No Brake lights HELP

[shawnsbox]

Hello all, I have been a member for a bit but this is my first time to really ask a question so thank you in advance.

I have a 2007 vmax that i just noticed on a night ride last night that the brake light is not working at all. hand brake nor foot brake. I replaced bulbs, also put a tester on the socket but not sure what I should be looking for. Both the running light bulbs work with no issue and have been replaced. Although the ones I took out did not apear to be bad. all other lights, horn, blinker, etc work fine. I tried to test right at the switchs on the foot and hand brake but again I really dont know what Im looking for it to do.

Any help would be so great! I did find another thread where this was discussed but there was no final outcome as of last year sometime. hope Im not duplicating this.

Thank you, Shawn

 

[ninjaneer]

pop off the passenger seat and have a look at the signal wire. maybe it got cut, or its loose. if the hand and foot brakes aren't activating the light, then that would be my first place to look. how did you test the socket--put one lead on the socket and the other lead on the engine ground, and then pull or push the brake lever(s)?

 

[shawnsbox]

Signal wire seems to be in good shape. as far as testing I place red lead on the switch and the other to the frame and pumped. Neither seemed to change anything. Could both my switches have gone out? what should happed if the switch is working properly? It should be a decresse in voltage right?

 

[ninjaneer]

They are just contact switches and it would seem to me shocking for both of them to "go out" at the same time. Does your NEUTRAL light and HORN work? If so then there is something wrong with the yellow wire going from your brake switches to the socket, or the socket itself is messed up somehow.

And really if you battery is "good", then all you need to do is a continuity check and make sure +tive terminal gets connected to the socket when you pump the brake.

 

[shawnsbox]

Yes sir the neutral light and horn and all others are working properly. If you dont mind tell me more about the yellow wire your speaking of. I see brown and blue and black so far, where do I look for te yeallow? is it coming off the fuse box?

 

[ninjaneer]

Yes sir the neutral light and horn and all others are working properly. If you dont mind tell me more about the yellow wire your speaking of. I see brown and blue and black so far, where do I look for te yeallow? is it coming off the fuse box?

The yellow wire should be visible underneath the passenger seat. It goes from from the tail light assembly to the switches. Also make sure that there is 12V on the brown wires going to the brake switches.

Hold on lemme make sure the 07 is applicable to the service manual i'm looking at....

 

[shawnsbox]

I will do and update my finding. Thank you so much man I really apreciate your help so much.

 

[dannymax]

You will find it under the seat running to the rear and into a hole in the fender. Blue is running light power, yellow is brake light power and brown is switched power.

I'm wondering if the switch is mal-adjusted for the rear brake....let's eliminate that. There's a little spring coming from the brake switch (rear) to the foot brake lever, pull down on that little spring to see if the light comes on.

If it does, the switch needs adjusting. Let us know what happens.

 

[ninjaneer]

Yep its a yellow wire. http://pdfcast.org/download/yamaha-v-max-custom-wiring-diagrams.pdf

 

[[email protected]]

I can't verify from memory but on my diagram it shows blue as being constant to the tail light, yellow as being switched, black as being ground.

Remove your seat. Look for a bundle of wires to the right hand side of the fuel cap. There should be a black rubber cover over all the connectors. This wire bundle leads to theh tail light and turn signals.

There should be a blue, black, yellow, brown, and green wire in the bundle. Blue and yellow are power for the tail light. Black is ground.

Pull apart the connection for the yellow wire. Test the side of the yellow wire that goes to the bike, not the tail light. Red wire from meter onto the connector of the yellow wire. Black wire from meter onto the connector of the black wires. Have a friend hit the brake (key on). You should see 12 volts DC if the brake is depressed either/both front and rear.

If you do not see voltage here, you've got a lot more searching to do. If you do have voltage you've narrowed down the problem, it will be somewhere from the connector to the tail light.

If there is no voltage here I would check the switches. Front brake is easiest. There are two wires on the front brake switch. Put your red lead from your meter on the brown wire, black lead on a frame ground (there is one under the faux, connected to the right side of the frame by the coils/fuel pump area. Should see 12V.

Do the same with the rear brake switch. Should see 12V from brown wire to ground (Key ON).

If you don't have 12V in either test then you have an issue with the brown wire between the fuse box and the switches.

If you do have 12V on the switch but not in the yellow wire test then you've got an issue between the switches and the connector under the seat.

Maybe you're just putting the wrong bulbs in?
Maybe you have the blue (constant) and yellow (switched) wires shorted together and you have the brake light on at all times and don't realize it.

OK, I'm done typing. Good Luck!

 

[shawnsbox]

Sniff Sniff.....I love you guys I'll update and let yall know what I find tomorrow.

Shawn

 

[jwood]

Do your turn signals work? What about the horn? I belive the brake light, horn and turn signals are all on same fused circuit .. have you checked the brake light fuse?.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[shawnsbox]

WE GOT IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok, Mike (mabdcmb) said something in closing that made me perk up, "...Maybe you have the blue (constant) and yellow (switched) wires shorted together and you have the brake light on at all times and don't realize it." hmmm?

Thank you everyone, ninjaneer, mabdcmb, dannymax, and jwood. What a great source of information you guys were to me. Saved me tons of dough at the shop for sure.

So this is what happened:

A couple of weeks ago I had an oil change and a brake job. Apparently that is when the problem started even though I did not notice untill last night. The shop must have adjusted the foot pedal brake lever slightly (with or without knowing it ) just enough to add tension on the spring lead from the switch causing it to be in the constant ON position. So I simply unhooked the leads gave it two or three twist adjusting it closer to the pedal and voila!

It was such an oversight for me because there were several things that shouted this was the case. 1. I originally noticed that the brake light cover was extremely warm after our ride which is what led me to notice that the brake light was not working in the first place. (warm from being in the constant ON position) 2. I overlooked the fact that the two way bulb had both filaments lit always. (I will say it was so bright it did hurt to look at haha) 3. When I unplugged the blue lead the light dimmed. Funny in hindsight these all seem like huge tell tell signs, but I got wrapped up in the fact that the light wasnt getting brighter and overlooked the obvious.

So thank you all again and I hope one day I can have some knowledge to hand out to others. Pay it forward!

Ride ON!!

Shawn

 

[ninjaneer]

...and overlooked the obvious....
Shawn

this is always the case for me, as well. glad you fixed it.

 

[[email protected]]

Glad to hear you got it figured out.