wiring rear running lights question

[Redshirt]

I have an unusual setup for the rear lights. The PO drilled holes in the brake housing and put in running lights.
The running lights have a single wire to the bulb seat.
The Turn signals are in there original place attached to the frame with their respective wires running to proper locations (i.e. not tapped into the brake wires).

Im currently cleaning up the POs wire mess in the brake housing and thought Id ask if this is going to explode when I turn the key.
PO had 3 wires wrapped around 3 different bolts (attempt to ground?).
Should I ground running lights to fender? If so, how and where do I put it?

[psycoreefer]

if the running lights only have 1 wire then they are probably designed to ground through the "stalks". I seen a lot designed that way.

As for what you should do - I like to have my stuff actually grounded so when I added running lights I connected my ground wires to the ground wire that runs to the rear for the brake and tail light.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Redshirt,

The rear turns are often grounded thru a large washer on the INSIDE of the fender around the signal stalk, but it gets dirty under there, and rusts/corrodes, and that's where a lot of folks' grounds go bad.

You can attach a wire to a good frame grounded bolt somewhere under the seat, and then run the wires to the lights if you want.

The thing to think about is how much power drain the extra running lights will put on your system? How many watts are the bulbs. Many are about 8 watts, which is 3/4 amp per bulb ALL THE TIME drain. Remember that the XS's charging system is rather weak, not much room for adding extra lights without overloading/draining the battery.

I burned out a Reg/Rect unit on mine by adding a pair of running lights, along with some aux driving lights. SO....you might want to look into converting to LED's for the running lights and brake lights!

T.C.

[cywelchjr]

That or doing the alternator mod that you're in the process of developing and documenting.

[Redshirt]

Ohhh THOSE washers. I will clean it up under there and put those back in then
I planned on putting LEDs in the rear running lights. Mylocal Autozone has some 1156R Superbright LED replacements in stock and I almost bought them today. Tomorrow I will go back and get them.

Im still alittle confused about if I should ground ... something... with an additional wire to ??? something?

What if I tried this:

1. Take a wire
2. wrap a stripped portion under the fender bolt
3. run it under the fender
4. up into the brake light housing
5. connect it to a bolt that secures brake light housing to fender

will that work?

[natemoen]

That would work but you could also run it to a bolt closer to where the light is. it does not have to be run all the way to the brake light housing.

[crazy steve]

Uhhh... there should be a black ground wire in the taillight housing already...

Why would you need another ground?

[Redshirt]

Uhhh... there should be a black ground wire in the taillight housing already...

Why would you need another ground?

The ground that exists runs directly from the bike into a bullet connector for the brake tail only. Not to the running lights. Those are single wire (purple ones in the pic). The only thing I did was remove the 3 loose/underbolt wires he had strung up.
All the connections Ive made are the 2 running lights into the blue wire and the blue wire to its fender blue wire bullet connector.
There might be some "magic" that makes that one ground connection good for them all, but color me stupid 'cause I dont know squat.

What Im really asking is If I can run these as illustrated with no additional wires inserted into the mix.

[cywelchjr]

The ground that exists runs directly from the bike into a bullet connector for the brake tail only. Not to the running lights. Those are single wire (purple ones in the pic). The only thing I did was remove the 3 loose/underbolt wires he had strung up.
All the connections Ive made are the 2 running lights into the blue wire and the blue wire to its fender blue wire bullet connector.
There might be some "magic" that makes that one ground connection good for them all, but color me stupid 'cause I dont know squat.

What Im really asking is If I can run these as illustrated with no additional wires inserted into the mix.

You generally want to have as few separate ground runs as you can, you can get what's called a "ground loop" if you have too many of them, and that can cause other electronics problems. That's why you want to get to the frame as quickly as possible, as it's a single ground.