generic wire color identification for switch and headlamp

[lightfall]

My aftermarket headlight with daytime running bulb needs to be hooked up to my new wiring harness (which is based off of the 81 simplified wiring diagram). The headlight has 5 wires: blue, white, brown, black, green. It seems to me like the blue probably = high, white = low, brown = daytime pos black = daytime ground, but the rest I am not sure about and whether or not I can splice the daytime to the main pos/ground and not overload anything?

My switch is an Emgo 3 position with 2x momentary switches that I wanted to use as low/off/high and starter and kill switch. This switch only has a black, red, green, yellow wire. There is no manual for this switch and I am lost...if I go black to battery and red to battery then the 3 position works as yellow high and green low but how do I get the starter and kill switch to work?

Any insight?

Headlamp: http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vinta...black-mini-bates-brass-headlight-67-7710.html

switch: http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vinta...ebar-turn-signal-blinker-switch-46-68900.html

 

[retiredgentleman]

My aftermarket headlight with daytime running bulb needs to be hooked up to my new wiring harness (which is based off of the 81 simplified wiring diagram). The headlight has 5 wires: blue, white, brown, black, green. It seems to me like the blue probably = high, white = low, brown = daytime pos black = daytime ground, but the rest I am not sure about and whether or not I can splice the daytime to the main pos/ground and not overload anything?

My switch is an Emgo 3 position with 2x momentary switches that I wanted to use as low/off/high and starter and kill switch. This switch only has a black, red, green, yellow wire. There is no manual for this switch and I am lost...if I go black to battery and red to battery then the 3 position works as yellow high and green low but how do I get the starter and kill switch to work?

Any insight?

Headlamp: http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vinta...black-mini-bates-brass-headlight-67-7710.html

switch: http://www.dimecitycycles.com/vinta...ebar-turn-signal-blinker-switch-46-68900.html

The headlight has 5 wires but you only need 4 wires.................high/low/daytime and ground. Don't guess about colours, just connect different pairs of wires to a bike or car battery until you find what pair lights what bulb.

The switch has 4 wires, but it would need 7 wires to control headlight high/low, plus start and kill switch. Looks like a mystery to me. Why don't you contact the seller and ask for a wiring diagram of their product.

 

[lightfall]

I asked dime city and emgo, no responses.

So when I hook the red and black of the switch to a battery and then the black ground from the headlight to the ground of the battery, and the hi/low wires to the headlight and switch I can get the hi low off function of the headlight to work.

But how the heck do I use one of the momentary switches for a starter? Would the red go to the starter relay and the black to a ground? Or are there simply no wires for the starter button??

I connected the headlamp running light and main bulb ground together. I was thinking of hooking the daytime running positive brown in to the brown power lead coming off the ignition into the brake switch / rec&reg / coil red then the daytime light would always be on when the ignition is on regardless of what the headlight switch position is in.

Obviously I was hoping to just use this one switch for simplicity sake...

 

[gggGary]

From a dime city review of the switch, that should answer your questions.

Good switch. Excellent price Review by egardner1970
Overall it's a good switch. It could have come with a doc sheet explaining current ratings as I have no idea just how much it will handle. The two momentary switches close to ground which is the case. This is fine if you are mounting to a chrome bar. This is fine for start/kill switches which go to ground. If powdercoated, you have to run a ground to the chassis. I added a ground wire to the wiring and a ring terminal on the thimble clamp. (Posted on 6/25/11)

So one of the momentaries grounds the white blue on the starter solenoid the red white would go to a switched hot, exactly the way the stock set up works.

 

[lightfall]

Gary, thank you, I feel like an idiot. I hate when you get in that echobox and you miss the obvious...I spent about 8 hours trying to mock up my wiring harness based on that diagram and my head felt like it was in a vice!

I will hook the red/white starter wire to the brown or blue power coming off the stock key switch.

But with the handlebar switch the red wire is the positive for one of the momentary switches and the black is for the other and both will be grounded when I ground the switch and depress the button, but then how does the switch get power to send to the headlight?

 

[gggGary]

Yeah that switch sure seems like it's short one wire............

UNLESS the two position switch connects to ground also, which is kinda weird but can be made to work. If it is that way connect power to the head light "ground" lead.
connect the wires from the 2 position switch to headlight high and low be SURE you have a good ground patch all the way from the switch housing to the FRAME and or battery negative terminal.

A serious downside of this switch is that the center position is off. Not much fun to accidentally hit OFF on a dark night!

 

[lightfall]

Actually it looks like the switch goes off/low/high as far as I can tell tapping to the battery.

Now I am really confused by this switch, hopefully DCC or EMGO get back to me about how the heck this thing is supposed to work because if the remaining black and red wires are truly both positives for the two momentary switches then there is no input of power for the headlamp or daytime running light. If I reverse the conventional polarity and have the negative from the daytime light and headlamp accept positive power from the ignition switch blue then I am still hitting a mental roadblock with the headlamp...this is what I get for doing a custom wiring project, but I will be damned if I give up on this bastard.

