deadlight wiring

muldoon · Post by **muldoon** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:43 pm

I would like to wire my deadlights to the yellow headlight wire on my blackjack scooter. But when I inspected the wires in my harness to find the yellow headlight wire I found 2 yellow wires and 1 yellow with a blue stripe on the side.
How can I tell which yellow wire is the correct one to connect to?

MULDOON

pdxrita · Post by **pdxrita** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:43 pm

There really should be only one yellow wire. Are you sure that one of those isn't orange, or maybe doesn't have another color stripe on it? I can tell you that if you tap the one with the stripe on it, your deadlights will only light up when you honk the horn. Don't ask me how I know that.

Skootz Kabootz · Post by **Skootz Kabootz** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:48 pm

You might want to do a search here for the deadlights to running lights adapter. It makes the whole mod plug and play. I've been using it for years. There is also a deadlights to turn signals adapter and a BOB (best of both) adapter which turns the deadlights into both running lights and turn signals..

PeteH · Post by **PeteH** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 8:50 pm

Skootz - don't you have to tap a power line (yellow/headlight or horn) for the running lights mod? You still have to pick an appropriate wire.

Not so much for the turn signal mod.

Skootz Kabootz · Post by **Skootz Kabootz** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:19 pm

PeteH wrote:Skootz - don't you have to tap a power line (yellow/headlight or horn) for the running lights mod? You still have to pick an appropriate wire.

Not so much for the turn signal mod.

I've only used the deadlights to running lights adapter and there is just a simple crimp connector thing to attach as far as tapping power goes, that's it. No cutting or splicing of any wires.

squasher5 · Post by **squasher5** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 9:47 pm

i have also done the deadlights to running lights....it said it would take about 10 min. Not so. I did not have the same success with the crimping device...I had to resort to some soldering, but in the end it turned out very well.

Interesting new fact...I was just at my dealers for a tuneup today, and I told my service man that my Kymco People 50 would outperform my Buddy 50 on hills....by a large margin. He seemed shocked to hear that...not sure why.

Any comments?

VSP · Post by **VSP** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:04 pm

I believe that some of the older Buddy's only had one yellow wire in the cluster but the newer ones have a few. The easiest way to tell for sure is the follow the wire up to the headset.

Why are you wanting to go with the yellow wire? The norm for hooking up the deadlights is to use the orange ignition wire. The yellow is nice because the lights are only on when the scooter is running but you cannot use LED bulbs if you go that route.

Tocsik · Post by **Tocsik** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:28 pm

Just tap into the orange wire (horn wire) in the cluster. That wire is hot before it enters the switch. After it exits the switch, it's interrupted.

That way, you're not messing with your headlight wiring and the deadlights still only work with the ignition on.

I tapped into the horn switch years ago and haven't had any problems. I originally had the deadlights as running lights. Then, I installed a switch so they weren't on during start-up. Now, I have the B.O.B. adapter so the deadlights are running lights and turn signals (still with a switch in the circuit).

I have never changed the power tap from the orange wire.

pdxrita · Post by **pdxrita** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:51 pm

VSP wrote:I believe that some of the older Buddy's only had one yellow wire in the cluster but the newer ones have a few. The easiest way to tell for sure is the follow the wire up to the headset.

Why are you wanting to go with the yellow wire? The norm for hooking up the deadlights is to use the orange ignition wire. The yellow is nice because the lights are only on when the scooter is running but you cannot use LED bulbs if you go that route.

Really? Mine is a 2012 and I only found one solid yellow wire in there. I used yellow because I don't want the lights on unless the scooter is running. Since the addition of the lights (if you leave the stock bulbs) pushes the charging system pretty much to it's limits, it doesn't seem wise to hook the lights up in a such a way that could add any more drain to the battery.

koyla87 · Post by **koyla87** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 3:14 pm

I have a 2009 blackjack and I wired my NEW white LED 5w CREE into my dead-lights, pulling power from the ORANGE wire before the switch and it works fine (Super bright running lights go on when I turn the key to the "ON" position).
BUT I want to wire it into the head light wire so that the "dead-lights" turn on when the main headlight is powered on.

Anyone have a picture of where I can get the best access to the Headlight wire?
I cant figure it out BUT I want to learn my BlackJack inside and out since my warranty is over