Pacifico LED Conversion

[natemoen]

I have brought this up in the past some but I want to go a little deeper and actually get this done finally.

I already have replaced the side marker lights on my Pacifico fairing with LEDs and found that Blazer product C555A is a perfect replacement for the whole light fixture. It is the exact size and style as the original light.I had talked before about making the side marker light flash with the turn signals and now is that time.

So when I am going to do this I need to also make the forward facing clearance/turn lights LED as well. For the life of me I cannot find a light that is the same size as that stupid light. It is 3 15/16" X 2 15/16" call it 3x4 or whatever but I cannot find an amber colored clearance/turn light anywhere! So if any of you know of one LET ME KNOW!

Anyways, since I can't find a light to replace that forward facing one with and those spendy little 1157 LED bulbs suck (not bright at all) I figure I will have to make something. So what I was thinking was I could take 2 separate LED panels and wire one to the clearance light circuit and another to the turn signal circuit and then mount the panels inside the light housing right up by the reflector. Then add in a solid state NC relay to the ground wire on the side marker light that is triggered by the turn signal circuit to make it flash.

Problem is if it doesn't work I might not be able to go back to the original way, and if this still is not bright I might be screwed so I am using you all to bounce ideas off of.

[motoman]

I have brought this up in the past some but I want to go a little deeper and actually get this done finally.

I already have replaced the side marker lights on my Pacifico fairing with LEDs and found that Blazer product C555A is a perfect replacement for the whole light fixture. It is the exact size and style as the original light.I had talked before about making the side marker light flash with the turn signals and now is that time.

So when I am going to do this I need to also make the forward facing clearance/turn lights LED as well. For the life of me I cannot find a light that is the same size as that stupid light. It is 3 15/16" X 2 15/16" call it 3x4 or whatever but I cannot find an amber colored clearance/turn light anywhere! So if any of you know of one LET ME KNOW!

Anyways, since I can't find a light to replace that forward facing one with and those spendy little 1157 LED bulbs suck (not bright at all) I figure I will have to make something. So what I was thinking was I could take 2 separate LED panels and wire one to the clearance light circuit and another to the turn signal circuit and then mount the panels inside the light housing right up by the reflector. Then add in a solid state NC relay to the ground wire on the side marker light that is triggered by the turn signal circuit to make it flash.

Problem is if it doesn't work I might not be able to go back to the original way, and if this still is not bright I might be screwed so I am using you all to bounce ideas off of.

Leave it stock, mount a tail trunk with a recessed 4-5 led addional brake lite, and aviod riding after dark.......bounce.......bounce....

[DiverRay]

Nate,
Spend some money on the 1157 LED bulbs and they WILL work. The cheap ones are junk, as a friend of mine found out. He bought a pair for his Datsun Roadster, and you could NOT see them unless you were in line with the bulbs. As the lights on the car are about 16" above the ground, they didn't work. He then spent more money, and bought the bulbs that have the LED's in a globe pattern. The lights work well, and do NOT take as much juice as the stock.
Just my $0.02..

[natemoen]

Leave it stock, mount a tail trunk with a recessed 4-5 led addional brake lite, and aviod riding after dark.......bounce.......bounce....

That reminds me, I was going to buy a trunk from someone after I moved....well I am moved.

Nate,
Spend some money on the 1157 LED bulbs and they WILL work. The cheap ones are junk, as a friend of mine found out. He bought a pair for his Datsun Roadster, and you could NOT see them unless you were in line with the bulbs. As the lights on the car are about 16" above the ground, they didn't work. He then spent more money, and bought the bulbs that have the LED's in a globe pattern. The lights work well, and do NOT take as much juice as the stock.
Just my $0.02..

Bulbs I tried were about $20 each and had something like 36 LEDs each all around and on the tip. They just didn't do it for me.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Nate,

I've told folks about superbrightleds for years. See this link:

These come in Yellow and are ~2" x 4", just a little narrower than your stock, but you could probably come up with something for a border!?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...ye-marker/596/

These are a little larger at 3.4" x 5.3, but have a lot more LEDS!

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...ruck-lamp/563/

This one is also ~2" x 4" but has 14 LEDS instead of 9.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...rker-lamp/587/

The other idea like you said was to use a separate socket/bulb array designed LED bulb assembly so you can keep the OEM socket, and mount the led array to the surface of the reflector housing.

See this link!

http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...-pcb-lamp/502/

T.C.

[natemoen]

TC, none of those lights work. Larger is imposible due to space constraints and smaller would look a little weird for the same reason, just because the stock light fill the entire area.

[GLoweVA]

Pics Nate! We need pics.
I'm not sure what the Pacifico fairing looks like so I can't offer any advice as to what to try.

[natemoen]

Best I have at the moment.

[GLoweVA]

Nate, are those the same size as the standard signals?
i.e. are the lens covers the same?
Are the internal dimensions about the same size as the standard square/retangular lights?
Could you modify one of those to fit in there?

[natemoen]

The lenses are the same (meant to be interchangeable) . Interior dimensions are different than the regular tun signals. The fairing lights have more depth to the housing since the bulb comes in from the back but the width of the housing is smaller in the fairing.

So if someone made a LED board light for the Pacifico fairing it could also be used for the stock signals, but probably not the other way around.

[TopCatGr58]

So if someone made a LED board light for the Pacifico fairing it could also be used for the stock signals, but probably not the other way around.

Nate,

Did you see/look at my last LINK to the superbrightleds site? It IS the separate PCB type board with 9 high intensity LEDS on a separate board connected to a socket with some wires...so you could position the light board to just INSIDE The reflector housing, and then just plug the bulb base into the socket if it's an 1156 type? They also had 1157 styles!

T.C.

[natemoen]

Nate,

Did you see/look at my last LINK to the superbrightleds site? It IS the separate PCB type board with 9 high intensity LEDS on a separate board connected to a socket with some wires...so you could position the light board to just INSIDE The reflector housing, and then just plug the bulb base into the socket if it's an 1156 type? They also had 1157 styles!

T.C.

Yup, I saw it. They don't have an amber 1157, only white and red. One thing you never do with LEDs is put a white LED behind a colored lens.

[natemoen]

Ok so I figured I would give Superbrights 1157 bulbs a chance before I get to deep into this. When I put the LED bulb in and try the turn signals it makes The rear signal go real dim and they flash slow. I remember I did have this problem with some of the other bulbs that I have tried in the past but I never figured out why it happens.

So WTF guys? What is the problem, I am guessing this would probably happen if I did the panels as well so I might as well figure it out now.

[natemoen]

The led is on the right turn signal and a regular incandescent bulb is in the left turn signal. The led is misleadingly bright looking in this video. Also, you can hear the flasher clicking with the incandescent bulb then not clicking with the led bulb. The flasher is electronic flasher ( Buss 232 part number).

[natemoen]

So here is the same video from the rear, exept both in the back are led already, left front is incandescent and right front is led. You can also see that the right is always on even when it should be off.