2008 Yamaha Road Star Silverado (Gray, hard bags, etc.)
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Run/Turn/Brake along with 4-way hazards with simple off the shelf components.
This will be long so I’ll try and break it down into parts. List of what components I used. Some basic instructions and pics of the steps along the way. And lastly some of the gotchas and other anomalies I ran into. While this was for my 2008 Road Star I presume this will be very similar to other models. Downloading a service manual with a wiring diagram will be very helpful along with standard tools. A test light and VOM meter really came in handy diagnosing some issues as I was going along.
I wanted to make this as plug and play as possible without any changes to the OEM wiring harness. Under the seat is a connector which attaches the main wire harness to the fender. Most of the work I did took place here. The running lights in the rear only required a few bullet connectors behind the license plate. For these connectors I sourced them from Cycle Terminal, I found them reasonably priced and had everything I needed. I bought crimpers and a release tool that while adding to the cost is something I’ll have in my tool arsenal for other projects.
Connectors/Misc.:
6 pin HM090-6 Male & Female (under seat at fender)
3.9mm bullet connectors Male & Female as necessary for light fixture wires
BTT39 - Female triple bullet terminal (tail lights for turn/license plate)
Part 1) Adding a tail light circuit to the rear turn signals
While this work could be done on the bike, mine was in a shop 15 miles from my home so I pulled the turn light assembly off the bike so I could work on it at home. Since I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, I picked up some used front turn signals off a Yamaha Royal Star that had some road rash from being laid down. Figured I could tear them apart first to see what I was up against.
The plan was to replace the single circuit 1156 style bulb with a dual circuit 1157 style. I found 1157 sockets and pigtails on Ebay cheap and ordered them. After disassembly of the road rash units I found that the simplest route would have been to remove the sockets and wiring from the road rash units and put them into my good rear turn housings. There isn’t much to the disassembly. Two screws hold a bar that keeps the socket and its rubber enclosure in place.
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There were two reasons I didn’t go this route. One is that the wiring in one of the lights I got had broken and it had a pretty poor solder job. Admittedly it’s in a difficult place to repair so I’m not knocking the work. The second is much to my dismay Yamaha decided to use a non-standard socket configuration in the front. Instead of a simple two opposed pins like the 1157 bulb uses they chose to use three.
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The “fix” most use is to file off the pin closest to the base terminals on the bulb and rely on the single pin to hold the bulb in place. It works (I did this in the front turns) but I elected to install the new sockets I received. I went ahead and cut the wires to separate the rubber mount from the OEM socket. I poked a larger hole to make it easier to feed out the wires from my new socket as they were a heavier gauge than factory. One item I was concerned with was the ground. I was afraid I was going to have to solder a wire to the housing for ground. But as I disassembled the OEM socket I found Yamaha made a nice ring that fits at the bottom of the socket under the spring for ground. So I just re-used the ground circuit from the OEM socket. Easy peasy! I did mark the contact base before I removed it to make sure I got it put back in it’s same orientation. That way I would know which wires to connect to tail and turn circuit.
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I measured the length of wire from my current rear turns from the light housing to the end where the bullet connector was. that way I knew where to clip my new wires and install the connectors. I used solder and heat shrink for my connections and then also found a heat shrink woven protective cover (I bought this for an old tractor project but figured I’d give it a shot here) that I put over the wiring as it was too difficult to get it through the old and crinkled up wiring protector that was on the bike. Here’s what it looked like when re-assembled.
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Once the turn assembly was mounted back on the bike I made a connector to add the two new tail light connections behind the license plate. It would have been more space savvy to not use the bullet connectors and solder all these together. But my goal was to not modify the OEM wiring harness so all of this could simply be unplugged if necessary.
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GOTCHA moments:
One drawback to my cheap 1157 sockets is they don't have the tab welded on them (look at the second picture). So if you're not careful you can rotate the socket in the rubber holder when removing and inserting the bulb. I was able to take a pick and hold the socket in place while removing and inserting the bulbs. So not a huge deal, but it could cause issue if you're not careful.
The old phrase, “you get what you pay for”, really came into play on the rear turns. I bought some inexpensive red 1157 LEDs off Ebay. When I was wiring these up on my bench everything was working as expected. But I noticed that there wasn’t much of a brightness differential between the tail light and turn when activated. While it “worked” I didn’t feel from a safety measure it was up to standards. I took a look at the Sylvania products and also sent off an email to their customer service. They replied that a tail/turn light should have a 5:1 ratio in regards the brightness differential. My cheap Ebay lights didn’t have that! The second issue I ran into is that the cheap lights also must have had some sketchy circuitry as they bled power back from the tail circuit to the turn circuit. Because of this, as soon as I turned my key on my turn signal indicators in the speedometer would glow. When the turn was activated the dash signal would alternate from dim to bright in sequence with the flash of the turn. Once I replaced the cheap bulbs with the Sylvania red 1157 LEDs my indicator light issue went away and I had a contrast between tail and turn that was much better from a safety perspective.
