Modern Buddy

Hiya fellow buddy riders and scooter folk - here's the dilemma -

So, the folks at The Motorcycle Shop here wired up the deadlights on my Blackjack to run with a separate fuse and a toggle switch. They had previously set up led lights for the blackjack with great success (work great and look great). Anyhoo, at first I just left in the amber incandescent bulbs and thought they looked cool, kinda like foglights.
But I wanted to have them match the led's (those are cold white/blue-ish) and picked up some 1156 led bulbs, and they would not work in the deadlights...very odd. We tried both bulbs in each socket, but neither worked. Sooo....we just put the incadescents back.
But I can't figure out why the led's won't work, but the incandescent ones work.
If anyone has any advice, it would be most welcome. I must admit that I sucked at electricity in physics 1 in high school.
Thanks, scooter folk

wrong polarity on the wires? if it is DC I am sure it could be wrong .. best test with a meter Could also be bad bulbs

It has to be the bulbs. The deadlights work right out of the factory, they just need to be plugged back in instead of the DOT turn signals. So unless the guys who did the extra wiring for you somehow changed something it's got to be the bulbs.

Ok, there's a very slight chance that you have TWO bad LED units, but test them in a car's reverse or turn signal sockets to be sure (1156 base). If the LEDs are OK, then they definitely wired up the deadlights sockets backwards, wrong polarity. The LEDs expect hot on the end pin, ground on the shell. Your old amber bulbs don't care and are not sensitive to polarity, which is why they work.

If you've got a voltmeter, you can confirm by hooking the red lead to the center pin and black lead to the outer shell of the bulb socket. If your meter goes to -12vDC, your polarity is indeed reversed. Depending on how they wired up the sockets and the switch, it might be able to be fixed at the switch, otherwise cut and resplice each socket. Actually, have the shop guys fix it!

Honestly, if I was in your shoes, I would find a new motorcycle shop. These guys seriously don't have any clue what they are doing if they can't troubleshoot a simple LED bulb install.

Did your shop cut off the stock connectors that were on the deadlight wires and install new terminals? If so, they may have reversed the positive and negative wires. With an 1156 bulb, there is no way to install the bulb in reverse polarity, since it is a single output bulb (unlike the 1157 bulb, which has 2 brightness levels and must be inserted into the socket in the proper orientation.)

Check to see if the metal contacts inside the bulb holder got bent so that they are not making proper contact with the bulb base. If I recall correctly, the Buddy bulb holders are made of plastic and only use a couple small metal tabs to make the electrical connections. The tab from the negative wire should rest against the side of the metal bulb base. The contact from the positive wire should be against the pin on the bottom of the bulb.

With LEDs installed in the deadlights, there is really no need for a toggle switch, since the LEDs draw a negligible amount of power. Adding a switch only makes troubleshooting problems more difficult in this instance.

The easiest way to connect the deadlights to act as running lights is to connect the positive wires to the horn with a 1/4" piggyback adapter and the negative wires to any bolt that grounds to the frame of the scooter. When you turn your key on, the deadlights come on. Key off turns the deadlights off. It doesn't get much easier than this when it comes to 12VDC automotive wiring.

Thanx everyone for your sage advice - i will face my fear of electricity lol and troubleshoot this myself as first.
Maybe the shop did overdo it a bit. They did a grandslam job on all the led's though. Maybe they thought it would be fancy/cool to have a seperate switch etc....nevertheless the drag is i can never run both together (leds and /or deadlights)
PeteH, I think I will follow your idea - find out what it is, and then be able to show the guys at the shop and say, 'gosh, it appears the lights were wired backwards, and perhaps you gents can reverse this, seeing as I wanted to run leds in them in the first place...."

and alas, wouldn't you know it, the stella's ignition broke this more lol....

but thanx friendly folk!