Front Turn Signal Wiring 1982 GS1100E ?? Color coded wires?

[Gregory]

I plucked some turn signals off of an 83 gs1100e that I am going to put on my 82 that doesnt currently have any.

The wires in the headlight bucket that I have available are:

Female - one port with a BROWN and a GRAY wire coming into it.
Female - Black Wire with WHITE Stripe
DOUBLE Female - GRAY
Female - BLACK
Female - Lg LIGHT GREEN

The two wires coming out of each Right and Left turn signals are BLACK and a GRAY

I assumed that the LEFT light would be Black to Black and GRAY to GRAY.

I assumed that the RIGHT light would be Black to Light Green and GRAY to GRAY

But when I hook it up that way the left light is on full bright (both filaments). The right works as it should although doesn't blink just gets bright. I am assuming that is because I dont have the rear lights connected yet.

Anyone have any advise? I havent put the rear signals on yet because I am painting the brackets. I am hoping that wouldnt cause it to not work right.

[Steve]

Not having the rear signals on will allow the front signals to come on, but not blink.

The solid BLACK wire is the hot wire for your LEFT signal.
The light GREEN wire is the hot wire for your RIGHT signal.
The BLACK/WHITE wire(s) is(are) ground.
If there is a BROWN wire, that is for your running lights (the lower-intensity filament in the signals, if so equipped)
The GRAY wire is usually for instrument illumination, but has the same source as a brown wire.

On your lights, it will take a bit of testing to determine what is what. Depending on the light, the mount might be grounded and the two wires are the 'hot' wires for the running and signal lights. Try that first. If that works, you will quickly see which wire is running and which is signal.

If the mount is not a ground, that means that one of the wires will be your ground. Since there is only one other wire, it will be for signals, not running lights. It probably won't matter which way you connect the wires, but try to be consistent. Connect the black wire to ground and the gray to the signals.

.

[Gregory]

Thank you I have printed this out to take to the ship with me. yes both lights have an additional 3rd ground wire (B/W) that attaches to the through bolt.

[Gregory]

Thanks again Steve, you saved the day. I went out and wired them up yesterday. It was fast and easy with your instructions.

The brown wire did work for the running lights but only had one connector, so since the gray wire had a dual connector and also worked, I went with that one for the running lights.

One oddity is that the two wires coming out of the lights (gray and black) operated differently than one another... maybe light bulb in wrong i guess, but no biggie.

[Gregory]

Hi Steve,
As I was typing this I realized I can check this myself, but since I already typed it here it is.

I just got around to doing the back lights and have a question. They had single filament bulbs in them so i went and got double filament. There are two wires coming out of each, blac and a black with white stripe. The connections on the bike are:

Double Black wire with white stripe.
Single Black wire with white stripe.
One Green Wire.
One solid black wire.

I hooked them up as the front ones and only get blinker lights and not running lights. There were no ground wires. I am assuming that the ground is the problem.... ?

[Datsa Noydb]

If you had single filament bulbs, you can't simply put dual filament bulbs in and expect them to work. Take the bulbs out, look in the socket to see how many contacts there are. If there is just one contact, you will only have a single function available, usually that will be turn signals.

You can't just change the little disk that holds the contacts, either, as the barrel that holds the bulb has slots that hold the nubs on the sides of the bulbs. On the single filament bulbs, the slots will be at the same level. On the dual filament bulbs, they will be offset, so the bulb will only go in one way.

[Gregory]

Dang, that sucks. I will check it out today. The bulbs that came out had nubs on the bottom of the shaft, and the new bulbs (matching the front bulbs) had offset nubs on the side. I did get them to seat with some fidgeting though. If I cant get the running light portion to work on the rear lights, I guess I will just go to single filament on the front lights.

If you had single filament bulbs, you can't simply put dual filament bulbs in and expect them to work. Take the bulbs out, look in the socket to see how many contacts there are. If there is just one contact, you will only have a single function available, usually that will be turn signals.

You can't just change the little disk that holds the contacts, either, as the barrel that holds the bulb has slots that hold the nubs on the sides of the bulbs. On the single filament bulbs, the slots will be at the same level. On the dual filament bulbs, they will be offset, so the bulb will only go in one way.

[chuck hahn]

As was stated..look at the disc and see if there are 1 or 2 contacts. If there is 1 then then sockets were never intended to have a running light function in the first place. They were set up to be turn signal only lights.

To make them running and turn signals, the entire socket needs changed out, a constant hot feed found for the running light side of the socket, and dual element bulbs.

[mikerophone]

To make them running and turn signals, the entire socket needs changed out, a constant hot feed found for the running light side of the socket, and dual element bulbs.

Not to stir the mud or add confusion, this is technically true (and chuck, you've helped me many times so please don't take this as me trying to "one up" you by any means) but you cand use the existing single filament sockets and wire them up to be hot at all times to serve as running lights and add a relay in between the signal feed and the bulb that will turn it off and on again, acting as a signal too. It takes one relay per side and some basic wiring abilities but works quite well to increase visibility in my opinion.

Here's a quick how to video on YouTube with a link in the description to the wiring diagram.

Note that that I would only use this mod with LED's because the stock incandescent bulb can melt the plastic in the signal enclosure.

[Datsa Noydb]

Also keep in mind that if you do that "always hot" mod, you may be attracting some lights of a different color behind you.

Unless you change your rear turn signal lenses to red, that is.

Most states frown on having constant yellow lights showing to the rear.

[chuck hahn]

True Mike...but thats kinda hard on the bulbs I would think. I rewired several rear lights so I had running lights in the back. Theory being the more light in the back the improved odds of actually being seen..especially at night.

What I did was go to Auto Zone and get a 20 dollar trailer light kit and swap out the sockets. Then spliced in to the switched constant hot lead for the tail light assembly for the running light side of the socket. Turn signals went to the other wires as they normally would. Seemed to be the easier way than fiddling with relays and all that to me.

As for the LEOs. There are many bikes that have rear running lights that are production and the cops arent gonna hassle you. And the orange lens are fine.

[mikerophone]

That's a good way of doing it chuck, I've used pigtails from front car lenses at the junkyard to go dual filament in the past as well, and I agree about more lights in the back (and front) being a good thing. I have red LED's in my daily riders just in case but a couple of my bikes have had amber rear signals and I've never had a cop pull me over for it or even comment on it if I was pulled over for other reasons either.

While I understand that a law is a law and there for a reason, it's not like they are blue or green and people might confuse me for an emergency vehicle...If a cop gives someone a ticket for being more visible on a bike, he likely is having a bad day or the rider had other issues that the cop felt warranted to cite, that or he/she got lippy and brought it on him/herself.

Having said that, I actually have bright blue LED's for my license plate lights, they face straight down and are surely not legal but I've never had a cop mention that either, so if say in my state, they look the other way so to speak.

[Gregory]

Thanks for the help everyone. This morning a friend from the forum called to let me know about the legality of running orange in the back and I have just put the single filament ones back in.

I hadnt realized that they made these bikes that way. Since the fronts had running lights I had assumed the back ones matched. Anyway, this is a great forum with a lot of help that is much appreciated.