Front Brake Light Switch vs Lever Freeplay Adjustment

[buickyouth]

I'm working on fine tuning my braking system.

When I adjust for proper free play in the front brake lever, the brake light swith doesn't trigger unless I pull in hard. Resulting in a late light.

When I adjust for proper timing on the brake light switch, I'm left with almost a full inch of freeplay on the front lever.

Has anyone else come accross a similar issue? Should I dremel down the end of the brake switch?
Is this a sign of needing to do a front MC rebuild kit?

Thoughts?

[xssiveone]

It might just be an indication that it's time to either clean or replace your front brake switch. I had a similar problem on my Kawasaki.. light would come on, but only in a "panic" stop situation, not under normal braking. Disassembled the switch twice and then gave up in disgust and bought a new one. Works great now.

[fxrer]

That brake light switch is “normally open”. As you pull the brake lever, it “releases” a spring loaded button in the switch; when the button moves far enough “out”, the electrical circuit “closes” and turns on the brake light.

It sounds like your switch is positioned too far into the lever housing. There is a collar around the switch body which should prevent this, but maybe something is cracked or broken. Try to pull the switch forward (towards the front of the bike, relative to its current position in the housing), then try the brake light. If it improves the situation, then switch is bad. New ones are available from partsnmore for about $7 I think.

To remove the switch, depress the tab (at the underside slot in the housing) and pull the switch forward and out of the housing. Disconnect the wires inside the headlight shell and remove the switch/wire assembly.

[buickyouth]

The switch I have is a nwe one from partsnmore. I'll try to move the switch inside the housing, but as far as I could see, I thought the tab you need to depress kind of fixes where the switch rests and I saw no way to adjust the placement of it.