What did you do to your bike today?

[Petersg_99]

Do you have a multi-meter? If you do, monitor the 12V while the system is doing the undesirable behavior. The voltage should stay around 12V, if it drops way down, that will tell you if the system is overloaded.

You could also do a clip on ammeter if you could find the feed wires.

An easy first stab at trouble shooting would be to just take the bulbs out of the new saddlebags and see if everything starts working like it did before. I'll bet it's not the new saddlebags, but something else.

Are those the little bags they show here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BLACK-MOTORC...d7efc7&vxp=mtr

They look pretty good in the photos. How do you like them?

Got the little bags installed and wired today.......

Need a little advice from you electrickery gurus. The lights aren't working like they should. I believe that all the lighting I have now is overwhelming the charging system but I'm not absolutely sure.

Here's the deal.

Before the change I had running lights on the fairing, tail light, headlight, TS, and brake light. All worked well together but had some dimming of running,head and tail when TS were on.

Now with the lighted bags there are tail lights, ts, and brake lights in the bags along with what I had before. I installed a foreign car TS/BL adapter but now the TS work but are very dim and dim all other lights when flashing and stop flashing all together when the brake light is thrown into the mix.

Am I over loading the system? Do I need to see about another adapter? If I change the bulbs to LED's and put in an electronic flasher will that fix it?

Input please.

[fredintoon]

- - - Am I over loading the system? Do I need to see about another adapter? If I change the bulbs to LED's and put in an electronic flasher will that fix it? - - -

Hi Greg,
try this; jump the bike battery with a car battery or hook up a big charger to give the system more amps than it can suck down and try the lights again.
If the symptoms persist you have skinny wiring/bad contacts/bad ground problems.
If the symptoms clear up she's plain ol' overloaded and it's LED time.

[BA80]

Do you have a multi-meter? If you do, monitor the 12V while the system is doing the undesirable behavior. The voltage should stay around 12V, if it drops way down, that will tell you if the system is overloaded.

You could also do a clip on ammeter if you could find the feed wires.

An easy first stab at trouble shooting would be to just take the bulbs out of the new saddlebags and see if everything starts working like it did before. I'll bet it's not the new saddlebags, but something else.

Are those the little bags they show here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BLACK-MOTORC...d7efc7&vxp=mtr

They look pretty good in the photos. How do you like them?

Yup, those are the ones. They seem to be OK. The brackets that come with them are crap so I used an old set of brackets for some regular bags to mount them.

Not nearly as gawdy as regular bags. Big enough for a 12 pack and ice each though.

Hi Greg,
try this; jump the bike battery with a car battery or hook up a big charger to give the system more amps than it can suck down and try the lights again.
If the symptoms persist you have skinny wiring/bad contacts/bad ground problems.
If the symptoms clear up she's plain ol' overloaded and it's LED time.

..

I'm leaning towards the adapter I got Fred. I got it at AutoZone and it had been opened and looked like it had been installed then returned. I'll see if I can find another one tomorrow.

However, the lights did brighten up and flash better when I reved the engine. Still stopped flashing when the brake was applied though.

[Cuda 69]

sounds like an overload problem Greg,you installed the 1157's in the bags,right?

[BA80]

Yup...............

[Brent]

Electricky guidelines

Hi Greg,
try this; jump the bike battery with a car battery or hook up a big charger to give the system more amps than it can suck down and try the lights again.
If the symptoms persist you have skinny wiring/bad contacts/bad ground problems.
If the symptoms clear up she's plain ol' overloaded and it's LED time.

Hi Greg,
Both causes are likely to varying degree. The electrical system output increases with rpm. (lights dim at idle)

OK - I added 100 watt additional load (2 50 watt fog lights) to my 80XS1100SG. Electrical systemwas able to keep up; bike worked then

Not OK - I doubled draw on system by changing to 2 100 watt lights. Electrical system kept up with demand at highway speed, but not around town. Batery voltage dropped until motor sputtered and quit. (turn off lights, push bike off use lights sparingly, especially at idle...good to go.)

For me 100 watts added was OK. 200w was not.

1157 brake lights are usually 27 watt I imagine turn signals are about the same.

Wiring in XS1100s is adequate if connections are CLEAN "shiney" and tight. If those connections have been in any weather and are 30 years old they are suspect. Less power draw using LED bulbs may work better if connections are poor. Also extra power in with car battery may overcome some bad connections. Dirty corroded loose connections and bad grounds will cause trouble eventually if not corrected.
Example; I believe Bohn Frazier had a bad reserve light unit switch. 12 volts went in to it, but far less came out. His headlight was quite dim and his stator worked itself to death. A new battery in Mindon NB got him back on road...for a while.

My automobile turn signals, flashers, tail lights, dash lights, dome lights, key left in warning ding ding, maybe more all quit. All began working fine after I cleaned ground connection on fender near battery. easy, 15 minutes. I did work on it for about 2 days doing other stuff first.

Recommendation for any electricky problems. Check/clean grounds.

Intermittent problems that vary acording to voltage demands, power availability, vibration, temperature and humidity can drive you crazy. Poor connections & floating poor ground connections can do that.

good luck wrenching

[BA80]

OK. I've concluded that the problem is a faulty trailer converter. I took it out and hard wired the bags and all works well exept without the trailer converter the brakelights in the bags don't work.

I need to find a different converter. Can anyone hook me up?

None of the parts stores or hardware stores I checked has one. There is a couple trailer places I can check tomorrow though.

[Cuda 69]

is it just the regular 4 prong Greg?

[BA80]

This is what I had on there.....



I ordered another one today off Amazon that's just 3 wires in and 2 out. It was only $15 shipped so we'll see how that one works out.

[Petersg_99]

Are you trying to get the hard bags to light when you turn and when you brake? They only have a single element bulb?

I'm confused because the bike has separate brake and turn signal lines...

[CaptonZap]

Are you trying to get the hard bags to light when you turn and when you brake? They only have a single element bulb?

I'm confused because the bike has separate brake and turn signal lines...

I think his bags have two filament bulbs, and he needs three. Brake, turn, running.
The adapters combine the three into two, so that the brake and turn share a filament, and the running has it's own.
I think.
Greg will have to tell us for sure.
Personally, I'd get some LED lights and cut them into the bags, and use them for brake, and the two in the original bulbs as turn and running. CZ

[BA80]

Yup, your correct CZ. That is what the converter does.

It shuts off the brake light in the side the turn signal is turn on. I replaced the single element bulbs with dual element 1157 bulbs. When I get it working correctly I will have turn, brake, and running lights in the bag mounted lights. It was working with the converter I had in there but there is some kind of internal malfunction in the unit and it dimming the lights and wasn't working properly. Even with the brake light disconnected they were feeding back.

Right now I have running lights and TS in the bags and hopefully the new converter I have coming will get all 3 brake lights working.

[BA80]

Got the side covers and tank for the SF cleared with SprayMax 2K. Gonna wait a week or so for it to dry good then I'll sand and polish. (The black cover is for my SG I just got from another member)

[motoman]

Just a thought Greg, the automotive type bulbs have more amp load than the motorcycle specific bulbs due to differences of filliment. Sounds like with things lit up, the system is at its max. of alt. output or just beyond. The motorcycle specific equivalent bulbs would likely keep it at or under the max. load, and still keep the stock signal canceling system without having to go to LED's and losing the use of the self-canceler.

[BA80]

Well I have everything but the BL in the bags working right now and everything is bright and flashing good. With the converter in there everthing was feeding back and you couldn't see the TS when they were flashing. I'm fairly certain it's a bad converter.