I’m a fan of LED’s, so this evening I was installing some custom dynamics dynamic rings in the front sigs (waiting on the rears to arrive) and a Kuryakyn LED tail light (their model 5436) - normally I would get the CD tail light, but for my bike they only make an insert, and not a full LED housing. So while I’m not a fan of Kury stuff, they had a complete LED taillight for my bike.

So I installed the fronts, and noticed a “badlands motorcycle products” module under the left panel when I went to install the CD equalizer. I figured (correctly) it was a run turn brake module, since the bike had that functionality. What I didn’t know is that it also functions as a LED load equalizer, so I didn’t need the CD one I ordered. Anyway, heres the weird part. The Kury tail light lit up, but it looked like the brake was on all the time, and no plate light was on. When I hit the brake, the brightness didn’t change, but the license plate led’s lit up (they are supposed to be on all the time)!?! I can’t imagine the badlands module having any effect, as the Kury tail is supposed to have the license plate lit up all the time.

So Amazon is exchanging it, hopefully I just got a weird one. But if it happens again, I got to blame the module. It’s hard wired so I can’t just unplug it, it’ll have to be uninstalled which will involve cutting and splicing, which is rather not do if I don’t have to.

Very strange.

The module:

 

Your badlands module isn't the problem IMO.
Kuryakin stuff is just crap in my experience and their electrical stuff is the worst of all.

When I bought my '94 softail it had a Kury tail/turn signal module on it that worked just fine for about 6 months then the turn signals went haywire.
Took me a while to find the problem 'cause the symptoms said bad ground or shorting power wire to the front turn signals.
Once I pulled the kury module everything worked fine.

Not just no but hell no to anything Kury mades going on any bike I own and if I buy another one the first thing I will do is rip anything they make off of it.

 

Sounds more like the 2 wires were switched. With key on the brake lite lights and the License lights with the brake switch I would swap the wires...

 

 

I guess my problem was that regardless of whether the badlands module is supplying power to the bright filament instead of the dim filament - the license plate light should be on all the time regardless.

Unless, the Kury light takes power for the license plate from the running light power, which if wired incorrectly would be off until brake power was applied. Then (again) if wired backwards, the run circuit at the bulb would only get power when the brake was applied, illuminating the license plate, but showing no difference on the tail light since the brake was always on (getting power from what should be the run circuit).

I’ve got the wiring diagram in the Svc manual, so I’ll check the colors.

The thing is though, that the badlands module doesn’t really touch the brake/run power going to the tail light. It taps off the brake power to trigger the sigs, and it does interrupt the sig circuit, but it only taps into the brake power and doesn’t touch the run power. Unless the previous owner depinned the connector and moved stuff around. Who knows. Again, I’ll check the colors.

It’s an old module, but here’s the diagram from their website. Hopefully it applies to the ancient one I have.

Debating just putting everything back the way it was stock and buying the custom dymanics plug and play module. I hate “cut into that harness” hack jobs. I really do.

 

Why would/does your taillight have both a Blue and Orange/White?
The Red/Yellow got reversed with the Blue or Orange/White in the Kury harness.
If your old tail light was working fine then that's the only thing it could be.

 

That’s just Badlands’ diagram. The H.D. diagram is here. Only three to the tail.

 

Very strange.

So the diagram I found was nothing like how mine was wired. But it worked as designed with the incandescent 1157 bulb. So I broke out the handy multimeter and tested the 1157 socket at the tail light. According to another diagram I found, it was getting power where it should. It must be the Kury led lamp. I’m looking at it, and it had three wires. Red, blue and black. Goes to a connector. Kit comes with an adapter that plugs into the 1157 socket and the lamp plugs into that. So I’m looking at it and it dawns on me, the adapter has the red and blue wires reversed. Surprised I didn’t notice that when putting it together. Anyway, I depinned the connector and swapped the wires, so now everything lines up. Plug it in and everything works as it should.

So the connector was wired backwards. I can’t believe it made it through any QA check, but maybe none are done.

Oh well. Problem solved. Y’all were right about backwards wires, just in a surprising location!

Thanks!

 

Congrats, and thanks for reporting your solution.

 

Cool... Enjoy the new ride.....