Tail Light Melt Down

[JasonS]

My rear light was acting up. Brake light application would cause the left bulb to light brightly but the right bulb would not light at all. Running lights seemed normal. all other lights function normally.

I discovered upon removal of the lens, that the back shield/reflector/mount had melted such that the light sockets had dropped in the reflector??!?!?!

The tech at the dealer was kind of amazed and said that only riding with the brake for a very long could have done that... I suppose I am numb footed enough to have done as much, but then shouldn't the material be capable of taking the temps of having the brake light on for a while??

Anywho.. the tech was able to determine that all the voltages and switches in the system were ok and that the issue was in the assembly itself.. I found one on ebay in the UK for $20 US shipped to me.. should have it in a few days.


Anyone ever heard of such a thing??

[JasonS]

I was able to find a used light assembly, minus the lens that I did not need anyway, in the UK for $10 plus$10 for shipping.

 I am in the middle of putting it all back together and am pleased to say the replacement unit does solve the issue. I took a couple of pics and will post them shortly.

I also think I have figured out why this happened... film at 11

[JasonS]

Here are the new and old units side by each. You can see the new is nice looking and the old is not.

[JasonS]

...and here is a closeup of the meltage....

[JasonS]

I have stubby hands... for a 6'3" guy mu fingers a short, so a found and installed an adjustable brake lever up front.

However, I had to modify the hand guard to accommodate the extra thickness of the new assembly. The brake lever was sticking... I worked on it over a week or so and got it right working right.... or so I thought

my theory on how this meltdown happened, is that the brake light switched got stuck on for way to long of a time at some point.. not sure when...

my thought now is that, even if this did happen.... shouldn't the light housing be able to handle the temperatures involved? perhaps a higher grade plastic??

anywho.. .all better now and cheap enough compared to a new one!!

[EvilBetty]

Wild.  Glad you got it sorted.

[Loops]

I'd suggest using LED stop  tail lights.  Why?

They're solid state so no wiggly tungsten wires to fail.

They draw almost no current and no current means very little heat.

They're generally brighter and faster acting than tungsten filament bulbs.

I've been using a pair in the rear lamp on my '99 885efi for about 6yrs now and never needed to replace one.

IMHO they're excellent.

Cheers

Loops