[Kayak Ninja]

Hey everyone,
This is my first post here so, hey! I live in Washington. Just purchased a beautiful Honda xl175 and have been riding it around here while waiting for the world to start back up. No rush.

I have one issue that I’m having trouble resolving. My running light in the tail light isn’t working. The brake light works, but whenI have the lights turned on the tail light doesn’t come on.

I replaced the bulb first. Nothing.
I took the light housing apart and the switch housing apart and tested for current, which there was through the whole wire from switch to light. Hmm.
I tested voltage. From the switch to the green wire (brake) there was 5.7V.
When I tested from switch to brown wire (running light) there was 0V.

What am I missing

 

[hogcowboy]

Have you checked all the bikes fuses? Might just be a blown fuse but if it is, why did it blow? Possible short or it just happened? They do sometimes.

 

[Kayak Ninja]

This bike just has one 15A fuse, I didn’t visually check it because I assumed if that fuse was blown, other electrical components wouldn’t be working.

 

[hogcowboy]

Well my thought was maybe it worked off an accessory leg. That should be a 2 filament bulb. Is that what you installed? I think the old style number is an 1157. I’m not sure what the modern number is.

 

[Kayak Ninja]

Yeah the replacement bulb is 2 filament

 

[hogcowboy]

My next guess and that’s the best I can do with electronics, would be a malfunctioning brake switch. You might end up needing a wiring diagram and start tracing wires with your volt meter to find out where the signal is dropping out. Maybe one of our electrical gurus can help further. Good luck and let us know what the problem is when you find it. Oh, I’d also make sure that replacement bulb actually works in something handy to check. It’s rare but I’ve seen bad new bulbs.

 

[Kayak Ninja]

Thanks, I appreciate the help.
For anyone else, I did test from the light switch all the way back to the light and there is a full circuit, but reading 0V. This is out of my wheel house and not sure what to test/look for next

 

[Critter]

Check the ground on the tail light, make sure it is clean and tight.