Topic: Mystery Wires/Blinker Issues

[Dr. Noisewater]

Hey guys I've been wiring up the front end of my bike today and found a couple wires that are boggling me.

To start, I bought the bike last winter and it had a windjammer fairing on the front. I took it off the day it got home and sold it to my crazy neighbor. I recently took off everything else; speedo, tach, indicator lights, hand controls). I labeled everything as I took it off and when I replaced everything with new shiny parts it was mostly straight forward, just find the corresponding color and plug it in. The hand controls were the same ones so it was all color-color. Everything went smoothly and when I was done I turned the key to see what would happen..

The speedo, tach, and both turn signals light up. When I flip the turn signal switch to either side it just turns off the side that I'm selecting. The turn signals I'm using are two-wire signals, and I now see that the factory setup had three wires. How can I make that work? Can I use the two-wire signals?

Another find.. after wiring everything that I knew I had taken off, I found a 6-pot plastic connector that doesn't seem to plug in anywhere. The color's leading to it are: blue, green, red, white, yellow, and black. There's a picture of it below. It's on a fairly long harness. When poking around with a multimeter, I get 9v from the red and the blue when the turn signal is switched to either side, but nothing from any of the others no matter what I do. Is this maybe something that hooked to the Windjammer?

I also found a pair of wires that come out of the harness near the coils. One's black, the other light green. I can't find anything with these two colors going to it. I looked at pics of the factory horn on ebay, it seems those wires might go there?

Lastly, after hooking up all the bullet connectors from the hand controls (near the coils), I found a two-connector ground that doesn't seem to have anything plugging into it. I swear I saw somewhere in the diagram that there was an extra two-connector ground somewhere, but now I can't find it anywhere. Is this supposed to have something going to it?

Here's pics of everything. Hopefully they make sense.. Also, what's the part in the 4th pic?

[mjstone]

That 6 pin connector goes to the Vetter faring.  Its probably connected with crimp on wire splices in side the headlight bucket.  I'd remove it and give it to your neighbor so he can hook up the faring to his electrical system.  If he needs instructions on hooking it up refer him to http://www.graigvetter.com

MJ

[MoMo]

Black and light green are the horn, the item in 4 is a turn signal buzzer,  three wire signals would have been orange, orange/white and green for left and blue, blue/white and green.  Two wire will work as long as you use orange or blue for left or right and green for ground...Larry

[seanbarney41]

The part in your fourth picture is a sonic reducer!  Make sure that it never recieves 12 volts!  Someone could get hurt!











dammit, Momo got it first
just kidding, it beeps when the turn signal is on...sounds like a miniature garbage truck backing up

[Dr. Noisewater]

Awesome thanks guys. So what about the leftover two-connector ground that I found? Is it just an extra ground if needed?

[Dr. Noisewater]

Some slight "progress".. I attached the positive wire from my signals to their solid colored counterpart as MoMo said and now the turn signals stay off unless I hit the switch in either direction, which is good. But when I try to turn one side on, they both come on and stay solid. Any ideas?

[Black 750K8]

I like the tach head light bucket and speedo where did you get them?

[Dr. Noisewater]

Thanks man. All of them were from dime city.


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[mjstone]

Are they LED lights? If so, you need a electronic flasher and you need to remove the bulb from the dash indicator.  To get the dash indicator to work with LEDs you have to add some diodes to your wiring.

MJ

[Dr. Noisewater]

I remember reading something about that, but I thought it only pertained to turn signals.. My signals just have normal bulbs in them. The speedo and tach had LED's in them, but they seem to be working fine. Is that going to be an issue?

[LesterPiglet]

When you switch the signals on do both lights on the same side light and stay lit? Is it the same for the other side? If so your battery hasn't enough power to make them flash(probably). If your bike runs try the signals with the engine revving a bit, they should flash.

Not all connections on the harness are used. If everything is connected properly don't worry about unused ones.

[KrautKoffin]

Will be using this info for my build, don't mind me bookmarking this page :-) love your gauge and headlight set up!

[Dr. Noisewater]

Thanks Kraut. I can't wait til it's done. It's getting seriously sexy.

Thanks Lester, I was thinking the same thing. My battery reads 11.8v, would being .2v below make that much of a difference? I can't start it right now cause there's no exhaust, but I should have the new one on this evening. I also don't have the rear signals hooked up yet. I'm waiting for my seat so I can mount them around that, should be getting my seat today or tomorrow. Perhaps the fronts aren't going to work right unless the rears complete the circuit? Maybe this doesn't apply, just thinking of possibilities.

[kingrabbit]

I have a wire in the headlight bucket was supposed to be for some European modification - maybe a parking light or something. Totally redundant. Took some digging on here to figure that out.

