ok I took it back apart and on my 2016 tri glide the brake light switch is inside the switch housing clipped on the handle bar and when you release the brake a tab on the brake lever pushes the switch in to turn off the brake light. What a pain in the *** to get back in place in the back housing and hold the thing in place with one hand and put the rest of the switches in the front, replace the front cover and put the 2 screws in while holding the back in place so it doesn't fall out of place. there ain't no card board protector going to help. it is nothing like the pic you posted but it was the problem so I got it fixed now. I may not ever do that again. Thanks.

 

Glad you got it fixed. The cardboard piece is to keep the little lever extension from breaking that button off during assembly and dis-assembly. It happens a lot.

 

mine just fell out of place. It is wired to the other switches with a ribbon type cable. it looks like to replace it you may have to buy the whole switch assembly. I bet that ain't cheep.

 

I think the switch should look something like this .... I'm guessing that the circled button is the brake light switch

 

The cardboard goes between the lever and the lever bracket. Squeeze the lever and where it stops against the bracket, it opens up; the cardboard goes in there and you let go. It keeps the lever from fully returning to the normal position.

It also keeps the plunger on the lever that actuates the brake switch on the switch housing away from the switch a bit, so you can take the switch housing off and then put it back on, without hitting the side of the switch and busting it off inside.



In order to get the tab to slide into the groove, the Plunger tries to shear off the switch. With the cardboard spacer in (the very dark rectangular piece on the right) it holds the plunger out of the way. I suppose you could also just hold the lever squeezed in a bit when you replace the switch housing.

The manual is effed up, it only has it in either the section on removing the lever, or removing the switch housing, I can't remember, but not both. I just happened to catch it when I changed handlebars.

 

That is exactly what it looked like. We took a 200 mile ride today and it worked fine so must have it back in place. Guess I got lucky this time. Thanks to everyone for the help.

 

The same thing happen'd to me. I lost the little piece that goes into the end of the switch plunger. I magivered a very small screw in it's place.

 

This crap is nothing new, btw... I had the same hassle when I installed Z bars onto my '90 Sporty! Had a hell of a time figuring out what the hell was going on considering I was in Korea at the time with zero shops to go to for advice!