How to test brake switch & dimmer switch

[pflaming]

I am FINALIZING my wiring, after a few months gap. The master brake cylinder does NOT work. How do I test those wires/bulbs without that brake switch. I'm also confused on the dimmer switch. I have head lights but dimmer just turns them off, does NOT dim. Do I just switch the three wires on the dimmer switch until I get the right combination?

[TodFitch]

I am FINALIZING my wiring, after a few months gap. The master brake cylinder does NOT work. How do I test those wires/bulbs without that brake switch. I'm also confused on the dimmer switch. I have head lights but dimmer just turns them off, does NOT dim. Do I just switch the three wires on the dimmer switch until I get the right combination?

Connecting a jumper wire between the battery supply wire that goes to the master cylinder and the wire that goes to the brake lights will allow you to test the brake lights without the master cylinder installed.

The headlight "dimmer" switch actually just switches which output gets the power (one for the high beam and one for the low beam). If it is just doing a "on/off" function then you probably have the power wire from the light switch going to one of the output terminals on the switch rather than the input terminal.

[greg g]

Make a 6 or 8 foot long jumper wire with a couple of aligator clips on each end. that way you can power the circuits independently ot the switch so you can diagnose where the falut lies. If the circuits work when owered up from the battery, then you need to check the switch and your conectios to the swith. the dimmer is just a rotary switch with two outs, each stomp merely changes the input to one or the other of the outs.

So if when you isolate the low beams, connect them ot one of the hot out put terminals, the other on will then be hooked to the high beams.

the jumper will allow you it do the same witht he brake switch. first isolate it and independantly power the circuit to test the lamp. then power the switch to check the switch and the power to ther switch.