Homemade Rear Signal Integrator How-To

[My Name Is Dave]

OK, everyone knows what's up: I did a turn signal integrator so that the brake lamps do all the work for the rear. I am going to do a concise how-to, with pictures and the steps. Please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors; it's gonna take a year to edit, so I'll pass.

See this post for what to buy and the prep:

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=20742.0


So


The first thing you'll wanna do is open the area up for maximum access to the wires. Take off the seat, and then take off the grab handle. The top circle shows the hole that was used to retain the handle (1 of 2 bolts). Then take off the tail. There are 4 bolts holding it on. I circled the two on the right side of the bike (holes w/ rubber gromets; I already took the bolts off b4 taking the pic):




While we're thinking about unhooking things, let's go ahead and disconnect the negative battery cable right now. It's safer for you and the bike, so just use a screwdriver and unscrew the bolt. Then wiggle the connector up and away from the batt; it'll be pretty tight if this is the first time removing it, but just wiggle and it'll come off. Leave the screw in the hole if you don't want to misplace it, and put the wire over to the right of the terminal:




You're gonna have a hell of a time getting the fairing off if you don't disconnect the seat release cable. I found that the end on the bike (rather than on the fairing) is the easiest to remove and reinstall. First, pull up on the little yellow plastic bit so that it's out of it's seat. Now you can rotate the cable towards you (you're standing on the right of the bike and have the same view as in the pic) and line it up with the small notch in the circle that holds the ball on the end of the cable, thus holding it in place. Once you muscle the cable to the hole and get it out, you can just pull up on the cable and the ball will come out. Easy cheesy pumpkin peezey!:




Okey dokey, now we should loosen up the fairing to give us some more room for removal. The circle in the top left of the pic shows that the right, left, and middle pieces of the fairing are still connected, yet they are pivited out to create a gap inbetween them. This is done by removing the two small phillips-head screws under the middle piece. They're not the easiest things to get to, but you'll get it. By the way kiddo, getting these back in was actually the most difficult part; have a magnetic screwdriver to make it easy. Be patient! All good things take time. Except for me in bed; that takes no time at all. Hey now! On the right, I circled the last part of the fairing to be removed from the body b4 you can pull the fairing off. There are pieces on the fairing that slip into holes on the body and are held in by the rubber grommets in the holes. So I circled the little nub that you pull out. Try and hold onto the rubber to make the removal easier. That's what she said. Hey, we've got a comedian over here!
When you are removing the fairing, pull it backwards slowly and gently. Work the pieces up and down, side to side, getting past all the obstacles in the way. On note: I got hung up on the taillight. There is a piece on the inside in the back of the center fairing piece that lays down at an angle over the light assemble. Sticking a small screw driver in there to push it up and give clearance if you need; you WILL need to when reassembling, lest you stand there like me for 5 minutes going "what the fark is stuck here"?




Well what do we have here? Tis be the light assembly, bare and ready to be violated with your busy hands. Looks good to me. Now let's go inside for a beer...ah ah ah, that was a joke; we are not even getting to the meat of the project. get back to the bike and wait for that beer; you'll need to be clear-headed to make sure you get the wiring done correctly. Trust me, you can celebrate afterwards with a cold beer or ten.




So I'm now standing behind the bike, looking down at the light assembly. Each bulb has a brown, black/white, and white/black wire going to it. Brown=tail (running lights), b/w=ground, w/b=brake (hot when you hit the brake lever).
Also notice my beautiful leg. Brown and muscular. Right...




OK, here I'm showing the connector for the tail lights. You can unhook this in order to make some more space and freedom for the mods on these wires. I did, and I suggest you also do. SO DO IT, NOW!!!




Tizzity tight, so here you can see that I have disconnected the connector and am holding the wires connected to the light. So pretty, no? Sexcellent.  What I did is cut back about half of the black plastic covering the wire bunch. This gives you more room for cutting, rather than limiting you to 1 inch of wire. Hey, I have 1 inch of wire...in my pants!




Go ahead and cut the wires, leaving enough connected to the brake lights to have some room to play with. You cut ALL the wires. The white/black wires (brake) are separate, and then come together into one wire further down the line. You want to cut them before they merge, so you are left with one w/b coming off each bulb and NOT connected to the other bulb. The brown (tail) should be cut AFTER the merge, so you have one tail wire. Same with the black/white (ground). Cut after they are merged, leaving you with one ground wire.
In the picture, you see: single b/w wire (leftmost circle), single brown wire (middle circle) and two single w/b wires (I only circled one; it's the rightmost circle. You can see the one for the other bulb between the brown and b/w).




That was a loooooong paragraph, I'm sorry for that. Now you need to decide where to cut the turn signal wires. I chose the spot right above the rear reflector, right below the rubber grommet used to hold the rear fairing on. This will leave you with plenty of room to tuck it up into the area under the seat. I slid it out of the ziptie you see in the picture and went under the frame, putting the wire up in the desired area.




