i went out of town this weekend and luckily the guys riding with me let me know that my brake light is staying on all the time. we took the front controls apart and looked and did not see anything unusual and it started working again. until we went riding. you can kinda wiggle the brake lever and it will blink off an on and eventually stay on all the time. could this just be the switch? the switch looks hardwired in and before i go doing a solder job i would like to know if it could be anything else....

 

Sure sounds like the switch to me. Can you jump the wires to bypass the switch? That'll tell you right away if the problem is he switch or not. I know it's easy to jump the rear switch, but I haven't looked close enough at the front switch connections.

I used a paperclip to jump the 2 wires going to the switch on the rear brake.

 

I'm confused by your question.

Your thread title says "Rear brake light worked now it stays on?"

But you then say that you "took the front controls apart ".

Which one are you having problems with?

If it's the front lever (on the bars), on my bike there's a little spring/plunger thingy that can break or get misaligned. That will make the light act weird.

 

My light stays on too...FK!!! and my old man said I gotta take off the back tire to get to the wires. WTF, tell me it ain't so Joe. It just stays on, it does not get brighter when I apply brakes its just ON! Which is better than none at all but here we go chasing wires!

 

There is a little brass looking spacer behind the switch in the handlebar that if not repositioned properly will cause the switch to not work. Or if the rubber boot is torn the switch also will not work right. Check those. Maybe with taking the controls apart one of those didn't get seated in the right spot. I've had this problem before.

 

Thanks Hogley Ripper - I will need to check that when I get home! Let you know how it goes.

 

My brake light is stuck on my 06 XL 883. It just started doing it. I can't find a wire coming off the rear brake anywhere. ???

 

I have had a similar problem. My front brake lever wiggled a lot and the light would either stay on or flicker. I ended up rebuilding the front brake master cylinder to get the plunger to return the lever all the way out. Since then I do a full brake bleed about once a year to keep everything clean. just be careful and use cardboard to hold out the lever so you don't damage the actual switch.

 

I to have got a problem with my rear brake light. The harley dealer has replaced the rear brake switch three times in less than a year and now the third one is not working. I put a jumper wire between the the two wires and the brake light works. Is this a run of bad switchs or could there be another problem? Any feed back would be helpfull.
Thanks,Mike

 

Thx MattyAmber. I'll do the same.