This Monday for whatever reason it popped into my head to check my brake light. Sure enough, my brake light was always on. Brake on, brake off, front, rear, didn’t matter- always on.
Who knows how long it’d been that way. Even more curious why did my brain think to check it?
Intuition aside, it wasn’t the first time this has happened. Many years ago I turned on my bike when the garage door was closed and noticed the tail light was too bright. Toggled the lever and no change. Threw my multimeter on the front switch and sure enough the switch was dead.
Well I couldn’t really get a replacement switch without spending a dumb amount of money on a OEM switch. So, I took the dead one to the local electronic supply, and while they didn’t have a direct swap, we did find one that worked, and it worked flawlessly since then.
It’s not pretty but it works.
I was getting cleaned up Saturday morning to go back to the supply store and thought “Hey, maybe you should diagnose before spending money.”
So like last time, first thing I check was the switch. Check resistance on my multimeter again and this time I’m seeing a change. hmm. Now I think the rear switch is dead and I’m super bummed about that one because it’s in a weird spot and takes some hassle to get to it.
Turns out, the bolt there just isn’t pushing the switch in far enough. Screwed it ‘up’ a little, and voila, working brake light again.
I was really afraid this was going to be a bunch of time and money, but I’m glad I tested the front switch before just throwing money at the problem, like a dumbass.
Measure twice, cut once friends.
Hi Andy. I saw you this morning (8/9/19) on the way to work. It was on the 5 fwy south around the 57 or 22. It was nice to see you. Take care.
Marco
hey man, good to hear from you. hope things are turning up for you.