Truck-lite install

[Guest]

I'm guessing these two wires are a ground? If you look at the photo in post number 5 it was bolted to the headlight housing.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Black with white stripe are grounds.

 

[Guest]

Black with white stripe are grounds.

Ok thanks. I think I'm going to pull it out of the bucket and ground it to the frame then.

 

[Guest]

I hate doing electric....brake light works fine along with the rear left blinker. The front left blinker is dimly lit and the whole right side is dead. Also the turn indicator light is steadily lit with key on.

 

[Guest]

If I unplug the front right turn signal it solves the dimly lit left turn signal and turns the indicator light off

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Greg, I wish I could help you, but it’s impossible to trace and test connections over the internet. The PO certainly didn’t make it easy for you to this.

 

[Guest]

Greg, I wish I could help you, but it’s impossible to trace and test connections over the internet. The PO certainly didn’t make it easy for you to this.

Definitely not. Multiple wires stuffed in one end of a butt splice connector, others just twisted and taped, wires that were cut and left bare ended...It's such a mess.

And something must have gotten mixed up when I was reconnecting everything because I thought I reconnected the right side signals but that's what was messing up the left side. I don't think there was a ground wire going to the right signal because I cut and reconnected it using a known ground and it made the right side light up but just won't blink.

And the rear right signal is still completely dead.

Quit for tonight. I'll mess with it more tomorrow.

 

[Guest]

Ok so I just realized the right rear signal is not completely dead but will flash when I turn the blinker on. And the front right just stays solidly lit.

 

[rphillips]

Seems odd, I'd have thought the RF & RR hot wires would plug in to a hot with a double female plug, same current going to both at the same time, maybe not. How about disconnecting your RF turn signal ground & running a jump ground from that turn signal to a blot somewhere, that would tell if you were getting a back feed, somehow, thru the ground from the harness. Grounds can do strange things.

 

[Guest]

I tried grounding it directly to the frame. Still stays solidly lit. Just won't blink. So I'm guessing the hot I have wired to it is incorrect...there should be a hot that comes off the turn signal switch that would go to it to that only supplies power when activated?? Sounds good in my head but I don't know electrical very well unfortunately.

 

[Burque73]

Greg, do you have a test light? I'd turn on the blinker and poke different wires to see which wire gets activated.

 

[Guest]

I do. Somewhere. Was digging around late last night looking for it but no luck. I'm going out later today to get another one.

 

[rphillips]

Your bike should have front running lights, Are you sure the front that stays on constant isn't the running light & turn signal wire isn't getting current at all? should be a constant on front of other side also, I think,. Just thinking out loud.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

OEM Running lights? I see no evidence of that in the manual nor the color wiring diagram I linked above.

 

[rphillips]

I just looked at the "82 GS1100GL parts diagram & it shows the front turn signal has 2 wires coming out of the signal & a ground wire attached to the mounting base. Rear shows 1 wire from turn signal & ground attached to mounting base should indicate running lights up front. That's about the time the running light thing started,

 

[Guest]

The previous owner replaced all the signals with LEDs. There are 2 wires coming out of them. Assuming one is a ground and the other is a hot. The way it worked before I touched anything is they would be constantly lit like running lights until the turn signal is activates and then obviously they would blink. Though because he just added LEDs and didn't install any resistors they would all blink but the side that was activated to indicate direction of turn would blink brighter than the rest. That is what I'm trying to get back to as a starting point and then I'll deal with correcting the LED lights to blink as they should by adding a resistor and whatnot.

Edit:
Nevermind. I just took apart the one turn signal to see if the mounting point is supposed to work as a ground and discovered they are incandescent lights. Now I'm more perplexed about them all flashing before I messed with any of the wiring.

 

[rphillips]

ooouuu, don't have a clue how the LED's work. The OEM had 2 hots going into both of the fronts, 1 hot for turn signals & 1 hot for running, the ground was a separate wire & mounted to the mounting nut for that signal.

 

[Guest]

ooouuu, don't have a clue how the LED's work. The OEM had 2 hots going into both of the fronts, 1 hot for turn signals & 1 hot for running, the ground was a separate wire & mounted to the mounting nut for that signal.

I edited my last post. Turns out they aren't LEDs.
They are 10w single filament amber incandescents. OEM appears to be 23w/8w dual filament. That may be why all of them are flashing. I'll get the correct bulbs and then continue on sorting out where the correct wires are for them.

 

[Guest]

So the turn signals that were installed on the bike by the previous owner are only set to run single filament bulbs so my idea of getting 23w/8w dual filaments wouldn't work. Just picked up a test light. Going to poke around a bit and see what I can come up with.

 

[Guest]

​​​​Finally got it all together. One of the connections for the turn signals that was poorly done by a previous owner had come apart but I didn't noticed because it was still wrapped with tape. Blinkers work like they did before I messed with it so what happens is when I activate the right turn signal the right bulbs flash bright while the left side dims and vice versa ​​​​​. Thinking about going back to signals meant for dual filaments like the originals but that'll be another thread for another day. Just happy to have it up and running and it's nice to finally be able to see at night.

Thanks to all of you that helped with comments and tips/info!