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Turn turn signals into full time lights?

  • Thread starter Thread starter roland650
  • Start date Start date
R

roland650

Guest
Hey,
I have a thought, not sure its a good one or not. But I ride at night alot and I was thinking of turning my turn signals into lights. Not like "headlight" lights, but right now when the turn signal is off, they are dark. I was thinking of running a wire from the head light, or battery, and connecting it to the turn signals to make them stay on all the time, that way giving me and my bike more visability at night.

But, I was wondering if I did that, would the blinkers not work as blinkers anymore?

Any thoughts or suggestions? Its for a 1982 GS 650 GL...
 
the blinkers on my brothers FZ6 are always on but still flash when pushed...not sure how they work though. They are ebay flush mounts.
 
I'm no expert but have done this mod on one of my other bikes. It was awhile ago though. If memory serves me right, for once, you have to change the signals to the kind that have double filament bulbs. At least thats what I did. Once you have those, hooking them up to be running lights is a piece of cake. In fact, I took it one step further by hooking them up so the filaments for the rear signals come on with the brake light. All that was needed was to install a diode on each wire running from the brake light wire to each signal.
Willie in TN
 
willie said:
I'm no expert but have done this mod on one of my other bikes. It was awhile ago though. If memory serves me right, for once, you have to change the signals to the kind that have double filament bulbs. At least thats what I did. Once you have those, hooking them up to be running lights is a piece of cake. In fact, I took it one step further by hooking them up so the filaments for the rear signals come on with the brake light. All that was needed was to install a diode on each wire running from the brake light wire to each signal.
Willie in TN
Click to expand...

So I would have to change the actual turn signals them selves? And since you are in TN, with me... where would a poor man be able to find such a thing here?
 
One such place to look is at a larger bike. Not sure if the 750s came with running lights, but 850 and up bikes had them. There is likely an extra (brown) wire in the headlight shell that is meant for such a thing. Very easy to connect.

.
 
So the turn signals would have 3 lines coming from them. I have seen the extra line in the headlight assembly, so I should just get a bigger bikes' turn signals and install on my 650... sounds easy enough... I think... :eek:
 
Hi Mr. roland650,

There's and extra hot wire in your headlight bucket that you can use to power double filament blinkers. The blinkers you describe have only one filament. With dual filament bulbs, one filament is lit all the time (a "running" light") and the other blinks when you turn on the blinker.

Check out the Lighting Upgrades section on the Electrical Odds and Ends page of my website. I've saved information about a few different possibilities.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
WOW... after reading that, it sounds so simple now... and that, my friends, scares me!!! :D
 
roland650 said:
Hey,
I have a thought, not sure its a good one or not. But I ride at night alot and I was thinking of turning my turn signals into lights. Not like "headlight" lights, but right now when the turn signal is off, they are dark. I was thinking of running a wire from the head light, or battery, and connecting it to the turn signals to make them stay on all the time, that way giving me and my bike more visability at night.

But, I was wondering if I did that, would the blinkers not work as blinkers anymore?

Any thoughts or suggestions? Its for a 1982 GS 650 GL...
Click to expand...

funny you should ask. I just did this today to a GS650G. First, you need to replace the little socket inside your turn signal that holds the bulb. Put in one that takes a bulb with two filaments in it, the kind that's designed for a combination tail light and turn signal.

These have two wires coming out of them for the 'hot' lead to the power source, a third will wire may be necessary for the ground. On most turn signals the ground is a ring that attaches under the mounting nut. Depending on your model it's probably connected to a black with white wire.

Your new bulbs will be dim when one wire is connected, use that one to connect to a power source like the tail light wires. The other wire will be bright, connect it to the turn signal wires (probably black for the left and light green for the right.)

For power on the front lights I used a lead from the headlight switch after it leaves the fuse (orange with red). If your bike has a brown wire in the headlight bucket connected to nothing, that's your best source of power...it's for accessories.

If you do it like that, the blinkers will not be affected at all. They will still work fine. Good luck and have fun cutting and splicing all those wires. Get some snacks and make a day of it.
 
Another option, if that sounds like a lot of work or if you wish to take it even farther, would be a Badlands module. They're available from most of the major sources (JC Whitney, Dennis Kirk). These are spliced into the existing wiring and depending on the model you go for can do all sorts of exiting things with your lighting like: Use existing turn signals as running lights, load equalizer (flasher will flash at the correct speed with LED or other low draw lights), convert rear signals to auxiliary brake lights, I believe they even have one that modulates the rear brake light. They are all about the size of a small cell phone and depending on the number of features you go for can cost from about $50 to about $120 for the one that does everything except change bulbs when they burn out. I've installed dozens of these things and I've been very impressed with the quality, function and most importantly the instructions provided. There are other manufacturers out there, but some of them are downright chintzy (I'm looking at you, kuryaken). Do yourself a favor if you go this route, throw away the clipon splicers they give you in the package and use solder and heatshrink for the connections. Corrosion has a nasty way of climbing deep into the insulated part of the wire and causing hidden headaches.

Hope this helps.
 
While I agree that the turn signal modification is a good start, the real issue I find is that the light output of the smaller L headlight is vastly inferior to the output of the larger "G" model headlight. I reference this from my 550L which I believe uses the same headlight as your 650gl. In my experience the L headlight is barely better than some old scooters and old enduros.

First thing I would do is replace the stock bulb with a high intensity halogen, I am using Silverstars, there are many others to choose from. The biggest change the Silverstar did was light up more of the periphery, now I can see deer standing in the edge of the field better:eek:. I know they were there before, now I can see them.

Someone had recently posted a link to Bob is the oil guy http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/ which has a forum with a discussion on headlamp bulbs, interesting reading.

If this isn't satisfactory, you may try to graft a larger G or later E model headlamp on there for more output. I thankfully don't work evenings anymore and so I don't get to worked up about not seeing very far. I too will get around to doing the turn signal mod since it makes you more visible to traffic, I feel that alone is worth the price.
 
Last edited:
82Shafty said:
There was a discussion on here long, long ago in regards to turning your rear turn signal lights into running lamps and in order to do that they need to be red, not amber.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=127087&highlight=rear+running+lamps

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=114845&highlight=rear+running+lamps

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=72406&highlight=rear+running+lamps
Click to expand...

Yes, that's the law in my state. If they are on all the time in the back they have to be red.
 
Another Option

Another Option

I had to replace the self-canceling module on my '79 GS1000S. I bought the Kisan self-canceling module. Not only do you get the self-canceling turn signals, it also converts your turn signals into half-power running lights and modulates the brake light when you brake. Costs about $115 U.S. I think, but for me it was a lot cheaper than the self-canceling Suzuki module. Can't help you with the red rear lenses. I think that is the law in Missouri also, but I haven't gotten pulled over yet. The wiring is pretty straight forward. One hot wire to the switch, one to each side signal and one to the brake light.

Might be overkill for what you are looking for.
 
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