Making sense of existing light kit (tail/brake)?

yetti96

My '02 IQ/DS has a light kit installed. I was able to get the headlights plugged into the factory holes and powered up. I need to source another switch, but this is not the problem. The cart has an aluminum rear seat (flip/flop) that looks like the factory rear tail/brakes lights were disconnected and extended so that the new/extra lights were visible from the rear. I have used my multi-meter to figure out which are the taillights and by deduction, the 3rd wire on each side will be the brake light.

I inspected the brake switches (one under the cart on the brake and the one behind the pedal) and found them to be corroded and the underneath one to be busted. I will be ordering a brake switch kit from a BGW site sponsor, but while waiting for the parts I have a question. Understanding that the switches are basically gate to allow the electricity to pass through the circuit and eventually to the lights, I should see 12v across the two wires that come from/to the main harness right? I have a green and a black (not that it really matters) and the switches were on a red and black wire. I removed the switches and tested the two leads left int he harness and no power. So of course tying them together gave me no additional light to my temporary tail lights.

So should I see 12v for the tail lights and then the stop/tail knows to get brighter when the 12v signal for the brakes to get brighter? Or should I see less than 12v for just tails? Not too sure how that works (maybe just 2 filaments and one i brighter, but both use 12v, my assumption)

I will retrace the location of the green wire (power into brake switches) and see where it gets power from, but should I see 12v across that and the black under the cart? I think I may need to hook this green wire up to the 12v circuit or just run a new power wire from the 12v converter.

Sorry for the novel, I'm still a n00b.

BGW

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crash test dummy

3 wires are
common ground for both
one to tail light
one to brake

the "box" behind the pedal is the timer , if it's bad the brake lights will not come on

yetti96

Well both boxes just look like switches. The one on the bottom was broken open and the aluminum bracket was bent to all heck.

Like I said I was able to figure out the ground and the tail light and by deduction the left over was for the brake, but getting power to the brake lights is where I am running into a bit of a rough patch. I guess it's time for more probing of the green wire to see where it goes in the harness and install a new brake switch kit.

What does the timer do? I thought the series of switches allowed power to either pas through or not depending on weather you hit the brakes or set the parking brake.

crash test dummy

yours may havev the switches
yhe timer shuts off power after 30sec
great when parking brake is applied not so good sitting at a stop sign

yetti96

Gotcha, thanks CTD!

I'm ordering the heavy duty rear springs too, time to start oiling those bolts today so when they arrive it'll break free. Time to make a thread for my wandering steering next, the front end seems a bit loose when changing direction.

yetti96

This is what I was working with...toast.

jakesnake27

WOW, yes that would be toast...
That the same setup I have on my cart.
There is a switch under the pedal with the bracket, and one mounted behind the brake pedal to turn off the lights when the parking brake is applied.

yetti96

What I don't understand is how the circuit works. I have some basic knowledge of electricity and if I view the switches as a valve for the flow of electricity. If power coming into the circuit goes to the bottom switch COM and out the NC then when you press the switch (pedal activates that) wouldn't that open the circuit and prevent power from going to the brake lights? Then the power leaving that bottom switch goes to the COM and out the NC of the park pedal. The 2nd switch makes sense because when you set it to park the lights will go off. How am I wrong because every diagram I see shows the same thing.

Sergio

The normal resting position of the frame switch is "pressed", therefore the NC contacts will be "open". When you press the pedal, the plunger is no longer pressed and the NC contacts close again.

jakesnake27

When I installed my brake lights, it took a good 30 minutes of thinking to figure out the circuit, so you are in the same boat I was in...
I wish I could find a diagram for the circuit, but you will figure it out.
The switch under the pedal is pushed in when the brake pedal is not depressed, then when you step on it, the switch plunger comes out, and closes the circuit, turning on the brake lights.
So basically with the plunger depressed, the lights are out; plunger not depressed, lights on.
As for the parking brake switch, it is the same way; plunger out lights on, plunger depressed, lights out.

I think that's how it goes, but honestly the best thing to do would to play with the circuit on your bench with a 12v battery until it works properly.
Once you have it, you will have a celebration (like I did).
The instructions that came with my kit were terrible, I basically had to figure out which wires went where all on my own

You'll get it, just takes some patience. Are you putting on a brand new kit?