So I was replacing the seat lock in the back of the bike, and when i put the plug back into the brake light assembly, the brake lights dont work.

The lights turn on
The signals work fine

Just the brake lights don get brighter upon grabbing the lever or the foot lever. Am I missing something? because its seems like all you need to do it plug the clip in and it should work...

Any ideas?

 

Are the brakelights running lights for 2000 cbr f4's?

 

just thinking out loud sounds like you've:
1) unplugged something somewhere else.
2) pinched/severed some wire in the process of working on something
3) shorted something and blown the brakelight fuse
4) had the super-rare occurrence of your brake light bulbs simultaneously burning out the bright filament.

Yes - typically all motorcycles run the red rear lamp as a running light at all times. The second filament in the bulb is the brighter "stop" function.

 

Start with the fuses - I bet there's one in there for Brake/Stop or similar.

lemme pull down a repair manual for your bike and see what the wiring schematic looks like.

Otherwise, 2 quick questions:
Do you own a multimeter?

and

Do you know how to use it?

 

I do indeed own a multimeter, and kinda know how to use it.

Also, the lights are aftermarket, LED lights.

And I swapped a 10a fuze and it still was doing the same thing.

 

Swapped the fuse? which one was it (There should be a chart on the inside of the fuse cover) Was it blown or are you just moving fuses around inside the fusebox? think of a fuse as a piece of wire that is designed to melt if it gets too hot, as long as it isn't melted, then there's no reason to replace it.

I just finished downloading a manual for a 2K F4 - Looks like the the Brake lights are on the same fuse as the Horn, Turn Signals , tail light (running) and gauges, so if all of those other functions work, the fuse isn't the problem.

The tail light harness should have 3 wires running into your brake lights - Green (Ground), Black/Brown-stripe (dim running light function), and Green/Yellow-stripe (bright stop light).

Since the tails do light up in the normal running light function, you need to test the Green/Yellow wire to see if you have voltage running on that wire when the brake levers are pulled.

for your meter - set it up where if you connected it to your battery you'd get ~12v displayed. Now, leave the ground lead connected to the battery or other good chassis ground, and probe the black/brown wire with the ignition on and the tail running lights lit up. You should get a reading between 10-12 volts. this lets you know you have your meter working properly, and can now take the positive probe, and connect it to the connector for the Green/yellow lead. You shouldn't get a reading. Now, push/pull one of the brake levers to activate the brake switch, now you should get a Reading similar to what you got when probing the Black/Brown wire.

If you got a good voltage reading, then your wiring is fine, the problem lies in your LED's.

If you didn't get a good reading, disconnect the wiring from the taillight and retest. If you still don't get a reading, post back up and we can go from there, cause that means there's something amiss in your wiring harness, and at that point, I can only make suggestions.

 

Wow, you know your stuff haha, ill try all that when I'm back from work and let ya know how it goes.

Thanks a bunch.

 

Spent too many years wrenching on my own cars/trucks, and as a car stereo installer. tracing wiring schematics for vehicles just starts to make sense, and I'm finding motorcycle wiring is way simpler to follow than most cars.

 

Well my multimeter is broken so I have to get a new one.

And i just noticed that I only have high beams right now too. Any idea why the lows beams or running headlights are down?

Thanks for all the help, very very new to wiring stuff haha

 

Will have to look into the headlight thing in a few.

on your taillight - does your bike have the connector, and then the separate wires each then have a bullet-style connector for all of the rear end lighting? you can kinda see what I'm talking about sitting on top of my undertail on my F2.


If so - you can swap the black/brown and green/yellow wires with each other. This should make your LED's light up brightly like the brake lever were depressed, although you wouldn't be touching the brakes.

That should let you know the LED's are working properly.

Lemme go stare at your schematics again, but now I'm starting to question relays or maybe your ECU.