83 Spectre LED lighting conversion questions

Hi all,

I’m afraid I may have gone off half cocked here and searching hasn’t really turned up contemporary info.

I get a little obsessive on projects sometime so while I’ve had my bike apart for the last year and a half, I decided I was going to go all LED, since I was hip deep in rebuilding the harness anyway.

I started with motogadget Blaze Pin LED turn signals, with solid state flash relays for both the turn signal and the hazard circuits.

Next I got the Revival Secret 7” LED headlight, which should be plug and play.

I upgraded to a lithium battery and the reg/rec to match.

Finally, I swapped all the remaining bulbs on the bike (brake light/taillight and gauges) for LED versions.

Everything lights up and works correctly except the head light, which I believe is stuck on HiBeam. And the “Head Light” indicator is lit up on the tach gauge. 

My guess was that the reserve lighting unit was the culprit, and of course disconnecting it solves the problem a little too well, no headlight lights of any kind, but all my other lights still work properly. I have read of multiple techniques for jumping it but too many of them have descriptions of wire colors that differ for me to feel comfortable just poking wires into different ports. If anyone knows there right combo for this harness, I’d much appreciate the guidance. I’m posting a copy of the wiring diagram below.

Also, I have caught wind here on the forum that in my obsession to go all led, I may be forcing my brand new reg/rec to work overtime. I’m not great at the engineering calculations for this kind of stuff. Have I created a voltage issue that’s going to make it run hot and burn out? If so, anybody have a thoughts on what my options might be? 

Many thanks,
Brion
 

LED draws less current than incandescent so won't overload the charging system, if using a lithium battery I would recommend a 30amp fuse in the reg/rec output to the battery (a charging system fault can cause a "thermal runaway" with a lithium battery which can lead to a fire you can't put out) I will look at the lighting circuit when I get chance. The high beam warning light is probably best to keep the incandescent bulb as a lot of guys have issues with an LED warning light glowing due to voltage leakage through the circuit in the headlight all the time.

Hi Wookie,

Thanks for your fast reply.

“Fire that you can’t put out” sounds no fun at all. When you do get a chance, based on that wiring diagram, would you say that 30 amp fuse should go in line on the white/black lead from the ignition switch?

Also, did you mean ditch the LED indicator bulb or the to ditch the LED headlight?

B

Also, if it makes any difference, I went for a new Reg/Rec that is supposed to support lithium batteries.

Here's the link to the device:

ricksmotorsportelectrics.com/Rectifier-R...um-Compatible-14_305

I wish I knew enough about electrical to be more than dangerous!

McThing wrote:

Hi Wookie,

Thanks for your fast reply.

“Fire that you can’t put out” sounds no fun at all. When you do get a chance, based on that wiring diagram, would you say that 30 amp fuse should go in line on the white/black lead from the ignition switch? Just had a look at the wiring diagram, good news is that being a later bike there is already a fuse in the reg/rec supply to the battery so all good. I will also be running a lithium battery on my project and have no concerns as long as the relevant protection is in place. You just need to be aware of the risks if not protected (I'm sure you have seen the news stories of electric cars that the fire dept can't extinguish when they have battery fires) I have added a diagram below to show the fuse I am talking about

Also, did you mean ditch the LED indicator bulb or the to ditch the LED headlight? Yes ditch the LED high-beam warning LED and use an incandescent bulb, the LED headlamp should be fine (I will also be using one of these)

B

McThing wrote:

Everything lights up and works correctly except the head light, which I believe is stuck on HiBeam. And the “Head Light” indicator is lit up on the tach gauge. 

My guess was that the reserve lighting unit was the culprit, and of course disconnecting it solves the problem a little too well, no headlight lights of any kind, but all my other lights still work properly. 



 

I have had a look at the diagram you posted, the reserve lighting unit will get itself "tied in a knot" with an LED headlight. You need to disconnect the reserve lighting unit then on the plug from the loom install a jumper cable between the "Blue" and the "Blue/Orange" (depending on the plug connections you may be able to use crimp connectors on your jumper lead that will plug into the loom plug so that you can go back to stock easily if required at a later date) This set up should give you low beam with the ignition and then the dip switch should change between high/low with the high beam indicator lamp working as normal

 

Wookie58, I can't thank you enough for your assessment. I am almost done with the rebuild on this machine and this and refurbing the petcock are the very last hurdles. Damn, I may be rolling within a week if the parts shipping gods are on my side. It's been an long haul.