Het teens, you still with me? Great. If you follow the signal wire from the place you cut to the front of the bike, you will find that the two wires connect into two more wires; kinda like a bridge between them rather than just using one long wire for each the power and ground wires. This is handy for us, though. There are 2 wires: the b/w (ground, and the same color on the right and left sides) and all black (power, and is green on the right signal and black on the left). We are gonna use the negative terminal of the battery as our ground, so we do not need the ones to the signals. Unplug them from their rubber jackets. Now the negative wire for the signals is disconnected and covered in rubber shroud, so nothing will happen with them. I taped the negative wire without the jacket (coming from the rear of the bike) to the frame, and then over it taped the wire with the shroud on it (coming from the bike) over that. That is the top circle; the bottom is the still-connected power for the left signal.




Here we have the 4 input wires. I am standing over the battery and facing the rear of the bike, so the top of the picture is the back of the bike. From left to right, here is what I have circled:
Green wire- Right turn signal power
Brown- Tail
White/Black- Brake power
Black- Left signal power

You can see in each of the circles with the signal wires, there are the b/w (ground) wires that used to go to the signals. Remember, we unhooked these and taped them to the frame, so leave them alone; nothing is coming throught them. With all of these wires, I cut back the plastic covers over the wires a few inches to get a clear shot at them. God, I am on a roll! Somebody get me a beer...ah, just kidding again; still need our thinking brains.




This pic shows the right side ground wires. I disconnected them like on the other side, and merely tucked them between the frame and plastic to hold them tight. There is no room to tape, and they're useless now that they're unplugged anypoop, so just let them chill there. We are moving right along? I'm Ron Burgundy?




Here are two groups of wires: In the left circle is the group connected to the brake cluster. These are the inputs and are receiving the signals. On the right are 3 circles connected by lines: these are the wires coming from the bike and are output wires that send the signals. The inputs are going to hook up to the part of the trailer converter labeled To Trailer and the outputs will hook up to the part labeled To Car.
I have gone through and crimped on the connectors to all the wires. Is everyone accounted for? Tail, where are you? Oh, I see you. K, we're all here. Get a good crimp on these, lest a wire comes loose and you have to do this all over again. The red connectors are perfect. Twist up the end of the wires so they're long and the individual wires are tight together, and slip them into the hole. (That's what she said...again!) Hold them together, crimp, crimp again to be safe, and go to the next one.




Here are the signals and the side reflectors. The reflectors take a screwdriver on the outside and a wrench on the inside; the nut is a 6 or so, if I remember correctly. For the signals, there's a nut on the inside that takes a 17 wrench and just hold onto the signal stalk to keep it steady. Notice the circle; a match! Yes, the job took me 2.5 hours, so a few cigarettes were smoked. EXCUUUUUUUUUUSE me!




Here's a picture of the tail end of my baby. I circled the two holes with rubber grommets that retain the fairing; I mentioned these earlier. Just wanted to point them out. Sweetie, you don't look so good with your pants off; I'll hurry up and finish, OK? OK.




Now what would you do if you took all this time, you crimped all the wires in, you put the bike back together, and you get ready to start her. You're happy. You turn the key, and when you hit the signal switch on the bars, your garage door starts opening and closing and the horn starts beeping in short blasts. What would you do? shaZam!, I'd be pissed, cuz you know you really effed the wiring up bad. I mean, you REALLY need to do something wrong to turn your bike into a garage door opener. So what I suggest doing is putting the harness up on the undertail and hooking eveything up, just for a test run.

So it's pretty obvious what to do from here: find the wire on the harness that says Tail on the To Car side and hook this into the wire coming from the bike that is the tail one (brown). Then do the same for Tail on the To Trailer side. Do this for all of the wires. BUT DO NOT CRIMP THEM DOWN YET!!!11!1 This is a mock-up and is intended to show you if you have an integrator or a garage door opener. Check that all the wires are in their slots, and then take the Ground wire (white) with the ring on the end. Put this over the negative diode on the battery, and stick the negative cable on top. Push down a little, and screw it on tight. It's only a few turns. Now insert the key into the ignition (I left it in the fairing seat unlock and was trying to find it forever, so don't be a duck like me and forget where it is) and turn it to On. Please remember to ground it first, by the way. Go look at the brake light. Running lights both on? Good, you've so far done things correctly. Try the signals, and go to the back to check. Left switch makes left signal come on? Sweet. Same for right? Nice. Grab a bungee or something similar to it, and hook it around the brake lever. Stand behind the bike and pull it lightly. The brake lights both come on? Well F me Freddie, you are almost there. Go turn a signal on again, and stand behind the bike without the brakes on. Signal should flash. Now pull on brakes. The signal will start flashing faster and the other light will illimunate, so you have one half of the brake assembly shining solid and the other half flashing. Yes, you got it! Air high five! Oh, and don't worry about the wway the signal speeds up when the brakes are activated; no damage is being done, and this is going to happen unless you know a lot about electronics and hook up a resistor or some crap between the two signal wires. I know nothing of this, so I left it. The speed change doesn't matter.





You should now be this happy. I have circled some problem areas I need to work on: Haircut, make eye look less Quasimoto0ish, and remove 1.5 cms of fat from my cheeks.




