89 KDX200 Headlight. Help & win a cookie: PART II

[DirtyRyan]

Ok gentlemen...I am going to have to say I'm absolutely perplexed with the following ongoings. Hopefully ya'll can make some sense of this:

So we went ahead and bled the brakes out and got some new fluid going in there. Fired it up, stepped on brakes....same thing: tail & plate light....no brake light.

I went ahead and out of curiosity sake, switched out the red & the black/yellow. Fired it up, stepped on brake...and I'll be damned if the tail light, the plate light AND now the brake light don't come on. I'm really not sure why this happens, but it seems to be working ok.

What has my curiosity though, is that I only noticed it seemed to dim and flicker a little. So, I pulled the red plastic off, and looked again...sure enough, they all light up. What I'm wondering though is that since it's so dim, is there a chance that maybe somehow the filaments are backwards in some way? Like, it's a dual filament...the smaller of the two is brightest. It's operating as the running light. The larger is a good deal dimmer, and it's operating as the brake light. I would think that the brake light would/should be the brighter of the two, and the running light should be dimmer.

What do ya'll think about this stuff? I'm just lost at this point. Happy that all the stuff is lighting up for sure, but still confused as to how/why it's operating the way it is. And wondering if it's operating as it should.

 

[SS109]

...and I'll be damned if the tail light, the plate light AND now the brake light don't come on. I'm really not sure why this happens, but it seems to be working ok.

Now I'm confused! Does it work or doesn't it?

I am going to assume it is. OK. Anyways, if it works, it works!

What has my curiosity though, is that I only noticed it seemed to dim and flicker a little. So, I pulled the red plastic off, and looked again...sure enough, they all light up. What I'm wondering though is that since it's so dim, is there a chance that maybe somehow the filaments are backwards in some way? Like, it's a dual filament...the smaller of the two is brightest. It's operating as the running light. The larger is a good deal dimmer, and it's operating as the brake light. I would think that the brake light would/should be the brighter of the two, and the running light should be dimmer.

Yes, the dimmer filament should be your tail and the brighter your brake. Just switch the positive leads to the bulb and it should be good to go.

 

[DirtyRyan]

Well, it does work in that all the various elements do light up...but it seems like it gets dimmer when i hit the brakes rather than brighter. Which gets to what you said about switching the leads. I probably should stop posting things when I first wake up and am not looking at the bike but I'll do it anyway, knowing better.
I'm confused about what you mean by switching the leads. Last nite, I took the brown that is connected to the factory red...and swapped that brown over into the factory black/yellow (ground). Then I did the same swap with the green/white which was connected to the factory black/yellow, and hooked it to the factory red. That was the change that made things all light up. But it still is lit in such a way that I think the filaments are reversed to where brake is operating as tail and tail is operating as brake.
So I'm just a bit confused on what to switch around I guess. I mean, if I plug the brown back into the red, and the green/white back into the black/yellow.....then it just puts me back where I was with the brake light not lighting up.

 

[SS109]

Do you have a voltmeter? If you do, you can find out which leads are positive. Then, take the two positive leads and switch them. Leave the ground alone.

 

[DirtyRyan]

I posted a 'Thank You' thread just to say thanks for all the help you guys have given on this project. Finally got it goin 100% ... feels amazing to have it all done and goin again!