[mjstone]

I remember reading something about that, but I thought it only pertained to turn signals.. My signals just have normal bulbs in them. The speedo and tach had LED's in them, but they seem to be working fine. Is that going to be an issue?

Nope, Speedo and Tach LEDs will not cause it. Like the others said its probably your battery voltage.  Just charge up your battery and try again.

MJ

[LesterPiglet]

All four signals must be connected before they flash and yes, your battery needs charged.

[Dr. Noisewater]

Cool thanks guys. I got the exhaust on last night, but I'm still waiting on the seat before I mount the rear signals. I'll probably have to wait til the weekend, it's impossible to get anything done during the week between school and work. Then again, I'm getting married this weekend which might put a damper on my garage time..

[vames]

Some slight "progress".. I attached the positive wire from my signals to their solid colored counterpart as MoMo said and now the turn signals stay off unless I hit the switch in either direction, which is good. But when I try to turn one side on, they both come on and stay solid. Any ideas?

When these bikes were stock, they had two separate blinker dashboard lights (a right and a left). When using a blinker setup with a single dash indicator (like you have in that speedo), you need to use diodes on either side of the indicator to keep electricity from "leaking" through the single dashboard light and lighting up the opposite blinker. Diodes can be thought of like check valves -- current can flow in one direction but not in the other -- so you can isolate each side of the system.

Here's a diagram that another member drew



Here are the diodes I used when I did mine. I actually used original style bullet connectors and created a mini two-diode harness that just plugged in between the existing components.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2036270

[Dr. Noisewater]

Oh nice catch, vames. That totally makes sense, and it's easy to fix. Thanks.

[TwoTired]

My battery reads 11.8v, would being .2v below make that much of a difference?

Yes. 
Further, some flasher relays are voltage sensitive.  And you need to charge your battery.  They aren't an infinite power source (unfortunately).

[Dr. Noisewater]

Thanks TT, that's a nice chart. I'll throw it on the charger before my next attempt.

[Don R]

My signal beeper is my voltage checker, if it sounds weak or goes quiet, I've usually just been putting around town for a few weeks and the batt is getting low. I plug in the maintainer and it's beeping fine again. LOL.

[Dr. Noisewater]

Hey guys, I made some more progress on the wires today but I now have another question..

So I charged the battery and hooked up the rear signals and sure enough they started flashing, but all four were flashing in unison. So I then did as vames said and put a diode on each of the signal wires so it would flash only on the left or the right side like they're supposed to, and it worked.. kind of.

They light up on only the left or the right side depending on which side I select, but now they come on and stay solid again, rather than flashing. The battery was still fully charged. Any ideas?

[TwoTired]

Didi you  try it with the bike running a revved?  Can you measure the voltage on the grey wire?

[Dr. Noisewater]

I don't have any throttle cables at the moment. My new ones should be here this week. Which grey wire are you referring to?

[TwoTired]

I don't have any throttle cables at the moment. My new ones should be here this week. Which grey wire are you referring to?

There is only one isn't there?  It is one of the wires connected to the flasher unit, the other being black.

[Dr. Noisewater]

Yeah I'm looking at the wiring diagram now, it looks like it's near the fuse box. I'll have to check it when I get home. Should it be at 12V if the battery's fully charged?

[TwoTired]

Yeah I'm looking at the wiring diagram now, it looks like it's near the fuse box. I'll have to check it when I get home. Should it be at 12V if the battery's fully charged?

The grey wire runs from the winker relay to the bar control switch, I believe through the junction box under the left side of the tank on the frame (F model).  Ideally, it will be at the same potential (voltage) as the battery when the signals are illuminated and zero Volts when they aren't.

Many winker relays won't get hot enough internally to separate their internal contacts when the voltage is too low, and thus remain on.  I use this feature as an interpretive voltmeter, on my bikes.

[Dr. Noisewater]

Hmm interesting. I'll have to check it out. I really just need to get those throttle cables on so I can start it. If my electric start worked I'd try working the throttle manually on the carbs while cranking, but trying to kick it while doing that doesn't paint a good picture..

[Dr. Noisewater]

Well, I got the throttle cables on last night and was able to start it this morning. The turn signals still come on and stay solid with the engine running/revved. I didn't have time to check that grey wire cause I was already late for work. Any ideas?

[TwoTired]

Any ideas?

Yes, effective use of a multimeter.

[tin11987]

Connect all the wires according to the color at the wiring harness, then remove the orange/white and light blue/white wire, you will have a good blinker

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[tin11987]

The orange/white and light blue/white is for the double filament. Idk what is for, but when i remove them the always on blinker is fixed.
Blinker is controlled by orange and light blue wire.

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