help with wiring

[Mark52]

Can someone here lend me a little help. My brother has a 1981 1100 Goldwing which has some driving lights attached to the"crash Bars?" up front. Each of these lights, one on each side, have one short wire coming out of the back. On the right hand side of the fairing there is a toggle swtich, no wires attached, which I assumed controled these lights at one time. So now for my question, my brother would like to use these lights on occasion so they need to be hooked up, but neither one of us know much about wiring. Rebuilding the carbs yes, wiring no. Could one of you point me to a wiring diagram or draw a simple diagram I could follow to hook these lights up. I assume that it would start at the fuse box and go to some type of relay and then out of the relay to the swtich and lights but really I have no idea. Any help, even a picture or two would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[mcgovern61]

Welcome to the site from New Jersey! :clapping:

Most likely the main reason the switch is disconnected is the stator on these bikes does not handle 55w driving lights. Check to see what the wattage is first before attempting to hook up again.

 

[slabghost]

Headlight relay will tell how it's wired. As stated though this could draw more power than you have available.

 

[brianinpa]

Mark52 » Thu May 16, 2013 12:26 pm[/url]":16962y5t]Each of these lights, one on each side, have one short wire coming out of the back.

There should be two wires: one for power and one for ground, unless the light is grounded through the mounting bolt. The ground should go to the frame or battery and the power goes to the switch.

Mark52 » Thu May 16, 2013 12:26 pm[/url]":16962y5t]On the right hand side of the fairing there is a toggle swtich, no wires attached, which I assumed controled these lights at one time.

The power wires from the lights go to one terminal on the switch and a wire from the other terminal goes to either a relay or a power source. Most states require driving lights to only operate while the low beams are on, so the logical power source is the low beam.

I do not have a relay for mine and I do not use them all the time, but I do not do a lot of night time riding, so I don't worry too much about the draw of the lights on the battery. I just keep a close eye on the volt meter when I have my driving lights on.

One way around the wattage issue is to use 35 watt bulbs and NAPA is the easiest place to find them, but the 20 watts do make quite a difference. Another solution is to replace the incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs and also replace the flasher unit so it can handle LED bulbs.

 

[Mark52]

Thanks for the replies. So it seems that I can directly wire them up or use a relay. That I should look to use a lower wattage bulb if the ones on my brother's bike are somewhere around 55w, and if I do/can find a relay they will come with some type of wring diagram. Would any other like to offer there opinions or other help?? All is welcome

Mark

 

[AApple]

Here is a typical relay wiring set-up...

relay hookup

• dan filipi
• Apr 29, 2013

Terminal 87 goes to the lights.
Terminal 30/51 is power from the battery(fused, preferably)
Terminal 86 is power from an On/Off switch
Terminal 85 goes to ground.
:good:

 

[Ansimp]

Just remember that the charging circuit on these early Hondas was never designed to run an additional 110 watts. Most people that complain about the charging circuits failing are doing so because of long term overloading creating failures in the these charging circuits.

 

[Mark52]

Thanks Ansimp and AApple. Looking at that picture of the relay, if I understand correctly, I would hook up a fused line from the battery to 30/51, a line to the lights to 87, a line to the toggle switch to 86, and a line to ground on 85. It would then seem that at the toggle switch I would connect the line from 86 to one side of the switch and run a line to ground from the other side of the switch. Is this correct?

Again thanks for the help
Mark

 

[AApple]

No....the toggle switch, or On-Off switch would need 12v on the other side, not a ground. You can take the 12v from the battery line on the 30/51 terminal, if you want, just depends on how far away from the relay your switch is. Better to run another wire from the battery, or fuse box.

 

[Ansimp]

The other option is to take a fused battery line to 30 and then loop it to 86. You can then use the negative switch to 85 as you suggested and you will have the positive output to your lights on 87.

 

[Mark52]

Thanks all, visted with my brother this weekend and got the lights all hooked up and working. The bulb in the driving lights are 55w (I think h3s?) so I'll start looking for one with a lower wattage. Thanks again for all the help.

Mark

 

[Ansimp]

Just try not to use them too much and certainly not when you are slow riding around town. You need to be above 3000 rpm for the charging circuit to really start working.