What have you done to your XS today?

20210118_180931.jpg
Not My Favorite Fuel Metering Instruments

But I hear they are as good as or better than BS38's. Certainly lighter.
Only reason for shading these 34's is that I am much more used to fixing the 38's. But I had a box of new bits and pieces including new manifolds that fit the 34's so I wanted to use them up. They will go on the 750 motor.
These are plastic float items so to use a pull choke I had to switch out the choke plungers, but I was able to get the little springs and the tiny balls installed so I have a 2 position choke. Pleased with myself.
 
Pulled the forks all apart this afternoon. Scary as the Allen head bolts holding the lower fork leg to the damper assemblies on both forks were only finger tight!
What do you guys make of the attached photo of stanchions? Both are straight, but some scoring and the odd bit of rust which would possibly damage the new seals. Figure use some emery cloth or 400 grit paper on the small rust specs? The other issue is two types of washers used on the allen head bolts. Rubber on one and fibre on the other. What is correct ?
 
Working on my new wiring setup. Wanting to check and see if this is accurate for LED blinkers. Would I also put a resistor for my LED tail light in the harness?
 

Attachments

  • LED Blinker diagram.jpg
    LED Blinker diagram.jpg
    187.5 KB · Views: 138
Why is the resistor in series with the LED indicators. My understanding was the resistor is a dummy load to up the current through the flasher relay so it works i.e. that is if you retain the old flasher relay for filament bulbs which needs a higher current drain to work. Maybe the resistor has a different function with purpose built LED Flasher Relays?
 
Grimmith, there are two parts to your question.

1. Taillights are a direct swop in with the old filament bulbs - no resistors required.

2. Indicators: If you are using the old stock flasher relay then it requires a full load to operate i.e. 2 x 21Watt bulbs Left or Right sided. You may have noticed in the past that when an indicator bulb burns out the other bulb will not flash. This is because the load/current through the flasher relay has halved. The flasher relay has a bimetallic strip which heats up as the current passes through. When hot enough it switches the power off, on cooling it switches the power on again then starts to heat up and the cycle repeats. If a bulb burns out the current is halved and the bimetallic does not heat up enough.

When you change to LED the current drawn is very low compared to the old system so the old flasher reply just does not heat up. If you keep the old flasher relay you need to increase the current through it and this is done with a resistor as a dummy load. The resistor is acting like an old filament bulb and increases the current through the flasher relay. This resistor is not in series with the LEDs but in parallel.

What size resistor? The resistor replaces 2 x 21Watt bulbs. We can work out the effective resistance of a 21Watt bulb:

Voltage is approximately 14V
Watts = Volts x Amps
21W = 14V x 1.5Amps i.e. Each filament bulb draws approximately 1.5 Amp

(Note: If the LED unit is 3W then subtract 3 from 21 to give 1.3Amps and a resistance of 11 Ohms)

Volts = Amps x Resistance
or Resistance = Volts/Amps

Resistance = 14V/1.5Amp = 9.3 Ohms

Each LED indicator needs about a 10 Ohms resistor wired in parallel with it. If you use 4 x 10 Ohm resistor it gets a bit messy. Since for each side the front and back indicators are in parallel so you can just use a 5 Ohm resistor connected from the left indicator power wire to ground and another 5 Ohm connected from the right indicator power to ground.

Each 5 Ohm resistor takes the place of 42Watts (2 x 21Watts). I would use ceramic resistors rated at 100Watts (However, the indicators draw current 50% of time so 50W would do). These will warm up when in use so check they do not melt anything.
s-l225.webp


But....... If you replace your old flasher relay with a new LED flasher relay then you can forget about those resistor dummy loads.

Edit: See Team Junk's link immediately above this.
 
Last edited:
Wow! Thank you for this great insight Paul. I'm currently using all new LED's and wires, and will use the LED flasher relay that Team Junk gave the link for. So basically the plans from my first picture minus the two resistors I put in the design.

I also wanted to install 2 head lights. My normal one which is halogen, and my lower LED headlight I was going to use as a fog light. I'm assuming this one needs a resistor right? I don't have the light or volts/amps on hand. Currently at work lol.
 
You only need dummy loads to make old flasher relays work with LEDs. An LED headlight will just wire straight in like your halogen currently does..
 
