Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Pre trip maintenance and upgrades.

Well I checked my valves and at 12,773 miles they are all within spec, wired up a set of Kuryakyn halogen silver bullets using the factory harness for the Triumph light bar and I have no lights??? The relay doesn't cycle unless there is a test light attached to the output side of the relay and even when the relay cycles the lights don't come on. Any ideas?

You got 'er wired up wrong, what can I say.

Is it the OEM relay or aftermarket?
Did you use the OEM harness or make your own?

Check fuse 8 for good luck, and note switch wiring.

I'm using the triumph light bar harness, with a quality aftermarket toggle switch and relay. All the fuses are good. I've been over the wiring three times all connections are correct and have continuity across the connection, they are also soldered and covered with heat shrink tubing. There is power through the switch and into the relay, but the only way the relay will cycle is if a test light is attached to the output terminal, I swapped the headlight and light bar relays to eliminate the possibility of a defective relay. No issues with the headlight with the new relay, same issue with the light bar regardless of which relay is used.

If the relay cycles when you attach a test light to the output terminal (assuming that is the output for the coil part of the relay), the relay isn't finding a ground. It is finding a ground through the testlight.

Anyone know if the relay Triumph uses is the same as a standard Bosch relay?

Because you say that it works if there is a test light attached Im wondering if your relay is the wrong relay or wired incorrectly.

All I can think of is to tell you to verify this:
(by pulling the relay you'll see small numbers by each of the connectors on the relay).
85/86 - these are your trigger wires (one black and one brown, doesn't matter which goes where) and should be attached to the toggle switch wires (red and brown wires in side the left spot lamp housing).
87 - power. Should be the violet wire.
87a - not used
30 - output to lights. Should be the blue wire(s)

Heres a digram of a typical Bosch (and most other aftermarket) relays. I have seen some relays look like these on the outside but be very different in the layout.

That is odd you'd think Tequila would cause you to type with a Mexican accent. I can't drink the stuff myself, I seem to be allergic to it. It causes me to suffer such maladies as bruising, lacerations, contusions and incarceration.

If your test light will light up at the bulb's connection points, (where hot meets ground) then I have to wonder:

The Triumph harness and relay are intended at the OEM level for a 2 X 35 watt load. If your bulbs are 55 watt, I wonder if the higher load befuddles the relay? Just a guess 'cause I'm not much of a relay guy.

The relay I'm using is a Standard Ignition brand RY115T, I've been using the same relay in the headlamp circuit for over a year now with no issues. Internally it does match the O.E. relay, I swapped the two relays with no result, that would seem to indicate it's not a faulty relay. As far as wiring I've verified all connections by color, both grounds in the light bar harness are attached to the housings along with the bulb grounds, unless the harness itself has an issue I'm not sure whats up.
The test light triggering it leads me to believe it's a ground issue as well, so I'm going to tap into terminal 85 to ground it and see what happens.

We'll, once I realized that my lights, were isolated from ground by the nylon liners inside the fork clamps of my windshield mounts, it was pretty simple to get them working. I added a ground from the mounting bolts to the head light cross bolt and behold there was light!!!
With that out of the way I decided to start on a battery cover, borrowed a friends shear/brake and cut and formed the piece out of 20 gauge sheet steel, brought it home and decided it needed a little trimming on the corners.
That's when the trouble started. Shortly after fetching my trusty tin snips and another Groelsch, I was bleeding profusely and in need of 6 stitches in my right pointer finger.
Best part is I actually had to move my gloves to get my snips, "nah I won't need those" I thought. Oh well, I'm old enough to know better.

Oh, the good news is my battery cover is gonna turn out pretty nice, I've double coated it with primer , wet sanded, and the first coat of paint is drying now. Gonna have some pin stripping of some sort on either side of the chrome strap. Haven't decided just what I wanna do there yet, any suggestions?

Got my T bird risers ( that's another thread in customs ) and Go Cruise throttle control today, They both seem to work well, I really like the risers.
Changed plans on the battery cover, cut up a brushed stainless kick plate for an entry door and formed a new one, It matches the fork shrouds pretty well, and looks better than the painted one. I figure I can swap em back and forth to change up the look.
Installed a Yuasa YTZ 12 S battery, I used electrical tape wrapped 3/4 inch styrofoam as a spacer under the battery, worked perfectly, and the bike starts noticeably quicker.

After hitting the interstate for about 50 miles this afternoon, I've decided I like the cruise control, but I think a pad added to the lower prong that could be pushed with the thumb to release it would be a good idea. You can release it by thumb as is but it would be nice to have a larger surface there. It couldn't hurt to have that option in addition to rolling off the throttle to release it.

I thought the same thing Bucky, that's why I simply tied the harness ground to the bulb ground at the attachment point in the housing. After realizing the housings were isolated I figured it couldn't hurt to ground them.
It's interesting you brought this up, I've been contemplating the idea that I got a harness with a faulty ground circuit.

Got my protac back rest from Fast Eddie today, installed it immediately and went for a ride, I really like it!!! Thanx Eddie. That pretty well finishes up everything I wanted to get done before I head west. All that's left is to rack up some miles and re torque everything before I leave.