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WorkShop > Yankee Intruder > Signal Replacement

The Yankee Intruder
by; C. Gustave Sandberg (Sandy)

WorkShop@YankeeCruisah.com
Yankee Signal Light Replacement
Remove the 'Out-rigger' look and add safety to the Rear Signal Lights.

Intro
I've always thought the Signal Lights looked a bit like pontoons, or maybe wings sticking out of the sides of a cool-looking narrow bike.
 At first I was going to change them to some Week End Concepts bullet lamps, but the co$t is $$$. and I only was willing to go about $$.
Of course you can do the same modification to the rear lights as we did to the front ones as described in the Yankee Signal Light modification.
However, we also wanted to add some running lights to the rear, and that required a red lens on the lamp. Well JC Whitney came through. They have a $10 wedge shaped, dual filament light that has a 3/8" stud mount. It has a red lens, and the light output is comparable to the stock lights.
 ie. the stock lights are 21W signal and 6W running,
the new lights are 18W signal and 6W running.
The new lights draw enough current so the signals should flash at the proper rate, thus eliminating the need to go to a new Solid-State flasher module. They're not DOT so you'll have to deal with your inspector to see if they care, but with the high light output of these, they probably won't even notice. Now $10 isn't free, but it is pretty inexpensive for this purpose.

Description
This is another 'on-the-bike' modification. That is, you can do this in a short time, and you don't have to pull the bike apart to do it.
The rear lights are held onto the bike with a rubber shock mount. This rubber mount is molded to a stud that gets staked into the chrome support. We can remove this rubber, and tap the mount to accept the 3/8" stud.

Tools Needed

Procedure
All the wiring for the rear lights is under the rear (pillion) seat.
Briefly, to access the wiring, you must: remove the rear seat back,
unlock the secret tool compartment in the sissy bar-back rest,
remove the wing nut holding the rear seat on,
(note: you have replaced that 6mm bolt going down with a longer one coming up, and used a wing-nut to hold on the rear seat HAVEN"T YOU ? ? ),
lift off the rear seat, and stand petrified in fear of the mass of wires you've uncovered.
Once you re-gain your composure, you want to trace the wire group from each of the signal lights.
They should attach to the harness in a 2 pin-type connectors.
We won't do anything here until after the new lights are mounted, so you can breath easier for a moment.

Now we get rid of those wings: read on.

Please read through this and visualize it before doing any cutting.
If you can't 'see' it, send me an email so I can clarify it for you, remember;
Measure twice, cut once (you only have one shot at it.)

* Remove the Lamp assembly . . . screwdriver.
The lamp assembly is connected to the rubber mount with a phillips head screw in the housing.
After pulling the assembly away from the mount, I just cut the wires off at a convenient (but repairable) length. Then pull the wire harness back through the mount, and let them dangle under the fender.
 Original Light

Stock lamp removed This is Rubber Isolator.
After the Lamp Assembly is removed. The mounting stud is hidden under the rubber where it attaches to the frame.

* Cut off the Rubber mount . . . knife
Carefully cut a couple of slices out of the rubber mount down to the inner metal stud.
Bend the mount forward to 'break' it off the stud. 		Cut rubber Mount

Mounting Stud This is the metal stud.
After the rubber is removed. You can see the hole that the original wires went through. All we have to do is 'open this hole' up a bit to accept the tap.

* Drill and Tap . . . 5/16" drill, 3/8"x16 tap and handle
Drill the hole out to 5/16" (0.3125")
Tap the hole carefully. This appears to be brass or a soft metal, so the tapping can go deceivably easy, but stop often to clear the hole of chips, and oil the tap.
You don't want to play the "how do I get a broken tap outa there" game.
Tap the hole all the way through, with at least 5/8" or good thread. 		Tap . . . Tap . . . Tap

New Light * Attach the Lamp
After the tapping is cleared, the wires are fed through the hole, and new lamp is screwed into the mount.
Alignment to the rear should be when the lamp is pretty tight to the mount. If this can't be set, you can carefully turn the lamps stud 1/4 turn, and try for a better alignment.
I plan to cover the remaining section of the stud with a black heat shrinkable plastic tube, but it can easily be covered by a layer of black electrical tape.

* Wire the Lamps
I attached the lamps Black and Red wire to the existing wire harness.
The Red wire of the lamp goes to the Black/White stripe of the harness.
The Black wire of the lamp goes to the 'other' wire.
I use the term 'other' color as the left and right side have different colors.
On mine (and it does seem to be consistant)
the right-signal wire is Light Green (Lg), and the left-signal is Black (B).
From here on I'll list the color in parens ( ) that are on my version. 

  A word of note here, as this may have some questioning this move.
   Putting on the electrical instructors hat for a moment,
   The original lamp had two wires from it, hot and ground.
   This was required because the rubber mount
      insulated the lamp from the chassis.
   The new lamp has two wires, but 3 electrical connections.
   The wires are Hot-signal (Black), Hot-Running (Red),
      and the stud mount-Ground.
   The ground is made through the chassis,
      so all we have to do is attach our Hots.
   The original Hot-Signal is the 'other' color wire
      of the two in the harness.
   The Black/White wire is (for now) the ground connection.
   We don't need this wire ground,
      so we can use the wire for the Hot-Running connection.
* Connect to Wire Harness
When those connections are made, the wires under the fender can be tucked back up, and we move our attention to the mess under the rear seat again.
The Black/White wire from each side are connected to a common connector (ground). You can either use this connector or remove both (B/W) wires and wire directly. I cut loose the common (B/W)connector and taped the loose-unused end. Locate the wire going to the license plate lamp, The non-Black/White wire (Brown on mine) is the constant power to the running lights. Attach both the Black/White wires from the new signals to this 'other' color (Br) wire using solder, crimp, or what ever you feel comfortable with. If you use wire nuts, also wrap the wire and nut with tape to keep the nut from vibrating off. Wire nuts are not recommended for use on motor vehicles.
The 'other' color (Lg for right)(B for left) wires stay in the connectors where they were originally. 		Original Wiring Detail

New Wiring Detail * Test the Wiring
Before you tuck everything back under the seat, why not give it a try?
Do a quick (but thorough) inspection of your new connections and make sure there are no dangling wires, or possible shorts.
The low intensity filaments should light up as soon as the key is on,
and the signals should flash the brighter side of the bulb.
The signals should flash normally, if not,
the problem is probably the Red and Black wires on the new lights are reversed.
Simply reverse the (B/W) and (other color) connections to get the brighter filament to be the signal, and the dimmer filament to be the running lights.
There you have it. Fancy new slimmer Signals, and running lights to boot.
All for the unbelievably low price of under $20,
and about an hour's time.

pssst. hey you . . . yeah you,
how would you like those nifty new lights to operate as brake lights too.
yeah? ya would?
well just take a gander over here, and I'll sure yah.

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