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Hey guys. Bought a stock rear brake light and reynolds c stand to install. Have a few questions:

1) The stock c stand springs are too long for the reynolds c stand that I bought off ebay. It was for BMW but not sure which model or if it matters. Anyone know where to buy comparable springs in shorter lengths? The stock spring is approx. 6 inches, I am guessing I need 4 1/2 or 5 inch springs.

2) after preliminarily hooking up the rear brake light, the light comes on, but it does not get brighter when the front or foot brake is deployed. The continuity between the rear brake wire ends and each of the brake switches are good. I don't have a stock bulb (12v/21w5w) bulb yet,so I am using a common 1034 auto brake bulb to test. The schematic shows the green/red, black/silver, and brown wires to connect. I connect the green and the black wires to the connections closest to the bulb and the brown wire to the connection left by itelf above these wires for ground. Can anyone tell me what else to troubleshoot? Also, do I solder these wires to their connection points? Not sure how the will be firmly attached otherwise.



Much thanks...

Can't help with the c-stand. I'm having the same problem with my brake light on a 75/6. I suspect the switch is stuck closed but I will have to begin at the beginning with that.

Your picture is of "spade" connectors. You can buy a pack of crimp-ons and they will work well. I suggest using the blue or yellow size. It also looks to me like the ear for the connector on the left has broken off. I think solder is your only hope for that connector. Wrap the wire around the outside and solder it in place. Should work for a decade at least.

hudson, you say there is continuity from the wire's end back to the switch. So now check for 12V. Brown is the ground wire, connect that to the ground on your meter or test light. Then check the other two wires individually for 12V when the brake lever(s) are activated. The one that shows 12V when brake is activated is your brake light positive feed. If neither shows 12V, or lights your test light. Or if both show 12V all the time. Then there's a prob w the wiring or one of the switches. Try unpluggin one of the brake switches and see if there's any difference.
What year and model are you working on?
The connectors for the wires may vary.
I am not sure how many different tail light housings were used on the airheads.
The one's I have seen were male pins like you see for the ground wire.
But first make sure your brake switches and the wiring from them is ok.
As for the Reynolds center stand.
The frames are different for various years and require different center stands.
Sounds like you may need to re-engineer this to make it work.
You most likely will need to visit your local hardware store. If none found there, start searching online for springs.
HTH,
troy

Depending on the year and model...if you have fuses, the stop light is on a different fuse from the tail light.
GN/R is to the stop light, Black/silver (white) is for the tail light.
and you know Brown is ground.
And concerning the centerstand: +1 (tagordon)
The springs for the Reynolds ride-off stand connect in a different location from the stock stand springs. The stock stand springs are arranged so the stand wants to stay down a lot more than the Reynolds.

judging by the tail light you have a bike that has one of the useable BMW centre stands, I would keep the stock stand and just replace the bushings.

Ok guys. Appreciate the replies. I will test for 12V for each tail light wire as I haven't thought to do that yet. Just for the sake of it, I attached a headlight lamp to the wires. the light comes on. This time however the brake light comes on when the foot pedal is activated, but still no dice with the front switch. Will solder on once I get this working properly.

As far as centersand, will hunt for the springs on internet. I didn't realize there were different mountings for the various models. If a no go, stock will go back on.

BTW, the bike is a 1971 R75/5 and there were no fuses added as of yet.

Will keep you posted. Thanks again!

Did these have spade connectors?

On mine, the two positives connect with just the bare wire inserted into the spring loaded connector.

Was this the original way?

Hard to describe here....

Bought this on ebay, no connectors with mine...

No, that was my point, for the positive connections at least, no connectors or soidering required.

There's like an upside-rounded V on each connector that's a spring.

Compress that together and a little loop from the one side of the V will poke through the corresponding slot in the other side of the V.

Still the bare wire (or tinned wire if you want) through the loop and then release the spring and it pinches the wire in place.

That's how mine are and have been for ever.

I think the grounds don't have this though.

IF you still have or ever had the Stock BMW center stand, I'd try using that for a while. I have an R75/5 from the "No-fuse" time also and the stock stand works fine. Apparently they changed the geometry for the center stand sometime in the 70's (after 1971) than got a lot of us interested in the Reynolds.

There is a thread running now that shows the inside of the headlight shell (/5 ignition switch problems, or some such). The front brake switch wires are the GN/red and the Green (solid) with the GREEN being the HOT lead and the Gn/red, the one that goes from the switch to the brake light.
The GN/red should be connected to the little terminal block in the shell bottom, while the GREEN (hot) lead shares a terminal on the headlight relay. This relay has no function for the brake light tho.
Anyhow this is a good place to check for power to the switch, and check for switch operation...both may be done by checking for voltage-to-ground on each wire. If your headlight works, you ought to have power on the solid GREEN wire.

Once again, the power for the foot switch for the brake light is also on a GREEN wire but it is separate from the hand lever switch. IT comes directly off the "key-switch" board at terminal 15.

Have you got a schematic?