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Old Jul 22nd, 2008, 02:39 PM   #1
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Question 1994 harley heritage brake light problem

hello everyone,
i just replaced the front and rear brake pads on a 1994 harley davidson heritage softail and now the brake lights won't go off. what did i do wrong.
is there a brake light switch adjustment?
thanks for any help/advise,
vic
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Old Jul 22nd, 2008, 05:43 PM   #2
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have you pumped the rear and front brake levers to be sure the brakes are working????
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Old Jul 22nd, 2008, 05:57 PM   #3
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you should have bleed out some fluid , replace it & pump both like chuck said above
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Old Jul 23rd, 2008, 08:22 AM   #4
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make sure your front brake lever button isn't stuck
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Old Jul 25th, 2008, 02:32 AM   #5
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The first thing to do would be to determine which brake is causing the light to stay on. The rear brake switch is usually a pressure switch somewhere after master cylinder. The front one is a switch on the hand control.

Disconnect them one at a time, see which is acting up, and split the problem in half.

I had a similar problem on my 95 sporty. The switch on the hand control is a NCHO(normally closed held open) switch on the switch cluster, and the activator (which hold the switch open or off when the brake lever is not being pulled) is on the grip assembly. These have to be mounted tight together, a 1/8" gap will cause the brake light to stay on.

Good luck
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Old Jul 25th, 2008, 07:35 AM   #6
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spent about a week figuring out that darn button on the hand brake, with the front brake off simple to take off the rear sensor and test it, took that sucker off about 5 times too, plenty of brake bleeding
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Old Jul 25th, 2008, 11:55 AM   #7
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I would look to the front first it is a common failure

You can open the clamshell cover on the switches, inside is a rubber booted switch that was mentioned above

two things happen

1) Switch dies, simple to replace, buy a new one, cut wires and splice into harness.

2) little V shaped metal clip that goes behind it is bent, collapsed or gone. without it the switch recedes into the housing and the lever can't get to it to close. So make sure the clip is behind the switch and holding it in positon.

With the covers open you can move the switch by hand, if the lights don't go out it's likely it's the problem

You also have one under the trans for the rear brake check the wires, you can pull them off to see if the light goes out as well.
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Old Jul 28th, 2008, 10:25 PM   #8
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One other place to look is the switch housing is butted up tight to the master cylinder. If it backs off a little bit the switch will stay ingaged.
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Old Aug 3rd, 2008, 10:19 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by VYBR8ER View Post
One other place to look is the switch housing is butted up tight to the master cylinder. If it backs off a little bit the switch will stay ingaged.
That's what happened to me. I replaced the grips and didn't get the grip up tight against the master cylinder housing. That'll keep the brake light on. It's in the service manual too but it isn't obvious. If you changed handle bars or grips, that's the 1st place to look.
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Old Aug 9th, 2008, 02:27 PM   #10
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ugh this brings back not so good memories about my 94 Heritage I had a while ago... I had running light and brake light issues forever, then actually when I was preppin it to put up for sale... I found it! It was a group of wires that ran along the bottom of the frame, and every other time I would lift the bike with my POS Craftsman bike lift it would crush the wires! This would either crush the wires to a point of not working, semi working, or working all the time, and working only when they should be workin...

Just my two pennies.
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