Need some help with turn signals!

A couple years ago now i had the signal lights changed on my bike by a "Mechanic" at one of the bike dealers here. Anyways when he initially changed to the plastic bodied lights he managed to melt one of them somehow during the oil change i was having done at the same time. He claimed that the old hondas used higher voltages on the park lights according to the rep he spoke to at parts Canada. Now..at the time it sounded like a reasonable explanation so we went with a different set of lights that had metal bodies. Fast forward to last month. i decide to replace the lights again mostly due to a botched install in the first place, two of the lights had their wires rubbing against other parts of the bike causing a short that blew a fuse for the lighting circuit. So when the new lights were installed they were located on the fairing rather then the original mount tabs. I matched wires from the new signals to the wires from the original aftermarket pair using that harness as an extension for the relocation. I left the park lights disconnected for now because i didnt want to melt the new lights. Now i spoke to a few other mechanics one at a honda dealer and one at another bike shop. the one at the bike shop suggested installing a resistor on the park light wire to prevent the melt down again. and the mechanic at the honda dealer suggested that the lights may have been plugged in wrong. The explanation he gave for that one sounds reasonable...Basically he stated that the filament that the Signal light itself should be recieving the higher voltage to be brighter then the park light. If it was set up wrong the filament that is normally the park light is recieving more voltage then it needs and is causing the melt down. Now that has all been explained i have a question. What color wires on the motorcycles harness do what? In other words what color is the wire for the turn signal and what color wire is for the park light? and for that matter what color is the ground wire? The wires on the signal lights are Red, Black and Black with white stripe. What i mainly need to know is what wire needs to be connected to what color to function correctly.

 

Problem is maybe that the running light wire is is mistakenly going to turn signal connection and vice-versa. On aftermarket dual filiment setups, that usually causes melting cuz the running light will melt the housing if not connected to the proper wire, the difference between an 8 watt running light and a 23 watt turnsignal filament is a large difference in heat. Keep the proper setup going for the running light function cuz it's a sefety advantage. Removing the lens helps to check that the running light wire goes to the low-wattage filament.

 

Thanks for the info! thats essentially what the tech at honda explained to me as well. That is the thing im trying to sort out is which filiment is what. What color on the factory harness is the running light and what color on the factory harness is the turn signal?

 

Forget the wire colors. Hookem up so power goes to low wattage filament for running lights.

look at wires as they leave socket, and use the ground wire.....as the ground (green) wire.

After that is set, easy to determine turn or running wire leads by which filament they power.

 

Honda is usually fairly consistent with their wire harness wire colors.

A typical right front wiring connection would be.....
Blue wire=turn signal
Blue wire with White stripe=marker light
Green wire=ground

A typical left front wiring connection would be.....
Orange wire=turn signal
Orange wire with White stripe=marker light
Green wire=ground

 

Stosh, there's no standard for the interconnection between factory wiring and aftermarket junk made poorly with cold solder joints and ridiculously poor-quality materials by kids who should be in school in slave labour conditions in Taiwan.

 

Agreed Squirrelman,but Outlawz only asked to know what the starting points were on his factory wire harness.
As to how those aftermarket turn signals will interconnect to the factory wire harness he's on his own,but at least now he has an idea of where to start.

 

Thank you! This is exactly the info i was seeking. Now to determine which is the high voltage filament...when looking at the bulb there are two of course..one a bit taller then the other...is it the taller one or the shorter one that is the high voltage (Turn signal) filament? Asking this so i know which one should be powered in turn signal and which one should be powered on running light only.

 

Okay without knowing for certain exactly which type bulb you have in those aftermarket turn signals Outlawz,all I can say is this......

"IF YOU HAVE" a standard 1157 dual filament bulb in those turn signals the shorter of the two filaments (Green arrow in my pic) will be the high intensity light which will be used for the turn signals.

The taller of the two filaments (Red arrow in my pic) will be the low intensity light which will be used for the marker lights.

 

The turn signal filament is noticably much brighter than lower wattage (not lower voltage !!) running light.

 

Ok last night i removed one of the lenses and checked which filiments lit up. It is not a 1157 bulb like i thought it is a bit smaller. However it does have one filament that is slightly taller then the other. this is the one that lights up on the parking light. I am considering attempting to find LED replacement bulbs for these just wondering if LEDs will help solve the problem i was worried about. The lights do get a lil warm when the bike is sitting idling for a bit.

 

Electrical NOOB in need of help here~!! Please see my image below and help me if you would~!! I'd appreciate it~! My project is on hold until I can figure this out.

 

Yes,you've got it right.

The filament arms on the left side in your pic are the negatives.

The filament arms on the right side in your pic are the positives,high and low beam.

 

Ughh...I'm confused....b/c I asked 3 people and I'm getting contradictory answers....:tongue:

I know you say that the legs on the right side of the picture are the positive wires but the other 2 people say that the wires on the left side of the picture are the positive wires.

Here is what one of the two people wrote me:

I want to make REALLY sure before I begin the soldering job.

Please confirm, anyone? :biggrin:

 

Stosh shakes his head,rolls his eyes,and does a massive facepalm.........

The two filament arms on the left in your pic are the negative (ground) filaments. Those two wires attach to the outer metal base of the bulb,that's how the light bulb gets it's ground.

The two filament arms on the right in your pic are the positive (power) filaments. Those two wires attach to the two little pads on the under side of the light bulb,that's how the light bulb picks up the high and low beam power signals. One pad is used for the high beam power signal the other is used for the low beam power signal.

Need proof? Well then see for yourself. The two wires on the left are tied together and grounded to the metal base of the light bulb,the two wires on the right go to the two pads on the under side of the light bulb.




Here's a better pic looking at the bulb from the back side. You can see the wire routing a little more clearly. As I stated previously David,you've got it right.
Now get out there and have at 'er man. Good Luck with your build.

 

Thank you for clarifying this for me~!! I TRUST you completely now~!! Sorry you had to facepalm, lol~