TOPIC:

Since getting my bike previous owner had a mess of the original tail light housing and light. I want to put a smaller aftermarket light but the original wires to the light are 3 wires- black w stripe a red and a blue one. the aftermarket light has only red and black and i've tried to configure it like the original but can't get it to work. Does anyone know how to wire this correctly without messing any wiring up?

In your signature on your profile you can put in what type of bike you have. (like the info in gray I have at the bottom of my posts) Then people can be really specific with the advice they give you.

The striped black wire is ground
It should also go to the turn signals
The red is marker
and the blue is brake

Kool?

here is the address of the download page from this site that I found useful for my particular bike.

kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_docman&...w&gid=105&Itemid=108

Jump to this page, scroll down and download the file.
It is a color coded wiring schematic for a 77 650 C1.

Cheers

Of course the striped black wire is the terminal for both of the other wires, blue and red. It runs and connects to all things ground.

The red wire runs to the ignition switch and gets power when the key is turned.

The blue wire should hook up to the brake lever switches front and back, and the brake light failure indicator light.

If this does not work, then check the obvious fuses, damaged wires and battery power problems. Then start tracing wires back to the sources.

Good luck.

Your aftermarket tail light may not have a ground wire. If that's the case, it must be grounded through the housing when mounted (is the housing metal??). Then one of your 2 wires should be for tail and the other for brake. There is also a chance that you only have a running light (single filament bulb) and the wires would be ground and tail (no brake function). Coming from your bike you'll have a ground, tail, and brake circuit. Keep us posted.

Thanks for everones input, it helped fix my electrical problem