I've seen the thing here on Modern Buddy where the original dead signal lights are (very easily) changed back into active addl directional lights, and I greatly appreciate that clear posting about it..!
But I've yet to find any clear instructions on how to convert those dead lights to running lights (like on the Vespa LX150), using the headlight wiring. (Which I might like to do!)
Can anyone elaborate on this? Has anyone done it? Or seen
instructions for it? How would it work with the headlight's hi-low beam action? And might it possibly put too much of a load on the Buddy's electrical system?
crashtestdummy wrote:I think this post has what you want. topic576.html.
Hmmm... Okay, thanks very much. I don't think I'll do this tho. Because although it adds the lower lights as running lights, it also changes the headlight so it only has hi-beam/and off options, instead of hi-beam/lo-beam! -Doesn't look like much of a net gain to me!
Instead I think I'll just do the simpler wiring change and have double sets of directional signals in the front...
I hooked up my front lights as running lights. They are attached to the "dead" light switch and stay on regardless of high beam/low beam. I also have one of the halogen bulbs in my headlight. I did the wiring before that other post, it's not very hard, took me about 20 min. I didn't solder any of the new connections like I should have, but I don't really have a place to properly work here. It does take a little draw on the electrical system and I could tell a difference in the brightness of my headlight before the halogen bulb. I can't really tell there is a draw with the halogen bulb now.
GT40 wrote:I hooked up my front lights as running lights. They are attached to the "dead" light switch and stay on regardless of high beam/low beam. I also have one of the halogen bulbs in my headlight. I did the wiring before that other post, it's not very hard, took me about 20 min. I didn't solder any of the new connections like I should have, but I don't really have a place to properly work here. It does take a little draw on the electrical system and I could tell a difference in the brightness of my headlight before the halogen bulb. I can't really tell there is a draw with the halogen bulb now.
I'm sorry, but I don't follow.... I don't have a "dead" light switch on my '07 Buddy. It's always on when the bike is started, either on hi or lo beam, but never "dead" or off...
Are you saying that your hi/lo beam switch still works that way, only now the directionals stay on as running lights during both hi/lo beam headlight shinings? Previous posters say that when they wired the directionals as running lights they lost the lo beam option as the headlight changed to either hi beam or "dead" off! (Which I don't understand, nor see as an improvement either...)
Sorry, I didn't pay attention that you have an 07. I have an 06. Where your hazard switch is, we have a functional switch to nothing. I wired the the running lights to that switch so I could turn the running lights on and off regardless of the headlight beam position. And my headlight will stay on no matter what the running lights are doing. If you're interested I could tell you which wire I used as the hot wire for the running lights, but can't remember right now, I did this about a year ago.
GT40 wrote:Sorry, I didn't pay attention that you have an 07. I have an 06. Where your hazard switch is, we have a functional switch to nothing. I wired the the running lights to that switch so I could turn the running lights on and off regardless of the headlight beam position. And my headlight will stay on no matter what the running lights are doing. If you're interested I could tell you which wire I used as the hot wire for the running lights, but can't remember right now, I did this about a year ago.
If you could remember, it would be neat. I'd like to set up my '07 's extra directionals the way the Vespa LX150 has them, as running lights that are always on whether or not my headlight is on hi or lo beam...
What I've read on previous posts tho from guys who did this with their '07 is that it doesn't seem to be possible! They've all seemed to have lost their lo beam option when wiring the directionals in as running lights! Doan't ask me why, it sounds strange to me too...
Drumwoulf,
Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I took a look at what I did to get my lights to work and seems that I will have to admit that I did a bit of a hack job. I have a good bit of experience wiring components and not entirely sure what I was doing this time. It's a bit embarrassing. But I will tell you what I did and you can use your best judgement to try this. I'm not sure your wiring will be the same though. I spliced into the yellow wire with black stripe coming off the "dead" light switch for the hot wire for the running lights. I spliced into this line before the first wiring harness connector, since that wire dead ends at that connector. I know you don't have this switch, but it might be the same on your hazards. The downfall would be that you most likely won't be able to have this hot all the time unless you disabled your hazards(probably not a big gain when it comes to increasing your visibility footprint).