(Part 2) Circuitry to add 4-way flasher and turn signals as brakes
This will be long so I’ll try and break it down into parts. List of what components I used. Some basic instructions and pics of the steps along the way. And lastly some of the gotchas and other anomalies I ran into. While this was for my 2008 Road Star I presume this will be very similar to other models. Downloading a service manual with a wiring diagram will be very helpful along with standard tools. A test light and VOM meter really came in handy diagnosing some issues as I was going along.
I wanted to make this as plug and play as possible without any changes to the OEM wiring harness. Under the seat is a connector which attaches the main wire harness to the fender. Most of the work I did took place here. The running lights in the rear only required a few bullet connectors behind the license plate. For these connectors I sourced them from Cycle Terminal, I found them reasonably priced and had everything I needed. I bought crimpers and a release tool that while adding to the cost is something I’ll have in my tool arsenal for other projects.
Connectors/Misc.:
6 pin HM090-6 Male & Female (under seat at fender)
3.9mm bullet connectors Male & Female as necessary for light fixture wires
BTT39 - Female triple bullet terminal (tail lights for turn/license plate)
Part 1) Adding a tail light circuit to the rear turn signals
While this work could be done on the bike, mine was in a shop 15 miles from my home so I pulled the turn light assembly off the bike so I could work on it at home. Since I wasn’t sure what I was getting into, I picked up some used front turn signals off a Yamaha Royal Star that had some road rash from being laid down. Figured I could tear them apart first to see what I was up against.
The plan was to replace the single circuit 1156 style bulb with a dual circuit 1157 style. I found 1157 sockets and pigtails on Ebay cheap and ordered them. After disassembly of the road rash units I found that the simplest route would have been to remove the sockets and wiring from the road rash units and put them into my good rear turn housings. There isn’t much to the disassembly. Two screws hold a bar that keeps the socket and its rubber enclosure in place.
There were two reasons I didn’t go this route. One is that the wiring in one of the lights I got had broken and it had a pretty poor solder job. Admittedly it’s in a difficult place to repair so I’m not knocking the work. The second is much to my dismay Yamaha decided to use a non-standard socket configuration in the front. Instead of a simple two opposed pins like the 1157 bulb uses they chose to use three.
The “fix” most use is to file off the pin closest to the base terminals on the bulb and rely on the single pin to hold the bulb in place. It works (I did this in the front turns) but I elected to install the new sockets I received. I went ahead and cut the wires to separate the rubber mount from the OEM socket. I poked a larger hole to make it easier to feed out the wires from my new socket as they were a heavier gauge than factory. One item I was concerned with was the ground. I was afraid I was going to have to solder a wire to the housing for ground. But as I disassembled the OEM socket I found Yamaha made a nice ring that fits at the bottom of the socket under the spring for ground. So I just re-used the ground circuit from the OEM socket. Easy peasy! I did mark the contact base before I removed it to make sure I got it put back in it’s same orientation. That way I would know which wires to connect to tail and turn circuit.
I measured the length of wire from my current rear turns from the light housing to the end where the bullet connector was. that way I knew where to clip my new wires and install the connectors. I used solder and heat shrink for my connections and then also found a heat shrink woven protective cover (I bought this for an old tractor project but figured I’d give it a shot here) that I put over the wiring as it was too difficult to get it through the old and crinkled up wiring protector that was on the bike. Here’s what it looked like when re-assembled.
Once the turn assembly was mounted back on the bike I made a connector to add the two new tail light connections behind the license plate. It would have been more space savvy to not use the bullet connectors and solder all these together. But my goal was to not modify the OEM wiring harness so all of this could simply be unplugged if necessary.
GOTCHA moments:
One drawback to my cheap 1157 sockets is they don't have the tab welded on them (look at the second picture). So if you're not careful you can rotate the socket in the rubber holder when removing and inserting the bulb. I was able to take a pick and hold the socket in place while removing and inserting the bulbs. So not a huge deal, but it could cause issue if you're not careful.
The old phrase, “you get what you pay for”, really came into play on the rear turns. I bought some inexpensive red 1157 LEDs off Ebay. When I was wiring these up on my bench everything was working as expected. But I noticed that there wasn’t much of a brightness differential between the tail light and turn when activated. While it “worked” I didn’t feel from a safety measure it was up to standards. I took a look at the Sylvania products and also sent off an email to their customer service. They replied that a tail/turn light should have a 5:1 ratio in regards the brightness differential. My cheap Ebay lights didn’t have that! The second issue I ran into is that the cheap lights also must have had some sketchy circuitry as they bled power back from the tail circuit to the turn circuit. Because of this, as soon as I turned my key on my turn signal indicators in the speedometer would glow. When the turn was activated the dash signal would alternate from dim to bright in sequence with the flash of the turn. Once I replaced the cheap bulbs with the Sylvania red 1157 LEDs my indicator light issue went away and I had a contrast between tail and turn that was much better from a safety perspective.
(Part 2) Circuitry to add 4-way flasher and turn signals as brakes
