Rear Lighting/Auxillary Lighting Upgrade

The rear turn signals on my 1983 KZ750L3 ('82 GPZ) are only turn signals and not driving/aux brake lights. Provides a very low profile at night from the rear.

Has anyone converted them to always ON possibly with function as brighter turn signal and and or brake light?

You can buy front turn signals with the running light circuits, but you'll need to either get red lenses, or spray the amber ones red, as amber lenses to the rear are a safety hazard. If in doubt, ask at your local dept. of licences. or Police Dept. You'll also have to find a power source to tap, to power the additional circuit.

avmedco wrote: The rear turn signals on my 1983 KZ750L3 ('82 GPZ) are only turn signals and not driving/aux brake lights. Provides a very low profile at night from the rear.

Has anyone converted them to always ON possibly with function as brighter turn signal and and or brake light?

Yes, I have done that on mine. You need to get dual filament bulbs/sockets and red lenses (I just painted my amber lenses).

I also have a circuit that enables the brighter filament to act as both a turn signal and brake light but it's more complicated than most people would want to build.

I had all 4 turn signals as running lights on my 650 years ago.
As mentioned you will need to buy front 3 wired signals for the rear, and extend the running light circuit wire (blue in the case of the 650) to the back signals.

Has anyone found bare LEDs in red and amber that would be suitable for converting turn signals? I'm thinking the rears could have red running lights and brighter amber turn flashers, I'm just not sure what the brightness of standard bulbs are compared to the MCD or lumens that most LEDs are rated in.

This is the bright LED I use for turn signal and running lights. Comes in three colors. You can put a red one with an amber lense and it will look red, but looks better with a red lense.

www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/s-serie...-high-power-led/808/

I did some digging and found a chart which shows the output of a typical 1157 bulb at around 40/400 lumens. I found some strawhat amber LEDs rated at 180,00MCD at 140° which translates to around 740 lumens. :blink: They're only $10 for 5 of them, so I'm thinking of grabbing a bag and seeing how they work. I can easily back off the brightness with a different resistor, which would also improve the life of the LEDs.

I also found some lower-rated red and amber LEDs which could be used for the running-light portion. If the output is good on these, it doesn't look like it would be expensive to do a conversion of the aftermarket turn signals I have. Crossing my fingers...

Take some before / after pictures at night so we can see the difference. Ed

Of course I'll have to temporarily mount the brake light and turn signals to the frame and take pics inside the garage, but I definitely want to make full comparisons of brightness and viewing angles between regular bulbs and any LEDs I might use.