I bought a couple of 55 watt 12 volt spotlights and I'm quite the novice when it comes to electrical. I just spoke to a kawasaki mechanic and he told me to splice the spots into the starter wires that run into the headlight. I was originally going to splice into the headlight but I don't want to drain the battery. I noticed a distribution box running from the starter wires... can I just plug them into that, or do I need to just splice into the wires? Also, when I splice can I run two pos. (one from each spot) into one pos. from the starter and same with the neg.? All I have is a pos. and neg. wire coming out of the spot. Any suggestions on how to wire this thing? The mechanic also said not to worry about a relay box. Any help would be great... thanks!
55 w spots will be a big drain on the system. Go over to the mods/tips section of the web site and look in the electrical/lighting section. There are several tips and instructions for adding spots.
http://www.vulcandrifterriders.com/reviewpost/showcat.php/cat/65 (3 pages)
Probably the best wire to tap into for power is the blue wire with the yellow stripe in your headlight bucket. It only gets power after the starter has been hit, so it won't draw power away from starting the bike, and it automatically turns the lights off when you turn the key off.
I ran the two red wires (one from each spotlight) into a male connector and plugged it into the blue and yellow wire with the female connector. Where should I put the two black wires, can those be used as a ground?
I ran them through a relay to the battery. I followed this: http://www.gadgetjq.com/wiredrivinglights.htm (Sorry Chief)
We have several gadget pages reproduced here (with his permission). There is a lot of information to share and we store some of his here to avoid using his bandwidth... which he has to pay for. All of these pages have attributions and links to the original gadget page is they are his. This page is in the queue for inclusion now.
I will once again warn folks about 55w spots (or if not in the light bar area - driving lights). The drifter will not support a lot of extra wattage so be VERY careful or you may end up on a dark highway outta juice.
After quite a bit of fidgeting and reading, my gut tells me not use these spots. I've got them mounted and wired, and they look really kool... I agree with chief that the extra 110 watts is a strain. I'm one of the younger guys on this forum and I'm constantly learning, so nothing I do is a waste of time just a new experience! So please bare with me as I ask alot of questions on this forum. I mounted up ATV lights because they were cheap and looked good (all black).
I got my spots here: http://store.wpsracing.com/lamospandseb.html They're reasonably priced, good quality 25w spots. They're cheap enough you could have the housings anodized black if you wanted, and it still wouldn't break the bank. I did the "No Light Bar" trick (found here: http://www.gadgetjq.com/kirks_lightbar_mod.htm ) and it worked great. The lights are pretty close to the headlights, but they don't touch, and it looks decent I think.
Click to Enlarge
(https://www.vulcandrifterriders.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi83.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fj319%2Fpcarrell%2FDrifter%2Fth_850A0106.jpg&hash=d1fcd7cc33fbff559019d762dd51f55f68b59e42) (http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Drifter/?action=view¤t=850A0106.jpg)
No lightbar is in our mod section too... plus about 4 pages of other such mods.
http://www.VulcanDrifterRiders.com/reviewpost/showcat.php/cat/65/page/2
Specifically:
http://www.vulcandrifterriders.com/lightbar.html
Yeah, the mods section on this forum is great. I need to visit there more often!
Not to confuse anyone, but there is a mod section on the forum where you can find a lot of information- but the main mods/tips area is on the website. There you will find all the write-ups with pics etc.
As I stated earlier, I mounted the 55 watt lights. I ran all the wiring into the headlight housing and ran a spade plug into the the blue and white wire, it's just not connected. Is there any reason I couldn't just switch out the 55 watt bulbs to smaller bulbs? If so, what wattage would you recommend and where should I ground the black wire from my new spots... should I splice into one of the black wires jumbled in the headlight already or should I ground it to the frame?
Thanks!
25W or 35W should work and not create too much of a strain. I think either way would work for a ground.
Quote from: chief on August 07, 2010, 12:53:07 PM
25W or 35W should work and not create too much of a strain. I think either way would work for a ground.
Thanks for the response. So I should be okay splicing into any one of the black wires in the headlight (that would be the easiest)?