Wiring for those generic two filament turn signals

Hi, I have a '98 I'm trying to bring back to life. It has no fairings and I've drilled some taps for turn signals.

I bought a set of those generic motrax/speedmetal/bikemaster/LP arrow lights (bulb, not LED) with three leads, so I could retain running lights.

But I'll be darned if I can find any info on what leads do what. There's red, black, and black w/ white stripe wires. Nowhere can I find a diagram; has anyone else ever used these and can remember if it's the black that's ground or the black/white?

I have them connected now, Lb to Red, Lb/W to B/W, and G/B in front, and in the back just LB/Red, G/B (letting the B/W wire hang). Substitute orange for light blue for the other side.

All 4 signals come on like running lights when the key is switched to on, and the blinking is rapid when the turn signal is pressed. Gauges are not hooked up (not sure if that's an issue.) Any tips?

 

Fast blinking means you have connected the 5W running light filaments rather than the 21W blinkers to the bike's blinker circuit. The blink rate is set for 4 x 21W of resistance, any less than that and you get fast blinks.

The solid orange or solid light blue should go to the 21W filaments, the orange/white or light blue/white go to the 5W filaments, and green is the common earth.

If you had a multimeter you could check for continuity between pairs of wires on a blinker, and the pair that has no continuity will be the power infeeds for the filaments, the other one will be the earth. Then switch the infeeds with the orange and orange/white (for eg) until you get the 5W for the running light and 21W for the blinker.

 

Thank you for that, I'll check it out.

 

Turns out, the black/white is the ground, the red goes to the blinker, and the black goes to the running light, if available. Thanks.

 

Well done figuring that out.

I was fairly sure the red should not be the ground, but the colour coding used really doesn't make a lot of sense does it?

 

I would not guess that a black wire would be one of the hots, haha.