 

[xjwmx]

If you have an ohmmeter or continuity tester with a battery it's pretty easy to just check the various wires resistance to each other in various key positions and scribble down an internal schematic of the switch. Then you can sit down at your leisure and decide what you want connected where.

 

[lightfall]

Sure, but where do I hook the battery to! I know that if the red and black of the switch are on the + - of the battery then the off/lo/hi switch will activate the headlamp accordingly, but I don't really know if I hook those directly to the blue off the ignition how the momentary starter button would work.

I have kind of given up on the kill

 

[xjwmx]

^What I meant was the kind of tester that has a handle with a probe and a light and a battery, and the other contact is a clip. Or just use a meter set on ohms if you have one.

All you need to know is what's connected to what in every key position. Easy to figure that out. Maybe a new thing, but easy. Put the key in position 1 and write down what's connected to what. Do the same with every key postion.

 

[lightfall]

I will give that a try

 

[xjwmx]

You can do stuff like twist two or more switch wires together or connect more than one to the same output, and so on, to give you exactly what you want.

 

[XSLeo]

If your headlight with the small bulb for a daytime running light is like any I've looked at. There are three wires to the headlight bulb. A ground, a hot for hi beam a hot for low beam. On most headlights if you hold it so the top marking on then lense is up the terminals on the bulb will be two verticle and one horizontal at the top. The horizontal is ground. The right verticle is low and the left is hi.
The small bulb has two wires, a hot and ground.
Hook the main headlight to the switch so the headlight has the right beams when in the right positions. On the daytime running light I would hook it up to come on with the key switch and use a relay to turn it off when you turn the headlight on.
Leo

 

[lightfall]

Thanks Leo, I have followed all of your posts to get as far as I have. I have the DTRL figured out thanks to that tip. I have the headlamp all good now...it is the switch. I will post back when DCC or EMGO gives me a schematic, or when I get a meter to try and map out what the wires in the switch do...since I can't wrap my head around it.

Leo, do you think the DTRL will be damaging if it is always on with the ignition without the relay to turn it off with high or low? I am obsessed with simple and I picked up a ballistic 8 battery.

 

[lightfall]

EMGO provided me the following manufacturer diagram, how exactly should this work with the XS650 then using a kill and a start instead of a horn and a kill given our system?

I see that the blue/white from the starter relay would go to either the red or black wire which would get grounded to the bars when the button is depressed. But then how would the kill work and most importantly...

How does that power get in to the system I don't get it? I know I am probably stupid for not being able to wrap my head around this and I will continue to study it. I am very bad with electrical work.

 

[gggGary]

pdf was pretty well useless wasn't it? according to that the switch should have 5 wires, yours has just 4 correct? As mentioned you HAVE to have a simple test device to test and mark the wires for that switch.
The joys of random "maybe this will work" parts from clueless suppliers.... Hard to tell who is worse here, Emgo for their useless info or nickle town for selling it without knowing if it works.

 

[XSLeo]

By that schematic it should work fine. Power comes in on one wire and feeds power to all the switches.
The headlight is pretty straight forward, power in, out to hi and low beams.
On the other switches The one marked as horn is pretty much ok. just run the power from that switch to the horn, ground at the horn. On the other switch, is it a kill switch or start switch? If a kill switch as in the schematic it is an on/off switch not momentary It may be a push on, push off switch.
If a on/off switch it can't be used as a start button.
If a momentary button it sends power out, hook this power to the red/white of the starter relay, ground the blue/white wire of the starter relay.
I would hook up my meter using an ohm scale, hook one lead to the power in wire. Hook the other lead to the output wire of the button used as the "kill' or starter button. It should have no reading, now push the button. The reading should drop to a low ohms. Release the button, It should return to a no reading. This means it's a momentary button and can be used as a start button.
If it stays at a low ohm reading and you have to push it a second time to get it to go back to a no reading then it's a push on, push off switch.
Almost forgot, on the DTRL leaving it on all the time probably won't hurt but I get the relays cheap at the junk yard. The DTRL is usually a low watt light. Often the same as a turn signal. Around 23 or 27 watts. Enough so I would turn it off when using the regular headlight.
Leo

 

[lightfall]

OK so I tore the switch apart and found that I should be able to add a wire to make the switch work.

The headlamp setup you can see will require a ground be added to the selector bar. Then I can use the black wire to connect to the starter relay which will ground through the momentary switch if I add a ring terminal to the housing of the switch when the button is depressed.

 

[XSLeo]

If you look at the wiring schematic you can use that switch as is, no need to add anything.
I even described to you how to wire it.
Do as you will.
Leo

 

[lightfall]

Leo, correct, I did check with the multimeter and wired it as you described but I just did the light switch and the starter. Crossing my fingers, looks like it should work!