No Running Lights 79 DOHC K

[Markuli]

Hey everyone,

I decided it was time to get rid of the brick- sized blinkers on my bike, so I ordered a couple off of 4into1. I bought 4 3-wire turn signals. In the rear, i wired the two hot wires together to the single harness hot wire, and ground to ground. Testing the new rears while I still had the original fronts untouched, the system worked just fine. The front running lights were working and each side would blink fine.

Once I cut off one of the front turn signals, I couldn't get the aftermarket signal's running lights to work. I even tried to rewire the original signal back up, and the running lights were no longer working on those either. I'd like to note that it's incredibly annoying that none of these wires are color coded on my harness.

If this info is any more helpful, now that I have the front right signal cut off, the front left doesn't have running lights, but will blink fine when I flip the blinker switch to that side. All filaments are intact, and the fuses in the handlebar fusebox are all good and pass a continuity test.

What boggles my mind is why the original signal won't work when I test it, even though it worked before I cut it off. Anyone have a clue as to what I might have screwed up?

 

[amc49]

This..............

'...In the rear, i wired the two hot wires together to the single harness hot wire...'

You can't do that, the single wire there is for turns only and you have warped the electrical load all crazy doing it. You can't get 'running' lights on the rear with just two wires only, you have to have three and wired correctly as well. OEM the rears do not have running lights. The bikes have 3 wire units up front and 2 wire in back.

May have toasted your flasher unit.

 

[Markuli]

I wasn't trying to get rear running lights, I was trying to get the fronts to work again because they crapped out on me. Sorry if I didn't convey that properly. These bulbs are much smaller than the originals and not much brighter so the wattage isn't going to be greater if I use both filaments for blinking in the rear.

Anyway, turns out my fuse block is crap. If I nudge it one way, I get my front running lights. Any tips on how to find a used fuse block that won't have the same issue?

The flasher is still clinging on for dear life, it hangs up after one blink, so I need to either introduce a resistor or buy an LED flashing unit to remediate that. I think.

 

[Markuli]

Blinkers work, running lights work!

Everyone should make the switch to LED flashers if they don't care about originality down to that caliber of detail. All it takes is an extra ground to the battery.

 

[amc49]

X2, a good idea. The alternators do not have any extra overhead at all and the LEDs will improve headlight output. As well, if/when the alt rotor pops out like so many of them do then the LEDs may make the difference in walking home or not.