Pandemic project... Rewired my 79. Got rid of all the excess dumb relays and light checker do dads. Wanted to go with a smaller headlight bucket but where the hell would you hide all the wiring?? So I kept the stock headlamp. Added some new smaller gauges and a whiskey throttle. Black Betty fired right up!!
 

Attachments

  • IMG-1902.jpg
    IMG-1902.jpg
    325 KB · Views: 133
  • IMG-1904.jpg
    IMG-1904.jpg
    311.5 KB · Views: 130
Pandemic project... Rewired my 79. Got rid of all the excess dumb relays and light checker do dads. Wanted to go with a smaller headlight bucket but where the hell would you hide all the wiring?? So I kept the stock headlamp. Added some new smaller gauges and a whiskey throttle. Black Betty fired right up!!
about to go through that process now. have anymore detailed pics of your wiring? im planning to get rid of the electric starter so no more relays and safety and solenoid
 
Not sure this counts -- but I'm running out of piddly things to do while still waiting on the tank I ordered in July. Have I mentioned that before? It's driving me nuts - just like the joke about the pirate with the ship's wheel attached to the front of his pants that walks into the bar.

Engine 1.jpg Engine 2.jpg Engine 3.jpg

Stuck the cerakoted side covers on just to have a gander. Looks good, but makes the cam chain adjuster look pretty shabby! I'm not set up for polishing - anyone have a polished nut for a late adjuster like you see here?

about to go through that process now. have anymore detailed pics of your wiring? im planning to get rid of the electric starter so no more relays and safety and solenoid

I'd start from scratch rather than trying to delete stuff from your existing harness - that way you have known good connections + wire. This may help:

https://www.bikeexif.com/motorcycle-wiring
 
20210122_083935.jpg
You've Clearly put much thought and consideration in all your components. Please share your opinion of the variations of the cam chain tensioner. The type "D" vs the "E" with the added lock nut.
20200111_165824.jpg
 
Grimmith, there are two parts to your question.

1. Taillights are a direct swop in with the old filament bulbs - no resistors required.

2. Indicators: If you are using the old stock flasher relay then it requires a full load to operate i.e. 2 x 21Watt bulbs Left or Right sided. You may have noticed in the past that when an indicator bulb burns out the other bulb will not flash. This is because the load/current through the flasher relay has halved. The flasher relay has a bimetallic strip which heats up as the current passes through. When hot enough it switches the power off, on cooling it switches the power on again then starts to heat up and the cycle repeats. If a bulb burns out the current is halved and the bimetallic does not heat up enough.

When you change to LED the current drawn is very low compared to the old system so the old flasher reply just does not heat up. If you keep the old flasher relay you need to increase the current through it and this is done with a resistor as a dummy load. The resistor is acting like an old filament bulb and increases the current through the flasher relay. This resistor is not in series with the LEDs but in parallel.

What size resistor? The resistor replaces 2 x 21Watt bulbs. We can work out the effective resistance of a 21Watt bulb:

Voltage is approximately 14V
Watts = Volts x Amps
21W = 14V x 1.5Amps i.e. Each filament bulb draws approximately 1.5 Amp

(Note: If the LED unit is 3W then subtract 3 from 21 to give 1.3Amps and a resistance of 11 Ohms)

Volts = Amps x Resistance
or Resistance = Volts/Amps

Resistance = 14V/1.5Amp = 9.3 Ohms

Each LED indicator needs about a 10 Ohms resistor wired in parallel with it. If you use 4 x 10 Ohm resistor it gets a bit messy. Since for each side the front and back indicators are in parallel so you can just use a 5 Ohm resistor connected from the left indicator power wire to ground and another 5 Ohm connected from the right indicator power to ground.

Each 5 Ohm resistor takes the place of 42Watts (2 x 21Watts). I would use ceramic resistors rated at 100Watts (However, the indicators draw current 50% of time so 50W would do). These will warm up when in use so check they do not melt anything.
s-l225.webp


But....... If you replace your old flasher relay with a new LED flasher relay then you can forget about those resistor dummy loads.

Edit: See Team Junk's link immediately above this.
Thanks for the great write up. I just installed led turn signals and they didn’t blink so I ordered an electronic flasher relay. Hope this fixes the problems because I’d rather not install the resistors.
 
Back
Top