Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech How the heck do I take the taillight posts out ??p

How the hell do I take the taillight chrome post out of the license plate bracket??? I feel like im gonna break something and all i wanna do is put on my shiny new chrome licemnse bracket!...help??

I figure you mean the turn signals brackets? Remove the license plate, unplug the wires, put a wrench on the nut and remove. Repeat for the other side.

Hey Itlnstalian....when you have it on could you do me a favor and post a pic? I've been considering one of those for a long while but i just can't envision it well enough to know if i'd prefer it over the stock black. And yes, as Phil said you just take the plate off and inside there are nuts holding them on. The wires also plug in so no soldering or any of that, just unplug em.

I know what you are talking about. It is not as simple as just putting a wrench to the nut and removing it. I know the darn thing wont turn will it? Or the whole assembly just turns huh? I didn't need my long chrome light extensions anymore because I put way smaller ones in. Sooooo... I was able to put a monkey wrench on the posts and destroy them to figure it out.
They use some sort of glue (not locktite either) to hold the threads together. It was very hard, clear glue. I could not unscrew that nut without holding the post, and still, that was difficult. There is a slot on the end of the post but all you do is destroy that because it requires more force to turn the nut than there is strength of the slot.
I wish I could give you a option that wouldn't involve clamping down a grip on the post and scratching it, while turning the nut, but I had found no other option. I have no idea why they made this so tough.
But the post is threaded to the light and to the nut! So it is suppose to just unscrew like normal. F.Y.I.

Here's a sorta pic but this is more for Ryan. Benny, if you are looking, notice the isolation diodes...

Poor shot of the nuts holding the signal stems on:

I ended up getting vice grips and just clamping done on the threads while wrnching the other end...didnt strip the threads thank god

Guess i got lucky, mine came off easy.

It was a beatch huh Ryan. Some are tough and it sure leaves us awefully close to damaging stuff. I wish mine were as easy too. Like I said, I destroyed mine with scratches to get it off. You've done good mate. Now go ride ride ride and shine the sun in the people behind you's eyes with your new bling bling.

Had no real problem swopping mine to a chrome one on my 2004 BA, might be because it was one of the first things I changed after buying the bike. I also put the chrome one on and put plenty of Copper coat all over the threads, just incase it has to come off again...

Every nut/bolt I take off gets coated in copper coat, before I put it back on

Mine was on a brand spankin new 06 TBA. I changed those stoopid elephant ear signals off the rear right away, then went the stoopid front enduro signals on the handle bars. I shrunk them and moved those to next to the headlights. (as you can probably tell, i didn't like the stock signals at all).
So I know it wasn't time, dirt, frozen, rusted etc.. They glued them suckers to the threads with some He-Man stuff!!
Maybe it's the "new thing"? Ryan what years your scooter?
Just for future reference. I still have a little room in my brain for information to be stored.

Getting the stalks out of the chrome plate holder is easy. Getting the stalks off the LIGHTS is another story. Shari and I had a time of it. I remember how I did it. I toob BOTH the nuts from the two stalks and cranked them together on one as a jam nut, then put the light in my bench vice with the rubber jap pads. Came right out. A little heat helped with the glue. Then take the nuts off, rinse repeat.

Phil, all I see is a red X...

Still?

Phil, pic is good now thanks. So you just popped those diodes inline on the hot side of each rear signal? None in front?

yep, more or less. Here's the schematic I drew for the write-up.

Phil, I was looking at old posting and saw your schematic with the diodes in the tail light. It looks to me that anytime the running lights are on the turn light will not work. I'm going to replace my sockets and would like to run something like you did, brake, turn and running. How does your setup work? thanks, Bob

Oooh, Phil, that's nice and cleverly done. Kudos.

Yes and no Robert!

There's enough of a drop on them that the filament will turn off and on. However, there is enough juice getting through from the run that it does not turn them completely off so it's not as distinct as regular turn lights but they do suffice. I was mainly going for run and brake anyway.

However, I have been thinking about re-doing them to eliminate this 'problem'. I just have to get some time to sit down and draw it up. The biggest problem with our bikes is the way things are wired. It was literally trial end error with the isolation diodes to get it working. When I first hooked everything up, the turn signal activated the brake light!!

Working through it, I added the diodes to eliminate feedback and you see the result. There has to be a better way though....