no tail light/speedo or tach

[pierce]

Just the other day I noticed that I had no tail light. This sends to correspond with my tach and speedo lights. From the diagram it looks like I am looking for a green wire?

Seems strange that the tail and cluster are connected like that.

Not great at wiring, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Track T 2411]

Green wire is ground. Honda uses a common ground wire for most of the electrical components throughout the harness which grounds to the frame in a couple of spots. I'm not that familiar with the early wings so I'm not sure where those grounds are, I think one is by the battery box, one by the coils and one in the headlight bucket. Anyway, the taillight and cluster issue may or may not have the same cause.

[Shadowjack]

Brown is the color for lighting wires other than headlight and signals. Tail and instrument lights are always on at the same time, just like a car.

[jdvorchak]

Have you checked the bulbs?

[jdvorchak]

Have you checked the bulbs?

If your car had a tail light out, would you start ripping body panels off and assume it's a bad wire? Or would you check the bulb? Why would you diagnose a motorcycle any differently?

[Track T 2411]

JD is right, of course, start with the simple stuff, which I assumed you did. Bulbs, then fuses, then check for power to the socket with a test light to an independent ground. No power to the socket would mean a bad connection, wire, or switch, most likely. Power to the socket would mean bad ground wire, connection, or ground to frame. That should give you a start...

[pierce]

I should have mentioned that it, on occasion, works. So just recently I noticed that it was off, and then it came back on.

As soon as the tach or speedo light goes or, so does the tail light.

The brake light (rear) works regardless.

This led me to the conclusion that a connection is loose.

I'll check the brown wire and fuses and go from there.

I am not knowledgeable of wiring issues, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[pierce]

Feel stupid, but you all were right. It was the fuse. I had checked there first, and it looked good. This I time I just replaced it. And bam! Everything was fine.

Thanks again everyone for all the help!

[chewy999]

Feel stupid, but you all were right. It was the fuse. I had checked there first, and it looked good. This I time I just replaced it. And bam! Everything was fine.

Thanks again everyone for all the help!

One thing with the fuses that I found was that they can look ok, and 'work', but the ends can be faulty giving the problems you faced. On one of mine, you could twist the end off, put it back on and it would work until it vibrated loose. So physically check them and change any that are faulty.