Hello everyone. My name is Jonathon and I am new to the site. I recently purchased my first Harley. A Beautiful 1989 Sportster 1200. Its pretty custom and the only things left stock on it are is the engie and frame. That being said yesterday I was relocating my tail light from the left side, if sitting on the bike, back up under the fender. I disconnected the old wires Cut them off and re-crimped new wires with spade connectors. When i went to turn the ignition key on my tail light no longer works but the brake light does? also when i woke up this morning my battery was dead. From what I have read it sounds like i have a short to ground somewhere. can anyone else give me some ideas of where to look? Thank you for your time in advance.

 

Take the connectors off and check the power to the wires and also see if you blown a fuse or not.

 

A blown fuse wouldnt drain the battery though would it?

 

The wire that supplies power to the tail light is green (green is the running light circuit). Follow the wire and look for damage, chafing etc.

The wire goes from the tail light to a connector, and from the connector it goes to the lights circuit breaker.

The front running lights and headlight are also powered by the lights circuit breaker, if that breaker is tripped none of these lights would work either.

A blown fuse would not be able to drain the battery, because once a fuse blows the circuit is incomplete.

A short in a circuit that is protected by a circuit breaker is different, when there is a short to ground the circuit breaker will trip, and reset when it cools off, and this could drain your battery, but the ignition switch would have to be left on for this to happen, and that would drain your battery....

 

First thing I'd do is take the tail light/brake bulb out and with power off, check for continuity to ground from the contacts; that should identify which wire is shorted, if one is. Also check the new spade connectors to make sure they aren't touching anything else. Check that the wires haven't been pinched under the edge of anything; I've seen a wire harness melt all over when a wire got pinched under a valve cover unnoticed - on your year bike with who knows what mods, I don't know how your wires are routed. If you still don't find anything, try posting pics showing the wires and everything changed, maybe we'll see something to suggest.

 

When you post a question, please post it in one section of the forum only...

 

I do apologize. I have corrected the issue I pulled the new wires I crimped off and there was a frayed wire sticking through the insulation and heat shrink touching the fender grounding it out. I re-crimped the wire re insulated and heat shrunk and checked for more frays and problem was solved. I now have a running light and brake light. Thank you all for the help!!