[JoshuaGDHS]

Will do. Thank you!

 

[JoshuaGDHS]

SO here is what I have done and discovered. Bulbs and fuses are fine.

So when the bike is running, no tail light or license plate light. Brake light still works.

HOWEVER, when I flip the ignition to the Park position, the tail light and license light both come on. So bulbs and fuses are fine, some type of wire issue. But it's not in the rear, all wires seem fine. Perhaps wiring issue in the ignition?

 

[JoshuaGDHS]

Yes, the light was working before I clipped off the turn signals.

The speedometer never did light up, even before. I just assumed the 85 model didn't have a back-lit speedometer.

I made no changes in the wires going to the ignition. I simply clipped the wires directly where they went into the turn signals, and the running tail light and license light no longer work, unless the key is switched to Park mode on the ignition, then they come on.

So it's not a wiring issue going back to the lights, it's got to be somewhere close to the ignition, correct? But why would clipping the turn signals off affect that?

 

[JoshuaGDHS]

Yeah I'm not too concerned with the speedo, I'm sure that is just a bulb.

And I definitely get where you are going with it potentially being a commonality. There is a dark green wire that runs with all 3, right signal, left signal, and tail light. I believe it could be a ground. The only reason I kind of cancelled that idea out in my head, is because when I turn the ignition to park, it all lights up just fine, so the wiring in the back seems to be ok. It just for whatever reason doesn't send the signal for it to light when the ignition is turned to the center, running position.

:banghead:

 

[JoshuaGDHS]

The speedo light may be burnt out, don't know.
It probably would have been better to unplug rather than clip the wires but hindsight is 20/20.
Clipping the wires could create a dead short which would blow the tail light fuse.
That would be the bottom fuse of the three.
Do you have a multimeter? I would check for voltage at both ends of the fuse.

The way the wiring works is there is power from the battery through the main fuse (top fuse) to the ignition switch. From there the switch distrubtes power to various bits. Part of that power is run through the headlight fuse (middle fuse) and the tail light fuse (bottom fuse) From the tail light fuse it runs back up through the speedometer light to the ignition switch where it connects with the tail light wire.
When switched to park, the power does not got through the tail light fuse it gets bridged in the ignition switch directly to the tail/plate light circuit.
Basically Park bypasses the tail light fuse.
Just looking at the fuse may not tell the story. Check it with a meter. You can even pull the fuse and check it for ohms. it should read zero ohms if good, infinite ohms if bad. Or, you can check for voltage from the input side and from the output side of the fuse.

Thank you for this information! I will look further into this tomorrow in the daylight and let you know if I have any luck. Again, thank you!

 

[JoshuaGDHS]

...it was a fuse.

As much as I was convinced it couldn't be because the lights still worked when in park, I suppose it runs on a separate fuse when running. Grabbed a test light, found the faulty fuse, switched it out and there we go!

Sorry for the wasted energy on trying to figure out the wiring problem but at least we used some brain power! Thanks all, your help is greatly appreciated.