Headlight wiring issue found and fixed

[Raven1294]

I started up my 05 RSTD the other day and noticed no headlights or running lights, high beams worked so opened up the headlight bucket and found this mess, and when I touched it with the engine running and lights on it got pretty hot so tore it all out and soldered and heat shrink and good as new and is cool to the touch now, never ever seen anyone tie wires together and use a hot glue gun on wires before it felt like silicon, oh and my headlight issue turned out to be the switch sticking sprayed some wd-40 into the switch then used my high pressure air hose to blow it all out....works like a champ now

 

also noticed that he wired up led blinkers inside the headlight bucket and inside the bucket was a heat sink for the led blinkers, my question is that won't get hot enough in there to do any damage would it?

 

[videoarizona]

Snip

 

I'm wondering if the heat sink is the load resistor that keeps the turn signals blinking at the proper speed? Probably is. Never liked that idea as it defeats the purpose of using LED's...to draw less power. Regardless, yes that will get warm. Warm enough to hurt anything? Probably not, since it's on momentarily during the turn so it's only drawing current continuously for 15 seconds or so. Next time you are in the bucket, turn the signals on and check the temp on the resistor. If you can hold it, it's not that hot. If you are still concerned...try to isolate it against the metal bucket....use the headlight bucket as a heat sink. Good question!

 

 

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[Flyinfool]

Some people should be slapped when they even look at a wire.........

 

Can you post a pic of the heat sink you are referring to?

If it is the load resistor, there should be 2 of them, If there is only one then it is something else.

[djh3]

Oh my thats ugly. Now I aint the greatest electrician by any stretch of the imagination. But I have come a long way. No more scotch locks allowed in any of my wires.

[Raven1294]

There is just one heat sink in the headlight bucket its gold in color with two wires coming off of it I will post a pic this weekend.

Edited June 22, 2018 by Raven1294

[M61A1MECH]

Some people should be slapped when they even look at a wire

 

Took the words right out of my mouth.

[djh3]

Sorry about that. I try hard though.

[Raven1294]

ok seems to be two heat sinks tie rapped together first pic shows that and second pic shows I added two clip magnets and secured them to the top of the bucket

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by Raven1294

[Flyinfool]

Yes those look like the load resistors for the LED turn signals.

[djh3]

Yes those look like the load resistors for the LED turn signals.

Also a new electrical problem brewing. (red things)

[videoarizona]

I dislike both those red things AND the load resistors...

[Flyinfool]

Those red things are a failure ready to happen. They should be outlawed, they are so bad. When you use those they will cut several strands of the wires, reducing the wires ability to carry the required amps, they will breach the insulation with nothing to keep corrosion forming moisture out of the connection, and are made using a dissimilar metal to help promote galvanic corrosion.

[Raven1294]

Not something I was wanting to hear, I'm not good at anything to do with wiring and thats the way it was when I bought it, had the bike just over a year now, so what would you all do if you were me and sucked at anything to do with wires?

[videoarizona]

Robert,

Well....in your shoes....I would keep an eye out on the forum here for a gathering of Venture riders in the central Texas area....then ride on over and say "Help!". I bet someone there could help you.

 

If you wish to try this on your own, and I would encourage you to do so, there are lots of videos on youtube to teach soldering and one of our members Steve @M61A1MECH has or can make up a simple wiring harness for you so once you repair your wires, then you can plug in Steve's harness or connectors and be good to go. Plus, I bet you can find a small scoot shop that can help you as well....

 

But I would recommend you get rid of those connectors and repair the wires...

 

[Flyinfool]

It is also amazing just how far some will travel with the lure of free food to come to your house and do some soldering or better yet teach you how to do some soldering. So you might meet a new friend and it might cost dinner..... That aint so bad.

[Raven1294]

Well wait until I show you a pic under the seat, someone had tapped into the wires and added a plug for a trailer, I removed the plug and the wires that plugged into the top of the tapped wires, its a different setup then whats in the headlight bucket, the taps are smaller and light blue in color the wires from the trailer connector plugged right into the top of each tap of which there are a few of them.

Edited June 26, 2018 by Raven1294

[vzuden]

red ones or blue ones = trouble

[M61A1MECH]

Yeah, those wretched slice and tap things are the maybe the worst idea I have seen for electrical taps, except that the blue ones that Bushtec used on my Venture were the motivation behind me developing my break out harness and my plug and play trailer harness set ups. One of the blue taps they used cut right through my tail light wire on my venture, so I had to find the connectors and contacts to make the repair, the rest is history , much of which is recorded here on Venture rider and shared with many who have bought my products.

 

I agree you need to loose the slice in taps, problem is the wires may break if you remove them you may need to put on new bullet connector ends. I make single to double and single to triple bullet adapters that will connect directly to those bullet connectors in your head light bucket. Some folks have taken my breakout harness that goes under the seat and terminated their load resistors to the turn signal circuits off the break out and then fixed the resistors to a place on the seat pan or frame to help dissipate the heat, although I am not sure how warm those load resistors get on the turn signal circuits, the load is not constant when the signals are on and normally your turn signals are only on for less than a minute, unless you are sitting at light or stop sign waiting to turn , but even then it is not that long, not like they are on the whole time you are riding. curious experiment would be to turn a signal on while the headlight bucket is open and touch the load resistor body to see how warm it gets and how long it takes to get worm. Also somewhere on the second gen tech page there is a tutorial on modifying the OEM flasher to work with LEDs so you do not need the load resistors at all.

 

I would be happy to help once you sort out what you want or need to do, it is pretty hard to give really good advice based on just a few photos. Eagerly waiting for the under the seat photos.

[Raven1294]

Under the seat are just 4 of the taps plugged into 4 different wires for the tail lights etc close to the plug on the backside of the battery, they are much smaller taps then what are in the headlight bucket.

[videoarizona]

Steve has made a couple of harness setups for me. This is a picture of the connectors he made up that allowed me to add LED lights to the front forks and power for the XM radio.

 

 

 

Then I asked him to make up a harness that would allow me to power a Garmin and leave me with 2 connectors for future use.(LED spots) He suggested using the 12volt Cig lighter tap as a starting point then go from there. He made up this nice plug and play harness that allowed me to power the GPS and left me with 2 plugs for the lights. All I had to do was unplug the Cig lighter factory plug, plug in the harness and plug in the rest.

 

 

There is a lot of wiring on the right side of the picture...all plug and play now.

 

Just to show you this stuff will be an easy thing for you to do as soon as you get the bad stuff repaired...

[Raven1294]

Well it seems the issue is back, I get no running lights and no headlamps but if I play with the switch back and fourth low/high it will come on but if I turn off the engine and start it agian no lights so I take the headlight switch is bad, I noticed before it went out that the high beam blue light stayed on all the time on the instrument panel even when on low beams.....any thoughts? Also tried to take those phillips head screws out that hold the switch together but no go they are in there!....................

 

now I get nothing no headlights and no running lights even when messing with the switch everything else works.

Edited August 20, 2018 by Raven1294