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Good Hydraulic Brake Light Switch?

12K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  WR450X 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello, I've been lurking for months and ride a converted '06 WR450F that I got back in mid-October. The homemade lighting harness shorted and burned out in November, and I replaced it with the DRC harness kit (with a few modifications to suit my needs). My lights all worked, but the original hydraulic switch on the rear master cylinder would only light in a specific, slim range; if I didn't press the pedal far enough or pressed it too far, it wouldn't light up.

So, I ended up using BOTH DRC switches that came with the kit this weekend, and they both failed after leaving the pedal pressed all night to bleed the brake line. My rear brake feels just as it did before, so there doesn't seem to be air in the line, but the switches won't light up under any amount of pressure on the pedal.

Are there any quality hydraulic switches out there? It's really irritating to put two brand new switches in and have them both fail before I even get to ride the bike. Cheap Chinese shit... :rolleyes:

Thanks!
 
#3 ·
I cant stress how much i hate those stupid pressure switches and to junk them unless its for the rear brake only. Id recommend getting on ebay and picking up a 1/2" QUAD master of your choice with the MECHANICAL activated switch, Im running a KFX450 i think is what it is Kawasaki's race 450 quad. It works well with a 4 piston caliper and should be more than acceptable on a stock caliper as well giving you more feel, so a benefit in two areas.

To be honest nows the time to get rid of that type of switch for the front brake on the street you usually dont give the damn things enough pressure to activate through normal driving as the brakes work too well. Since not much pressure is needed your lights only come on when your mashing the brake and thats making you slow down too quickly for the street as cars cannot slow as fast and then your a pancake.... too many times iv heard the screaching tires behind me when not hauling ass. I chaulk that up to that damn switch as the LED lights are super bright and noticable but only when activated.... F those pressure switches for the front brake, rear is fine for simplicity and you apply more pressure there usually so it work well.

But if you need new switches i purchased some from motostrano with other orders and baja designs has some. Didnt see any on trailtech's site but im pretty sure they do as well.

http://www.bajadesigns.com/SearchByKeyword?word=brake switch


z
 
#4 ·
Well, I ended up ordering a Baja Designs pressure switch...theirs seem to have the best reputation amongst the crowd. If it goes bad in a short period of time, I'll be damned if I don't rig up a mechanical switch, or (more ideally) some type of magnetic switch.

That's a very, very good point about using a pressure switch on the front brake; it does seem quite useless for street purposes. I don't have a switch on the front, though I had been considering one. I'll just continue to hit the rear brake whenever there's someone behind me.

Thank you for your help! I'll give the "best" pressure switch a shot before giving up on them entirely.
 
#6 ·
I do the same thing. I even had a guy tell me that my brake lights didn't work when it was bumper to bumper and I wasn't squeezing the front lever that hard.

I might look into a quad master.
 
#14 ·
Well, I've got a bit of a story:

The Baja Designs pressure switch came in last Monday, and I put it on in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Brake light wouldn't come on. I started to get pissed.

I checked the wiring, and realized the wires running to the switch look a bit melted. Accompanied by the fact that the DRC harness is mostly made up of teeny-tiny 18-gauge wires, I decided to pull the large wires from the original pressure switch and crimp them on where the little wires are still good. I did that, then realized that the NEW DRC lighting harness was melted almost all the way to the head tube, and that one wire burned completely through under the seat. I started to get really, REALLY pissed and decided to turn in for the night (morning).

As I was thinking about it before falling asleep, I realized that the turn signals and horn still worked just fine, and the headlight and taillight were also unaffected. So, I decided I'd run a wire directly from the positive on the battery, through the pressure switch, to the brake light wire.

So, I rewired the brake light Saturday afternoon, and it works! Now I'm just crossing my fingers and praying that my harness will not completely burn up again. I really think the harness wiring running to the switch had something to do with it, so hopefully that will be that.

I do want to address, however, that both of the DRC pressure switches worked when I initially put them on. I disconnected the battery each time I left the pedal depressed overnight, so the wiring couldn't have melted from that. Point being, the DRC switches are indeed junk, and the wiring (although intended to run off 8 AA batteries) isn't that great, either.
 
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