aftermarket signal lights question

[ron bayless]

question about aftermaeket signal lights from old bike barn:
i bought 2 rear signal lights from old bike barn because they look just like the originals, and my 2 back ones were some tiny aftermarket ones the prior owner had put on.my bike is a 1980 gs 1000gl(t).when i got them, they had only one black wire each.my light have one black wire and one black and white wire.how do you hook these things up?They came with no instructions and no explanation how to convert from 2 wires to 2.i called old bike barn before i even opened up the clear pack and there answer was "well,you knew what you were buying when you ordered them, it shows clearly in the picture they only had one wire on them.Maybe you could take them apart and use some of your old parts in them.You cant send them back without a 20% restocking fee." What a bunch of crap.I would like to keep the look original, which is a big plus since i am mister customizer but now i will have to change my plan unless someone here can give me an answer.

[Bucko]

I would say at a guess the one wire is the positive and they earth through the thread. If that is the case and they are bolting onto a metal surface, then just hook up the positive wire from the bike and don't worry too much about the negative.

Without seeing them it's only an educated guess though.

[ghwrenchit]

Would be best to look at the filiment of the bulb in your old lights that someone added. If the lenses are red, someone may have cobbed up running light/turn signal combo's which would require two leads and a ground.

Any common yellow lense signals only require two leads, power and ground. On my 750, the ground is actually a second wire with eyelet that attaches to the signal stem at the mounting point, and not physically part of the signal.

If your old signals were completely plastic stemed, that may explain the need for the ground running all the way to the bulb socket.

I have seen signal/running light conversions in the past, but most will be with red lenses. It is technically illegal in most states to run "constant on" amber lights on the rear of a vehicle.

ghwrenchit

[Bucko]

I forgot about you Americans having silly coloured running lights.
I am used to Australia where we have red at the back for a tail light and brake light and amber on either side for indicators.

[ghwrenchit]

I forgot about you Americans having silly coloured running lights.
I am used to Australia where we have red at the back for a tail light and brake light and amber on either side for indicators.

That is the typical way here as well. All I was trying to cover was potential mods from a previous owner. the std is Red - Tail/Stop, Amber - Turn.

ghwrenchit

[ironash]

I know what you need to do

I have an 80 GS450 and I just took off the stock turn signals, front and back, and replaced them with LED's. The stock lights have one wire/black coming from the end of the light, the light is then grounded to the bike. The "hot wires" can just be hooked up but for the ground the end of the stock ground, the white/black, has/had a large ring at the end of the wire, this ring when over the threads/bolt part of the taillight. When mounted you would a washer, the gound wire/ring, probably another washer and whatever was used to mount it to the bike. Hope that helps. If I wasnt at work I could take a quick pic of my stock parts and how its suppose to look

http://suzukioemparts.com/parts-browse.asp

go to this site and click the look up parts on the left side and find your bike, they give manual like pics to find parts and I jut looked up the taillight on my bike and you can see the wires and how they are mounted.

[ron bayless]

thanks guys.i tried using the lights,the new ones, without the black white ground wire being hooked up, but the lights didnt work.i think they are needing to be secured into the fender for grounding.thanks for the answers.