I decided to add brake lights to my 39 EL today. For 18 years I have been riding the shit out of that thing and never had brake lights or a brake light switch on it.
I decided to utilize the two marker lights that were already mounted to the fender, neither was hooked up and only one had a lens. The tail light itself has no accommodation for a brake light.
Now working on this particular bike is fun and challenging. It is absolutely filthy and covered with 70 years of grease, grim, oil and crap. Adding a new part is especially challenging. It must match perfectly...but then again that's what I do. I opened a parts drawer that contained brake light switches and low and behold there was the perfect one staring up at me. The grease and grime so thick you could barely make out the screws. The old cracked wires were still connected and hanging off it! In fact one of the wires was the exact length to reach the coil terminal.
Kismet baby!!
I tested it with my meter and of course it worked. I dug up the proper spacer and bolt, and it was time to get dirty. It went on like it belonged. I ran a longer wire back to the lights, dug around and found a couple of bulbs and lenses and just like that I had brake lights! Beautiful!
They look orange in the picture but they are red. The switch looks right at home but a little dry. The first ride down the road will take care of that.
Maybe next I'll treat it to a front wheel bearing over haul...way overdue!
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