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OK, boys and girls, today we're going to learn how to make a replacement indicator light panel.
I decided to make one of these when I switched from my dual headlights to an Acerbis Cyclops. When I mounted the Cyclops, the fit was way too tight for my gauges to stay in place so I removed them with the intentions of adding a Veypor gauge in their place. The problem with losing the factory gauges is that you also lose your indicator lights which have varying levels of importance. On the 919, I had turn signals, oil pressure, neutral switch, MIl (malfunction indicator light) and high beams.
Once I decided which lights were important to me, I took a trip to Radio Shack to see what I could find. I wanted this to be relatively simple, so I went with the LEDs that had resistors already built into them. That meant less soldering for me. I also needed a panel of some sort to mount the lights onto.
I left Radio Shack with the following:
(1) Part# 276-084 Red LED Assembly (quite small).....Low Fuel Indicator
(1) Part# 276-270 Red LED Assembly (larger).............Low Oil Pressure
(1) Part# 276-271 Green LED Assembly (larger)..........Neutral Switch
(2) Part# 276-272 Orange LED Assembly (larger)........Turn Signals
(1) Part# 270-1801 Project Enclosure (3x2x1).............Ended up just using cover
My Grand Total was $12.98 tax included. Not bad!
I looked at my bike and determined the best place to mount my lights and went about test fitting the cover plate to see how to best mount it. A short time and a grinding wheel later, I had it. Your plate will most likely differ from mine depending on your type of bike and where you choose to put it.
Once I had a working plate, I went about drilling the holes based on the sizes provided on the back of each package. Easy as pie!
Now came the fun part. For MY bike, I went ahead and cut the harness leading to the gauges so I would have an easy way to tap into each needed wire. This also gave me the ability to quickly disconnect the panel if I needed to. Here are pics of the wiring harnesses with the needed wires noted:
Some of the lights (turn signals) were very easy to wire in. All I had to do was run test leads to the turn signal wires going to the cluster. Power and ground and done.
The other lights proved to be a bit more problematic but not by much. Looking at the FSM (factory service manual) for my bike, it turned out that the neutral switch, oil pressure light and MIL (if i had chosen to do that one) needed the ground side of the LED run to the signal wire going to the cluster for each respective light. The positive side went to a switched ignition source. (By switched, I simply mean a wire that only had power when the key was on.)
Then I got to the low fuel light. For the time being, I've decided to use a standard incandesent light bulb for this one. The reason for this decision is that when using the LED the light would work properly when jumpering the circuit but when I plugged everything back up, the light would not go out! I tried tapping my test light into the circuit while the LED was still attached and the LED went out. Odd. I disconnected the LED and just wired in the test light. Everything was normal.
My best guess is that the LED did not provide the proper resistance (too high or too low...I'm not sure which) that the circuit needed to work correctly. If someone has more insight into this, please let me know so I can adjust my setup.
Honestly, though, I don't think it's going to bother me that much to have one normal bulb in there since it's only on when fuel is needed. It's not like it's always seen where it could be compared easily to the other LEDs.
This is what I ended up with after all was said and done:
Anyway, I know this was somewhat brief but hopefully it will lend a hand if you choose to perform this mod yourself! I will try to get some pictures uploaded soon.
Reese
I decided to make one of these when I switched from my dual headlights to an Acerbis Cyclops. When I mounted the Cyclops, the fit was way too tight for my gauges to stay in place so I removed them with the intentions of adding a Veypor gauge in their place. The problem with losing the factory gauges is that you also lose your indicator lights which have varying levels of importance. On the 919, I had turn signals, oil pressure, neutral switch, MIl (malfunction indicator light) and high beams.
Once I decided which lights were important to me, I took a trip to Radio Shack to see what I could find. I wanted this to be relatively simple, so I went with the LEDs that had resistors already built into them. That meant less soldering for me. I also needed a panel of some sort to mount the lights onto.
I left Radio Shack with the following:
(1) Part# 276-084 Red LED Assembly (quite small).....Low Fuel Indicator
(1) Part# 276-270 Red LED Assembly (larger).............Low Oil Pressure
(1) Part# 276-271 Green LED Assembly (larger)..........Neutral Switch
(2) Part# 276-272 Orange LED Assembly (larger)........Turn Signals
(1) Part# 270-1801 Project Enclosure (3x2x1).............Ended up just using cover
My Grand Total was $12.98 tax included. Not bad!
I looked at my bike and determined the best place to mount my lights and went about test fitting the cover plate to see how to best mount it. A short time and a grinding wheel later, I had it. Your plate will most likely differ from mine depending on your type of bike and where you choose to put it.
Once I had a working plate, I went about drilling the holes based on the sizes provided on the back of each package. Easy as pie!
Now came the fun part. For MY bike, I went ahead and cut the harness leading to the gauges so I would have an easy way to tap into each needed wire. This also gave me the ability to quickly disconnect the panel if I needed to. Here are pics of the wiring harnesses with the needed wires noted:
Some of the lights (turn signals) were very easy to wire in. All I had to do was run test leads to the turn signal wires going to the cluster. Power and ground and done.
The other lights proved to be a bit more problematic but not by much. Looking at the FSM (factory service manual) for my bike, it turned out that the neutral switch, oil pressure light and MIL (if i had chosen to do that one) needed the ground side of the LED run to the signal wire going to the cluster for each respective light. The positive side went to a switched ignition source. (By switched, I simply mean a wire that only had power when the key was on.)
Then I got to the low fuel light. For the time being, I've decided to use a standard incandesent light bulb for this one. The reason for this decision is that when using the LED the light would work properly when jumpering the circuit but when I plugged everything back up, the light would not go out! I tried tapping my test light into the circuit while the LED was still attached and the LED went out. Odd. I disconnected the LED and just wired in the test light. Everything was normal.
My best guess is that the LED did not provide the proper resistance (too high or too low...I'm not sure which) that the circuit needed to work correctly. If someone has more insight into this, please let me know so I can adjust my setup.
Honestly, though, I don't think it's going to bother me that much to have one normal bulb in there since it's only on when fuel is needed. It's not like it's always seen where it could be compared easily to the other LEDs.
This is what I ended up with after all was said and done:
Anyway, I know this was somewhat brief but hopefully it will lend a hand if you choose to perform this mod yourself! I will try to get some pictures uploaded soon.
Reese
