the switch is too long.



10) Bad pic I provided here, but gets the point across. Sand down that pin quite a bit. Its easy to install the switch and test. Test the brake lever and see if the light activates right as the lever is pulled, not a second later. This ensures that as soon as your on the brakes everyone/anyone behind you knows slowing down is your intention. (Safety.)


This is the before pic which is bad. At this point, the pin is so long it wont activate the switch.



This is the after pic which is ideal. This pin depth activated the brake lighting right as the brakes physically engaged.



So now you go from this....



...to this...



...to this.



Wow, I guess we should have this as a "How To Brake Lights - REVISITED" Sticky eh?...

This an easy 15 - 30 minute modification depending on skill of the individual. You wont need it....but good luck. AND, have fun!

[newb503]

wow that helps a lot thanks torque

[Torquehead]

Ay ya welcome bro.

[newb503]

hey make this a sticky too if you can so i dont have to go looking for this when i decide to do it.

[liquidfire0012]

By far the most impressive, superbly well documented and written instruction on how to mod your rear brake light.

A+

Thank you greatly!
Now the question arises, how inconvenient is it, to electric start your bike while hitting front brake instead of clutch..?

[FuzzyMealChosenOne]

yes it is difficult gotta use 2 hands cuz you gotta do 3 things on 1 hand.
nice that is a lot easier than mine. cuz when i was done i had 2 wires hanging off the cut side. + no soldering required. wish my back light worked. A+

[FuzzyMealChosenOne]

but why you got to sand that thing down mine works fine with no sanding

[Torquehead]

Thanks guys for the good grade! My two engineering degrees and 13 years of experience are paying off!!! Yay...LOL!....ok j/k, here we go...

As for starting the bike, I dont do it that way on mine. All I do is put the bike in N (neutral) and pull in the brake lever and hit the button to start.

Fuzzy, I sanded down the pin because at the length it was, it would not engage the switch...that alone it would not switch it at the right time. If you got one that operated correctly, good deal.

These bikes this guy has have all been like the one shown in those pix...too long. As you saw, I sanded it down half way at first only to find out that the brakes were engaged way before the brake light would be activated. So, I continued to sand the pin down, re-install to test it, and sand it again so to where the pin engaged the brake light EXACTLY as the brakes actually started to grab.

Anyways...it seams reasonable to make this a secondary or at least an optional corrective brake lighting fix modification. Ill do it.

[liquidfire0012]

hey i have done the mod based on your wonderfull instructions and it took me little under 10 minutes. though i would like to say that filing down the pin is not necessary at all. I can understand that you did it, so the light engages as actual brakes engage, but thats not necessary at all. On any street bike you can tap a millimeter on that brake and the light will go on, but it dosnt mean the brake has engaged.
I see what you mean, but filing down is not a must at all.
though you did miss out on one part of how to remove those wires from the black thing once you have taken it out! That was a bitch to do!