Diff3RentBreed
XS650 Member
I have tried searching for this problem but it seems like no one else has had my problem, figures.
Here's a twister for you, I tried wiring up some new LEDs on my 1977 XS650 with half luck. Yes, you heard me. Half luck. I can only get the back two LEDs to flash, not the fronts.
I purchased these 1156 LEDs for the turn signals (Amazon):
http://goo.gl/KofyJ3
I purchased these 1157 LEDs for the taillight (Amazon):
http://goo.gl/7Vlvkw
and I purchased this flasher to regulate the flashing (eBay):
goo.gl/ZU4KgR
Which all should just be plug and play. No hassle required. Right?
I got everything installed and my taillight and my back two signals work just fine. But my front two signals do not light up at all. When I swap out the LEDs for incandescent bulbs (still with the same electronic flasher) they work just fine. So it can't be a fuse or faulty wiring, right? Do I need to install some resistors? Is it a capacity issue with the flasher? I'm just at a loss and I don't even know what to try.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
______________EDIT for Fix__________________
For anyone coming to here from the future:
Thanks to XSLeo this issue is now resolved: http://www.xs650.com/threads/led-turn-signal-issues.47081/#post-472570.
TLDR: What I have done to solve this issue was just rewire the turn signal wiring the other way. Wasn't sure if I did it wrong the first time or not. But I did have to switch the wiring around.
Longer Read: I purchased this 3 pin flasher (just google search "Universal LED flasher 3 pin" and look for one that looks like the one in your bike) which actually works perfect. At first I thought it was only able to handle two LEDs at one time, which led me to purchase another flasher (shown below), but it turns out it can actually handle all four and I just needed to switch the wiring around.
This flasher is great because it fits just fine (a little snug) into the oem flasher mount. Since this faces 90 degrees different than the original one, it was a tighter fit but it does fit just fine.
Now for the other flasher, I purchased superbrightleds' LF1-S-FLAT Universal Motorcycle Electronic Flasher which also worked for all four leds.
But since this one is a box and does not fit just like the oem one, I opted to not use it on this bike (since I already had the other one). I got the first one off of eBay and this one off the company's website and this one cost me more by about 2 - 3 dollars. You also have to do some modification for this. Taking it out of the stock housing to be able to just plug it into the oem housing. Which is another thing that is nice about the first one, you cannot plug it in wrong. It is only accepted one way. But for this one;
you will need to plug the black wire into the brown/white wire and the red into the brown wire. Then I would suggest using head shrink tubing to cover up the exposed metal or some electrical tape. Then you'll need to find a spot to mount the block which I would just to it right above where the oem one sits and I would either zip tie it to the frame or use double sided tape.
Both options will work just fine. It's personal preference and what is available to you at the time.
Here is am image of the rewiring that I did:
I went ahead and blurred out the unnecessary parts in order to have more focus on the wires that matter for this demonstration. So the ground wires from the signal I wired to the positive lead for the headlight. Both grounds are tied to the same point. Then I took the positive lines (which are now the grounds) and tied them to the two separate grounds that were in there. When doing this, you must make sure that the positive or grounding wires are separated. That is was controls which one is flashing when the switch is to the right of the left.
Now I could have gotten them wrong in the first place when I had to rewire them when I got the bike. It was my first ever wiring job, this is my first bike, and I was having my buddy help me. Needless to say, it took us a long time to figure out why the signals weren't working in the first place.
But here she is now. All working with 4 LEDs. I also installed a new LED headlight which you can see here:
http://www.xs650.com/threads/hid-vs-leds-headlight-question.47082/
Now all that's left is to find a good solid taillight LED since my last two broke on me.
Here's a twister for you, I tried wiring up some new LEDs on my 1977 XS650 with half luck. Yes, you heard me. Half luck. I can only get the back two LEDs to flash, not the fronts.
I purchased these 1156 LEDs for the turn signals (Amazon):
http://goo.gl/KofyJ3
I purchased these 1157 LEDs for the taillight (Amazon):
http://goo.gl/7Vlvkw
and I purchased this flasher to regulate the flashing (eBay):
goo.gl/ZU4KgR
Which all should just be plug and play. No hassle required. Right?
I got everything installed and my taillight and my back two signals work just fine. But my front two signals do not light up at all. When I swap out the LEDs for incandescent bulbs (still with the same electronic flasher) they work just fine. So it can't be a fuse or faulty wiring, right? Do I need to install some resistors? Is it a capacity issue with the flasher? I'm just at a loss and I don't even know what to try.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
______________EDIT for Fix__________________
For anyone coming to here from the future:
Thanks to XSLeo this issue is now resolved: http://www.xs650.com/threads/led-turn-signal-issues.47081/#post-472570.
TLDR: What I have done to solve this issue was just rewire the turn signal wiring the other way. Wasn't sure if I did it wrong the first time or not. But I did have to switch the wiring around.
Longer Read: I purchased this 3 pin flasher (just google search "Universal LED flasher 3 pin" and look for one that looks like the one in your bike) which actually works perfect. At first I thought it was only able to handle two LEDs at one time, which led me to purchase another flasher (shown below), but it turns out it can actually handle all four and I just needed to switch the wiring around.
This flasher is great because it fits just fine (a little snug) into the oem flasher mount. Since this faces 90 degrees different than the original one, it was a tighter fit but it does fit just fine.
Now for the other flasher, I purchased superbrightleds' LF1-S-FLAT Universal Motorcycle Electronic Flasher which also worked for all four leds.
But since this one is a box and does not fit just like the oem one, I opted to not use it on this bike (since I already had the other one). I got the first one off of eBay and this one off the company's website and this one cost me more by about 2 - 3 dollars. You also have to do some modification for this. Taking it out of the stock housing to be able to just plug it into the oem housing. Which is another thing that is nice about the first one, you cannot plug it in wrong. It is only accepted one way. But for this one;
you will need to plug the black wire into the brown/white wire and the red into the brown wire. Then I would suggest using head shrink tubing to cover up the exposed metal or some electrical tape. Then you'll need to find a spot to mount the block which I would just to it right above where the oem one sits and I would either zip tie it to the frame or use double sided tape.
Both options will work just fine. It's personal preference and what is available to you at the time.
Here is am image of the rewiring that I did:
I went ahead and blurred out the unnecessary parts in order to have more focus on the wires that matter for this demonstration. So the ground wires from the signal I wired to the positive lead for the headlight. Both grounds are tied to the same point. Then I took the positive lines (which are now the grounds) and tied them to the two separate grounds that were in there. When doing this, you must make sure that the positive or grounding wires are separated. That is was controls which one is flashing when the switch is to the right of the left.
Now I could have gotten them wrong in the first place when I had to rewire them when I got the bike. It was my first ever wiring job, this is my first bike, and I was having my buddy help me. Needless to say, it took us a long time to figure out why the signals weren't working in the first place.
But here she is now. All working with 4 LEDs. I also installed a new LED headlight which you can see here:
http://www.xs650.com/threads/hid-vs-leds-headlight-question.47082/
Now all that's left is to find a good solid taillight LED since my last two broke on me.
Last edited:
