Driving lights

[westsidevalk]

Hello,
Don't know my way around wiring much but can follow directions.
What do folks do with the OEM turn signal wiring going to bulb socket after tapping into the correct wires for the lightbar w/ turnsignals?

[MarkT]

Hello,
Don't know my way around wiring much but can follow directions.
What do folks do with the OEM turn signal wiring going to bulb socket after tapping into the correct wires for the lightbar w/ turnsignals?

I don't think you mess with the turn signal wires.  What do you mean "tapping into the correct wires"?  I don't know what your wiring directions say but you should be wiring the spots via a relay, switch, and fuse.  There are no "correct wires" to tap into.  See Chet's wiring diagrams for spots.  I'll look for the link for you...

Here it is:  https://web.archive.org/web/20180220200613/http://www.rattlebars.com/mtz/foglites.html

[westsidevalk]

Thank you Mark,

I may pay to have someone do this instead of likely doing poorly, more involved than I thought and I am far away from competant in this area.

[9Ball]

Which lightbar do you have?

[Bagger John - #3785]

Another tip (which I've done with all mine):

Show Chrome and Big Bike Parts offered a master cylinder mounted switch housing which has three on-off paddle switches. These could be had in either left or right-side versions. The switch type corresponds to a Digikey 1800-series P/N (that has been posted over the years in Tech).

I bought a few SPDT and SPDT-center-off switches then replaced the middle and outer (closest to the throttle) OEM switches in the right-side version. The middle is a standard SPDT and the outer is an SPDT-center-off.

The outer switch "common" runs to the relay which activates the driving lights. One of the switched circuits goes to the low-beam wire, while the other goes to a constant key-on source of 12v.

The idea here is that in some states it's illegal to run driving lights with high beams (Ohio being one) while in others you can run with either high or low beams. This way you're covered regardless.

One must build a wiring harness to accommodate the extra switch connections and replace the harness supplied with the switch block, but since you're not going to be routing a lot of juice through the switches you can use 20-22ga wire for this. When I build mine I use the Honda standard Hitachi connectors at the switch harness and bike harness side, where all the individual circuits run to their respective accessories. Removal for servicing is therefore simplified.

[westsidevalk]

Which lightbar do you have?

Kurt constallation

They had em on closeout few months ago.

[MarkT]

Personally I wire mine with a circuit I designed with 4 relays.  But then my upper spots are actually H4 LED headlights.  I wire them so I can select them on high, on low, or follow the bike's hi-lo switch, or off, or off with the parking bulbs lit (remember them?) Also set it up so they go off with the starter button like the headlight (if the battery is low that may decide if there's enough juice to start it) - or if that circuit fails I can select power from the taillight circuit to get me home.  Here's the schematic.  Just in case you get ambitious.

[h13man]

Low beam white wire as its illegal to have them on with your high beams. I use a Bons "Smart Switch" thus all the power of headlight isn't passing thru the switch plus LED bulbs/lights use a lot less amps. Basically I'm tapped in from the switch before the Smart Switch connection.

[RonW]

Kurt constallation

They had em on closeout few months ago.

Okay, Kuryakyn or Kury, driving lights.

What do folks do with the OEM turn signal wiring going to bulb socket after tapping into the correct wires for the lightbar w/ turnsignals?

The Kury instructions state to tap into the oem turnsignal wires so I surmise you mean what do you do with the dangling oem wires after the tap. You're not planning on keeping the stock turnsignals in place with the wires in tact, are you? 4 turnsignals up front?! Anyways, I don't know why kury does it that way. I would simply crimp a bullet connector to the end of the kury wire and plug the kury wire into their respective oem turnsignal wires in the headlight bucket. Lightbar instructions, here.

If the kury turnsignals use single filament bulbs, you'd have only two wires per kury signal, a ground wire & a +12 wire. If this is so, the kit should include a 'Y' connector for the kury +12 wire. One branch of the Y connects to the oem running light wire (constant ON) and the second branch connects to the oem blinker wire. The leg of the Y itself connects to the kury's +12 wire feeding the kury turnsignal both a steady running light and also a blinking light. The confluence is okay since the the running light's electricity is only ON when the blinker is OFF, and visa versa, so no conflict exists between a blinking pulse and a steady ON light.

On the other hand if the kury turnsignals use dual filament bulbs, a high filament (blinker) and a low filament (running), each kury turnsignal will have two +12 wires and a third Ground wire. You then can plug the kury wires into their respective blinker wire and running light wire in the headlight bucket. Of course after crimping on bullet connectors.

The driving lights are another issue and perhaps a topic for another post. Basically, it's not advisable to tap into a key-on wire to power the driving lights, usually the convenient headlight wire. The extra current draw is likely to overload the donor circuit. Instead, the driving lights should be powered by a direct line to the battery positive terminal with an intermediary relay and a in-line fuse. The relay insures that the driving lights shuts off, won't remain on, when you turn off the key. Kuryakyn sells wire looms for this purpose. Bons too as h13man noted. It's easy to put together your own safety loom, though. I would check out the YouTube videos to get a general idea of the wiring.

[RainMaker]

I'm thinking that Baldo (Bob) is in your area and might be able to help - he's pretty good at electrical work on the Valkyries.  Send him a PM.

RainMaker

[RonW]

Is the accessory wire (5 watts) (5 amps) hefty enough to power the kury driving lights? Kuryakyn uses halogen bulbs which don't consume as much wattage as an incandescent bulb.

[westsidevalk]

Thanks gentleman for all of your willingness to share this information!

[Gryphon Rider]

Is the accessory wire (5 watts) (5 amps) hefty enough to power the kury driving lights? Kuryakyn uses halogen bulbs which don't consume as much wattage as an incandescent bulb.

35W halogen X 2 = 70W
70W ÷ 12V = 5.83A

The 5A accessory circuit does not have the capacity to directly power those lights.  The accessory circuit can be used to switch a relay, which would provide power to the lights.  A 7.5A or 10A fuse and AWG16 or larger wire (I would use AWG14) should be used.

[Valkpilot]

The schematic diagrams in this post may help: http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,56705.msg546076.html#msg546076


You want to trigger your driving light relay from the blue/white wire from the start switch, not  from the 5 AMP accessory circuit.  This maintains "off while cranking" function which means that the headlight and driving lights are off while the bike is starting to reduce electrical load and allow full power to the starter and coils.

I power a relay to an auxiliary fuse panel with the accessory circuit, the take 12V from the fuse panel to the incoming 12v terminal on the driving light relay.

Based on the lightbar shown, you'll be removing your stock turn signals and replacing them with the ones on the lightbar.  You should be able to put a bullet connector on the lightbar turn signal wires and connect directly to the wiring harness turn signal wires.

[Bagger John - #3785]

Low beam white wire as its illegal to have them on with your high beams.

In some states, yes.

Others, no.

Per my commentary earlier in thread, an SPDT center-off switch covers both cases.