Brake lever electrical connection

I have been avoiding the few electrical connection things getting the '74 850 ready. But I have to address these now. The hydraulic front brake works (I hooked it up and bled it) but there is no place for an electrical conection that I can see. Hanging near the small Brembo reservoir are two spade end female connectors, but I can see no place to plug them in! When I alligator clip them together the brake light comes on so I know that's what they're for -- and the circut works. Same is true for the foot brake except the switch is there and either needs opened and cleaned/repaired or replaced.

The previous owner must have switched to the brembo type of hydraulic brake and reservoir. The manual I have (Haynes) shows a different reservoir with a switch attached. What I have is very different.

Contact Matt at CNW. He has a microswitch he provides with his Brembo MC that might work.

Joe Schlaberdowski said:

I have been avoiding the few electrical connection things getting the '74 850 ready. But I have to address these now. The hydraulic front brake works (I hooked it up and bled it) but there is no place for an electrical conection that I can see. Hanging near the small Brembo reservoir are two spade end female connectors, but I can see no place to plug them in! When I alligator clip them together the brake light comes on so I know that's what they're for -- and the circut works. Same is true for the foot brake except the switch is there and either needs opened and cleaned/repaired or replaced.

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Assuming you have a stock wiring harness, the front brake light switch wiring pigtail pair is a white wire and a brown wire. It should come from the main harness under the tank, or often these wires route into the headlight shell through the headlight harness, then back out and up to the stock brake light switch. It sounds like this is what you're seeing up near your master cylinder. You will need to fit a microswitch to the Brembo, as a previous poster reported. These switches are available from multiple sources online, and usually come with a pair of bullets that you'll have to snip off and change to male spades to fit your harness.

Same with the rear brake footswitch. This switch is normally closed. When the brake pedal is at rest it puts pressure on the switch thereby opening the connection and disconnecting power. When you use the brake and press the pedal it closes the switch and connects the power to the rear brake light.
You should have a long harness pigtail coming from your battery box area with a white wire and a brown wire that runs down the frame tube, under your primary, and out along the rear brake arm and terminates to female spades. Connect to your brake pedal switch and you should be good. That switch is very sensitive and fussy, and hung out in the elements for its entire life, so it's possible you'd need a new one if you have the old original. They are cheap as chips.

-KC

Thanks. For the pedal switch I'll just buy one, but looking about I saw RGM Norton sells a very small hydraulic brake switch with spade end connectors. What think about a 'T' fitting right after the Brembo unit to hang the small hydraulic switch on? Question is, does such a hydraulic switch work reliably in that configuration?

Joe Schlaberdowski said:

Thanks. For the pedal switch I'll just buy one, but looking about I saw RGM Norton sells a very small hydraulic brake switch with spade end connectors. What think about a 'T' fitting right after the Brembo unit to hang the small hydraulic switch on? Question is, does such a hydraulic switch work reliably in that configuration?

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Yes, an inline hydraulic switch will work well. But means more fuss, and re-bleeding your brake. You can find the Brembo microswitch on ebay.
Or better yet, buy one from Matt @ CNW and support the Norton folks.

-KC

I have the madass replacement front brake lever and mechanical switch (not a hydraulic switch like the stock lucas commando switch) It works great. My lucas one would leak every few years and ruin the paint on my gas tank so I finally gave up on using it. I rebuilt the MC and replaced the hydraulic switch then opted for the madass brake instead so the stock set up is for sale. If you want a stock MC cheap shoot me a private message.

I just went through this with the Brembo m/c on one of my Nortons. I bought the m/c from one of the eBay suppliers (Gotham Cycles, or something like that) on eBay, and it came without the switch. I contacted the supplier, and they had the switch available, just not listed on eBay at the time. The pictures show it on the bike, connected to a new harness from Andover Norton.





Ken

Gortnipper and Holmeslice suggested Matt at CNW. Matt said he had both micro and hydraulic switches, but said that, with good washers the hydraulic was more reliable in the end. I ordered it. After this is fixed am looking forward to fixing the corroded junction box under the tank (not really). Left turn signal is intermitant -- well it surprised me and worked once last night -- and I think that's the source of the bad connection.

Joe Schlaberdowski said:

Gortnipper and Holmeslice suggested Matt at CNW. Matt said he had both micro and hydraulic switches, but said that, with good washers the hydraulic was more reliable in the end. I ordered it. After this is fixed am looking forward to fixing the corroded junction box under the tank (not really). Left turn signal is intermitant -- well it surprised me and worked once last night -- and I think that's the source of the bad connection.

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http://www.britishwiring.com/category-s/266.htm