Wiring trouble

[Sallison396]

So I've removed the fender, that tall crossmember, and disconnected all the wiring to the lights in the back to install a new seat, brake lights, and turn signals. I ordered one of those LED strips for all of that, but realized today that it has half as many wires coming out of it as I have to go into it. So I was messing around today and thought I'd see if the turn signals would work if I combined the two grounds for a turn signal together. In hindsight, dumb idea. So after doing that, and seeing that it didn't work, I wired them back correctly. None of the signals are working at all now. I also plugged in the brake light back into the plug for shits and giggles, and the running light is working but the brake light is not. I'm assuming I shorted out the flasher relay, but what did I do to the brake lights? Any ideas?

 

[Sallison396]

This is on a 81 xs400 special

 

[RZor82]

Not broken your fuse?

 

[Sallison396]

No the fuse isn't burnt out. Do you know why there is 3 wires to each Blinker? I don't really get why they need 2 grounds to each blinker.

 

[RZor82]

Do you have a picture? Isnt it combined lights of some sorts?

 

[Sallison396]

I can take a picture after work. And I don't really know about combined lights, lol I'm not all that knowledgeable. The bulbs are dual filament, idk why though they only flash one way.

 

[BBS360]

Stock had only one wire and a ground that goes around the stud.
Are these the ones you had issues mounting before?
Might have a running light built-in.

 

[Sallison396]

They are the ones I had issues mounting originally. And there isn't a running light, but i realized now what I did. There's a red, a black, and black with white stripe going to the signals. They're 2 filament, so previous owner probably split the hot wire to run to both hot wires for the signals. Which would be solid black and red. My dumb self just assumed black is ground and ran a hot wire straight to the actual ground, black with white stripe. Which I'm guessing is why I shorted the relay. At least I hope that's all I did. Not really sure about brake light though. Unless they ran the brake light through the flasher relay somehow

 

[BBS360]

Brake light should be unrelated unless you blew the fuse.
Could use the other filament as a running light. Having two lights on at the front helps oncoming drivers judge your speed better.

 

[Sallison396]

Well I'm gonna order the relay and see what happens when I put it on. I'll let y'all know if it works

 

[Sallison396]

So I was messing with the bike today, and noticed there's a second fuse for the lights? The wire runs into it and then out of it, and it's a car style fuse, with the 2 prongs. Pretty cool actually, I never noticed it before. Idk why they added a second one but sure enough it was blown. Swapped it with one I pulled off my car, and voila! Brake light and turn signals work. The signals were flashing extremely slow, I hope that's just because of the relay.

 

[RZor82]

The slow flashing should be the relay I guess.
I have those fuses as well, blown mine once by shorting it out when connecting new rearlight. Stupid me wasn't paying attention.

 

[Sallison396]

Got the new relay today, sure enough that was the culprit!