Now take a look-see at the circle: it shows all the wires crimped together and ready to go.
Oh, sorry: UNHOOK THE GROUND CABLE FROM THE BATTERY AGAIN. Hook it back only when you are sure you are done.

So before this, you need to find a spot to mount the converter and then cut the wires down. Cut them so that they have 4 or 5 extra inches of slack when they are connected to their mates, rather than the 8 miles each one comes with. They are friggin long! But DO NOT CUT THE GROUND WIRE ON THE TO CAR SIDE. You will need this ring that is on the end in order to hook it to the battery.
I chose to put it under the grab bar bracket, which turned out great. There is adhesive on the back of it, and some elec. tape around it will make sure it stays put.
Get a good crimp on all the wires, and take your time to line them up with the right mates. You don't want a garage door opener, do you? No is the right answer, by the way.



What we have here is on overhead view with me standing on the right of the bike. I have hooked that brake light connector back in, and I am using the little hook that the stock brake wires went through to hold up the tail and brake power lines, as seen in the left circle. Moving right, the next shows the converter mounted under the bracket. Mount it so the wires that go to the brake module are facing the rear and the ones to the bike are facing forward; pretty self-explanatory. The adhesive on the back is quite strong, but tape it up just to be sure.

The next 4 circles show places where I taped down the wires. Just wanted them to be more secure.




Another overhead view, further out to show the ground cable connected. Only do so when you KNOW it's all ready.




OK, give it another test. It works still? Man, you're the best at this ever! Well, I am the best because I told you how to do it, but you're still REALLY good at it! Now put the fairing back on. Remember about the screwdriver under the middle piece and above the brake light to slide the lip over. And work slowly; it will grab and catch on crap, even things as small as zipties. But work it around, be steady, and you'll get. Snap the stubs into the grommet-filled holes, bolt it on, and screw those screws that hold the middle fairing piece to the left and right piece back in. Be patient; you will drop them, and they'll land in the toolkit area. Retrieve them and keep at it. Got them in? No? Go get a damned driver with a magnetic head, you dolt. I already said that! OK, got them in? Now hook up the seat release cable, bolt back on the grab handle, and slip the seat back on. There, done!

Notice the area I circled; it's where the signals and reflectors used to be. Looks better, right? But it still needs to meet Mr. Dremel before I am satisfied. But still, much cleaner.




Here is the finished product. the bike is running and is on the center stand, if you were curious.

Anyways, this is with just the running lights on.

Oh, and I put pink neon in my exhaust can. Just kidding, I used Gimp to add that.




This is with the right signal and running light on.




This is with the brake and left signal both on. I know taht they are hard to see. It was 7:45, the sun was going down, and thus it was tought to see them, but you get the idea. Plus, it's really hard to time the picture so it focuses and snaps the pic right when the signal is flashing brightly.




I took her back to her tent where it was darker. Here I have just the right blinker and running light on. It's obvious that I am turning right, so hip hop hooray, I am done.



Now, to the bar for some beers. I wanted to ride, but I figured that I wouldn't even be able to see it so what the hell. Go drinking!

Who's happy that the project was a success? We are! That's why we have our hands up!



Dave 


EDIT 1/27/2006: I just wanted to add a couple of pics showing the bike and how clean it looks with the integrator and complete removal of the fender. Yes, you have probably seen these in the forum before, but I wanted to put them with the how-to.

[ditchdoc1017]

Is the wiring the same on a 1999?

[Mr.7]

I'll come back later when I have time to read all of that :mrgreen:

[My Name Is Dave]

From the depths of the sea, back to the block, this How-To thread, funky as the, the, the Doc.



Yes, the wiring should be exactly the same as mine, regardless of the year. They didn't change a whole lot with this bike, and I would guess that the wiring would be the last to be altered. While there are different wiring schematics for different years, I think that the colors of the wires is question is the same.

I am more than happy to help anyone when doing this. I really like it, and I think it's worth a shot. I could make a short video clip and email it if anyone wants a better idea of what it looks like in action.

Dave  

[Alphamazing]

It looks nice, and I'd probably do it...

But... Not enough definition between the turn lights and the brake lights. I don't trust cagers to see that sort of stuff. If there were different colored lights (LEDs?) in the tail alongside the brake lights, it might be a bit clearer. I think there is an integrator kit on eBay. Anyone tried it?

[Budrick320]

Don't know about ebay but I was looking on the clearalternatives.com website and it is very nice (the smoke one) but it is a little too pricey for me. Maybe...Maybe in the future. If I find 90 bucks.

[average]

Chime in,JeffD. Is this possible for us LED swapees?

[Phaedrus]

I think a moderator should move to to the FAQ, personally.  

[My Name Is Dave]

I think a moderator should move to to the FAQ, personally. 

Not that I have any sort of vested interest, but I concur.

[annguyen1981]

+1

[My Name Is Dave]

By the way, I just added a few pictures to the how-to so you can really see the final results of the work on my bike (which is for sale, by the way...)

Dave