tail light rear blinker issues

[valkyalky]

My 99 tourer has a problem. The rear turn signals are dim and backwards from the front. Also when I turn either direction my tail light blinks of and on. Lastly, I have no brake light when applying hand or foot brake. I have gone through the wiring front to rear (did not check the connections under the rear fender yet). All the fuses are good. This bike has never been "messed" with. Oh yeah, one other thing, When I do hit the foot brake the rear light dims a bit and both turn signals come on very slightly.(they are not on normally). Confusing? very!

[Black Dog]

Check the wires under the rear section, and where they connect, under the rear fender...  Sounds like ya may have bottomed out, and tore up the insulation around the harness.

Just a guess, but try there first.

Black Dog

[3W-lonerider]

sounds like a ground problem to me..take a peice of wire and run it from a good ground and see if you can't touch it to where the grounds are on the rear fender..and see if your problem does'nt go away..you may be getting enough ground to run the tailight but when you hit the brake theres not enough ground for the brake light so it is gonna try to get ground where ever it can even if it has to pull it threw the turnsignal housings.

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

3W- has it right ,usually a ground problem lights are grounding thru wiring and not to the frame. A bad ground will make the lights  act weird and the problem can be hard to find.

[R J]

Shine a light up under the rear fender to see if that area has been rubbed by the tire.

If it is good, pull the right side cover and look for the big ole fat rubber sleeve.

In side of that sleeve, look for a GREEN wire.  Green is ground up there.     Pull it apart at the connection, clean it up, put a little pressure on the round sleeve with your pliers and reinsert.

IF, it is still loose try squeezing it a little more and replug it in.

If that fails, find your self a male and a female flat solder connector.       Cut the bullet and the barrel off the green wire and solder on these new ones.   Make sure you have good coverage of the spade and his girl friend.   I usually slide a piece of heat shrink tube over both ends before I solder and then plug them together, pull the heat shrink over them and shrink it down....

Had to do that to MGM at about 20,000, and it is still holding up at 242,000+.   It is a good fix.....    I HATE those damn bullet connectors just about as much as I do the Blue wrap around, squish the spade into the wire and then snap the cap.

If our employees use them, they are told once to not use em and take it apart and do it right.     Happens again, and they are issued their walking papers.

We do a lot of electrical work on most of the older cars.   Anytime one comes in with those connectors, we check to make sure they are not the problem, find the problem and then replace all of them with the appropriate connector(s).   99% of the time, we will find the problem in those connectors.