How is the Tail Light Assembly Removed?

Or rather, what all needs to be removed before I can get at it's attachment hardware?

Does the rear wheel, gas tank and engine have to come out?

Sorry if this seems silly, but it won't light the tail light even with good bulbs and the brake light works so I need to trace some wiring, I guess. I just can't seem to find or feel any screws or bolts from where I can see. I tipped up the trunk without removing it but that seemed to not reveal anything. I didn't try to mirror it yet though.

Please help?

Before removing the tail light, remove the seat and the left side black plastic cover between the seat and the side bag. Two bolts holding the seat, remove them and slide the seat forward. Three screws attaching the side cover. Then, look at the back of the tail light and trace the wires to a plug. Should be 6 wires coming from the light to the plug and 3 wires leaving the plug. Unplug and you can test the terminals to ensure you have voltage. Also, check for crimped or broken wires. On my bike, the blue wire goes to the tail light.

The brake light and tailight filaments are on different fuse circuits.

Are your front running lights operating...if not, check the fuse for Tailights in

the main fuse block, blue wire in and out.

If the CMS is functional and the problem is at the rear of bike it should be alarming

of bulb failure. If the fuse is blown so no power is getting to CMS, no alarm.

Start with the easy stuff.

Check all the fuses.

Check the 6 pin connector under the seat on the left side for power on all the wires that should have it.

that connector will tell you if the problem is in the front or the back of the bike.

I have the seat off, the two side panels, and have unbolted the rear of the trunk so that I guess I could remove it if I unplug it and loosen/disconnect the backrest cable.

I should explain that the PO did some wiring for trailer lighting and maybe a switch to toggle active. There's a heavy added wire going from a small added switch up front that seems to deliver power to the rear, trailer lighting was my guess but I want to know for sure. Under the seat there's more connections from the PO and one wire is just loose with what looks like a damaged spade lag on the end. I want to try to make sense of it all and for that I feel I need to see the wires leaving the tail light and what happens to them.

If you know where the tail light fastens to the bike please share with me, I want to remove as little as possible to accomplish what needs to be done.

I suppose it is as I expected, the mounting studs come straight out the back, the nuts look like 8mm socket needed. I hope the shaft doesn't extend past the nut very far, my 8mm socket is not very deep. Should be a pita but we will see.

To remove the tail light you have to remove the saddlebag lids, the panels above the saddlebags and alongside the seat (3 #2 phillips screws), and the seat. Next remove the rear trunk and the frame that supports the trunk. You need to unplug the connector under the left side panel wire for the trunk light and pull the wire back through it's routing. Unplug two different connectors for the passenger intercom in the same location. On the bottom inside of the trunk there are four locations of attachment with a total of 6 small acorn nuts and lock washer that require 10mm socket. Clean out the trunk real good while it's dismounted. Remove the six bolts for the trunk frame using a 12mm socket. Notice that on each side two bolts are similar length and the third is extra long. With the right (8mm) tool you may have been able to remove the two nuts that secure the tail light to the frame without removing the trunk frame but it's a tight fit so you may as well. You'll also want to use your 10mm socket to remove the two acorn nuts that hold the plastic cover over the CLASS unit at the upper rear of the rear fender. When all of this is off the bike it should be easy to remove the tail light but even though I didn't remove the tail light myself, I did remove all of that other stuff. I know my bike better for having done this. I thought there had to be problem in that area due to wiring done by the PO but I was wrong and the rest of you were right because the tail light fuse had slid over and was no longer making contact.

I did find something interesting there though and I hadn't seen this done before but it does make sense. The bike has a Markland trailer hitch and wiring and the PO had wired in 4 relays, one for each signal and installed a switch allowing the trailer connection to be enabled only when desired. The ground lug was broken and it wasn't working, but it was a kind of neat idea. Not having much experience with MC trailers I wondered if it was common to do this? Here's the dirty pics:

Cool, glad you got it fixed and we were of some help.

Hmmmm......

You say the fuse was slid over?

That implies that you still have the stock glass fuses.

Those stock glass fuses have been the root cause of MANY electrical gremlins for many people. There are a lot of people that have spent many days troubleshooting a bad glass fuse holder.

I would recommend upgrading to a modern ATC fuse block.

