Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Help With Lights

I am installing my light bar and have a small indecision. I have JC Whitney 4.5" shells with a sealed beam bulb. The ground wire (black)with spade is affixed to the shell.
The hot wire (white) with spade goes out the bottom of the shell. Both spades are to be screwed to lugs on the sealed beam in no particular orientation (?).
I beleive I'm ok with just splicing the two hot leads to the high beam of the headlight. Is this a feasable idea?
Does anyone know which wire in the headlight wiring gob within the shell is hot for the high beam? Or does anybody have a better idea?
Thanks, ModelMaker

Hi Ed,

I am not sure what wattage your lamps are but my 5" JC Whitney's are 55w and I am drawing over 8 amps. This is way too much for the stock wiring and that is why I ran wires (12v & ground and fused the hot one) directly from the battery. Ran the grounds up to a switch on the console so I can control the lights.

Here is a pic of a wiring diagram I captured awhile ago and is from one of our members here. Darned if I can remember who! Perhaps they will chime in?



If I remember it right, you can control lights on or off, and it kills the lights when starting even when they are on. An excellent method...

Yeah, I have a copy of that also, it's from member Hank, according to my notes. It just looks so overwhelming. I suppose that if I went to Radio Shack tommorrow they could load me up with stuff and I could inch my way through it though.
I'll have to sleep on it tonight.
Thanks, ModelMaker

I can help you with it if you need.

Email me and I will give you my phone number.

You can do eet!!

Ed i prewired my bike for a set of 55 watt lights from jc whitney(still waiting for the lightbar). if you go to radioshack, buy a smaller 30 amp three prong rocker switch(you should already have the wiring and fuse)than what came with the kit. remove the rubber cover where the clock adjuster is located and carefully sand down the ridges until the surface is flat, then using a step drill bit enlarge the hole just large enough to slip the connectors through tighten it up and your done. everything will look like it was production and the wires will lay under your console. by the way don't forget to remove the fuse from the hot wire until you're done. if you check out my pic you will see the rocker switch placement.

Ed,

The quick way is to slide(and consequently it pinches) a hot wire into the low-beam triple socket inside the headlight shell. Then bolt a push-button switch in that dummy hole on the left side of the chrome tank instrument panel. Run the wire that comes out of the headlight shell to the switch and the hot wires from the light bar to the switch. It's also a good idea to have a fuse between the headlight and the switch.

To tidy up the whole affair, heat-shrink tubing should be used.

Don't worry. It's pretty easy.

Dwight
(soldier....I mean....solder on, my friend)

Phil, I tried to use your email address and it won't send. Maybe you could sent your phone no. to my email.
rmtnest@mchsi.com
Thanks, Ed