Topic: question about brown wire (schematic included)

[timdhawk]

The brown wire at the ignition switch goes to the tail/brake light and has no other connections. If i understand how the switch makes its contacts, the red is constant and when switched once makes contact with the black wire, and when switched once more it then makes contact with the brown/white wire giving the instument lights power.

Is my understanding correct? If so, is the brown wire powered at the same time as the brown/white?

I ask because I'm using an aftermarket ignition switch with only 3 wires: essentialy igniton and lights as the two key choices. So will wiring the brown to the brown/white give me the same function as the stock switch? I suspect not otherwise the factory would have done it that way....so help me out please?
thanks

(click on pic to make it bigger)

[cookindaddy]

I believe that the idea is so that when you put it in Park that the back lights are on so that people coming up from behind can see you but the headlight and the instrument lights are not on. Probably you could wire it the way you suggested with a separate single pole switch off the red to the brown and white brown to give yourslef the Park light function if you wanted it? Not so good though since you'd have to remember to turn it on as well as the key switch and you'd forget and your back lights would be off. Also, there is a separate fuse to run the white brown so the "main" might have to be made larger.

I thought that the free ended brown wire that ends up in the headlight bucket was an accessory switch so that you could listen to your radio while you waited in Park. But someone else here thought that it was included for some European requirement?

Clever people were the Honda designers. I'd look for a genuine replacement switch.

[timdhawk]

Must be brown wire day...saw the other post.

Thanx for the reply cookindaddy. For me I am doing a custom cafe style so the stock ignition is not an option anymore.
Does the brown wire give you the running lights function of the 3 wire brake light - i mean so that the tail light is on when riding but gets brighter when the brake is applied?

I don't fully understand what the dots with connecting lines means in terms of the switch function on the schematic.

[cookindaddy]

Thats okay timdhawk. The dots and the lines between them show what is connected when the switch is in that position. Notice that the ignition switch is actually TWO switches, one only deals with the red and black and the other deals with the brown and white brown. They are separate circuits. Although as someone said (I think), the current for the white brown comes from the black via the tail light fuse.

So, you could safely take out the tail light fuse and connect BOTH the white brown and the brown at the ignition switch third terminal on your ignition switch. Your new ignition switch has OFF-LIGHTS-ON? I am assuming that nothing else is modified.

If you do this,  when you turn on the ignition to ON, you should have taillights and everything else. When you turn the ignition to LIGHTS you should have all your marker lights but not the brake light or the headlight. Your ignition coils will also be off.

The brake light is a different bulb, run by the white green wire on your diagram and powered from the black wire (the ON wire).

Maybe someone else can chime in to check my work here? It is late and I have a head cold. Thnx.

[timdhawk]

Anybody else wanna chime in? Hondaman....?? anybody?

[Silverback]

To wire my aftermarket switch in I simply ganged the headlight and tail light power together at the switch. From there each wire goes through the appropriate fuse and out to the lights.

I am not 100% sure about how your switch works. Mine has an accessory position (lights only) and ignition. When the the switch is in the ignition position, everything hooked up to the accessory post (wire) is powered.

So, with my set-up:
Ignition post only carries power to the coils.
Accessory post carries power to all the lighting.

[timdhawk]

I have one of those barrel key style ignition switches made for Harleys. It has three wires only. The first key position has only one wire hot and then the second and last key position has both wires hot.

The position sticker that came with it has the "ign" as the first position and "lights" as the second.

[Silverback]

In that case I would hook up the headlight/tail light to the first wire and the coils to the second. Alternatively, you could just do the tail light to the first wire and headlight/coils on the second.

Is your harness stock? You might be able to get away with just powering the headlight wire since there is a jumper in the headlight bucket that connects the tail light to the main power. It has the yellow boxes on it in the diagram you posted.

[timdhawk]

the harness is stock-ish.  I have upgraded the electronics and am running relays for the headlight circit. Brake and turn signals are all LED. I have replaced all ends and connectors.

I was originaly not going to run the brown wire in the harness until i realized that I probably should have a running light function to the brake light, but the more i looked at my schematic, the more confused I got about its function related to the ignition switch. And if it is for the running lights functionon the brake light, why then do the turn signals running lights also not run on the brown wire....

I have been this wiring project utterly to long... what was once simple english is now turing into drunken latin!

[Silverback]

I think that all of the lighting is not linked for potentially two reasons. 1st: The original configuration has a park mode on the ignition switch. No need to power running light and brakes in this mode, saving on battery drain. 2nd: Older models had the ability to turn off the all of the bikes lighting (headlights, tail light, running lights). However, when you turned all these off, you would still need to have a functioning brake light.

Tell me about the wiring woes! I have built two complete harnesses and you begin two understand why there are so many wires in the stock harness.