Even if you are not the most handy with electrical, SkyDoc_17 in the classifieds sells a kit with everything you need and good instructions.

The fuse upgrade will save you a lot of grief down the road.

The 4 relays are only a good idea if they are wired as an isolator and the trailer is a 5 wire setup. The standard auto type relay like those will wear out, especially for the turn signals. How hard would it be to replace one of those relays on the side of the road?

If you still have things apart, this would be a good time to dry out the desiccant for the class system. It is in that silver canister under the trunk.

Disconnect the air and bracket. As I recall there is a spring clip in the top, push in on the center and you can remove it. Pour the desiccant into a bowl and microwave it, I do it in 30 second increments. It will turn from pink to blue or visa versa. Keep microwaving until it is a uniform color. Yamamomma recomends replacing the canister every couple of years, but this works just fine and will remove the moister associated with compressing air.

Cool, glad you got it fixed and we were of some help.

 

I would recommend upgrading to a modern ATC fuse block.

The fuse upgrade will save you a lot of grief down the road.

 

The 4 relays are only a good idea if they are wired as an isolator and the trailer is a 5 wire setup. The standard auto type relay like those will wear out, especially for the turn signals. How hard would it be to replace one of those relays on the side of the road?

I'm not sure I understand why the turn signals would fail more quickly. When the switch is thrown it simply energizes the relays to connect the "movement" signals to the trailer wiring. At this setting both sets of outputs are active. When the relays aren't energized only the bike's lighting outputs, which are wired directly, are available. The relay contacts are only engaged once for each startup when a trailer is used and then engaged continuously until the bike is shutoff or the switch is turned off. The relays should stay serviceable for a long time since they're mostly unused.

As for the fuses, I bought one of these (Blue Sea Systems) but haven't gotten it installed yet:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81Ncy9vwdZL._SL1500_.jpg

 

If you still have things apart, this would be a good time to dry out the desiccant for the class system.

I put it back together and went for a ride but it sounds like it would be prudent to dry that desiccant. Maybe if I only add air to the suspension in the middle of Winter (when it's dry already).

Actually messing with the CLASS system does worry me a little though. I finally have it working for me, but had to do fork seals four times before I figured out additional parts were needed to get it right.

Actually messing with the CLASS system does worry me a little though. I finally have it working for me, but had to do fork seals four times before I figured out additional parts were needed to get it right.

It's not really too tough...........the 2nd time you do it!

Just kidding, it's really pretty easy once you know how to get to it, and you know that now.

Remember to save all those little packs in stuff you buy that say "DO NOT EAT", you can use it in that desiccant can. Just go into the house for a snack and stop eating the desiccant!

 

As for the fuses, I bought one of these (Blue Sea Systems) but haven't gotten it installed yet:

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81Ncy9vwdZL._SL1500_.jpg

I want to install one of those... I would love to have Auto Pilot, Radar and a fish finder on my 89 !!

I'm not sure I understand why the turn signals would fail more quickly. When the switch is thrown it simply energizes the relays to connect the "movement" signals to the trailer wiring. At this setting both sets of outputs are active. When the relays aren't energized only the bike's lighting outputs, which are wired directly, are available. The relay contacts are only engaged once for each startup when a trailer is used and then engaged continuously until the bike is shutoff or the switch is turned off. The relays should stay serviceable for a long time since they're mostly unused.

 

As for the fuses, I bought one of these (Blue Sea Systems) but haven't gotten it installed yet:

 

I guess I did not understand that the relays were just being used to disable the trailer wiring. In that case they should last almost forever, or until they die of corrosion.

My warped little mind assumed that they were there for isolation. I am not real sure what the benefit vs effort and cost is to having a switch to turn off the trailer lights? But it was obviously there for someone.

Yeah, it was already done for me by the PO but evidently he worried about shorting the signals when riding through water and muck without the benefit of a plug in the trailer accessory socket. The socket back there had a little door without seal over it until I backed it up into a curb early on in my ownership of it. It would have allowed liquid in and maybe caused a problem though.

I want to install one of those... I would love to have Auto Pilot, Radar and a fish finder on my 89 !!

Your 89 didn't come with those accessories? I thought that was standard equipment on all of these. OH, is yours the "Royale" model? That's got to be it, huh?

The "Chart Plotter" is really handy and the VHF is fun if you're bored........