HOW TO: Install Running/Brake Light & Interior Light into OEM Top Box

[AZBob]

Introduction

What we're doing: Installing a running light/brake light on the back of the top box and an interior light inside the top box that turns on when the box is opened, regardless of whether the ignition is on or not (it wouldn’t be very useful if it only worked while the ignition were on).

Cost: To do everything, approximately $275 + ~6 hours work time/3-5 days drying time

Skill Level: This is an advanced project, requiring delicate crimping of weatherproof connector pins, soldering, and wiring and also requires a couple of specialized tools (mostly due to the wire connectors). I have some solutions that can knock it down to a mostly plug'n play beginner level, if you're interested. I started a thread where you can find out more information.

There are three major sections to this how-to: Part I - Building the interior light; Part II - Top box light wiring/interior light install; Part III - Bike wiring. You can (and I suspect many will) do only the running/brake light on its own -- skip Part I entirely, read Part II’s intro, and then skip down to, step 3. The instructions then tell you where to skip if you’re only doing the running/brake light.

When mentioning direction in these instructions (e.g. left, right, front, back), the left side is the clutch side, the right side is the throttle side, the front is toward the headlights, and the back is toward the tail lights. When referring to direction with regard to any removable part (e.g. the top box or luggage carrier), the orientation I am referring to is as if it were mounted on the bike (e.g. the back of the top box is the side you insert your key to lock and unlock it, whether the case is mounted or not).

Resources Required

Interior Light

• ~4" White LED Strip (white refers to the color of the LED’s themselves, the PCB can be whatever color) ($15)
• Klus B3755 Anodized Aluminum Mounting Channel Micro K Profile ($11)
• Klus 1547 Frosted Mounting Channel Lens K Cover ($7)
• Klus 1430 End Cap for Mounting Channel Micro K Profile x2 ($6)
• M3 Socket Cap Screw, Black Oxide Finish, 12mm length x2 ($9)
• M3 Washers, Black Oxide Finish x4 ($4)
• M3 Hex Nut, Black Oxide Finish x2 ($8)
• Two Wire Mercury Switch ($10)
• Small rubber grommet ($1)
• Semi-Gloss Black Paint ($18)
• Two-Part 5-minute Epoxy ($13)
• Permatex Clear RTV Silicone Adhesive Sealant ($6)

Running/Brake Light

• Radiantz Ampd Z-Flex LED strip lights, 10.10in, smoke lens ($68)
• A small, two wire connector (M&F) ($4) (2-pin)
• 1 amp/12v Diode & ~510 Ohm Resistor (<$1)
   OR
  Radiantz Dual Element Circuit ($5) [http://www.radiantz.com/Dual-element-circuit-p/19.htm]

Common

• Triumph Part No. T2353262 (sub harness, top box, m) ($33) (#4 on the diagram)
• Triumph Part No. T2353276 (sub harness, top box, f) ($35) (#12 on the diagram)
• AMP 070 Econoseal J Mark II Series Sealed Connector (2xF&1xM) ($12) (2-pin)
• Approximately 3' wiring harness tubing, 8mm diameter ($4)
• Small Zip-Ties ($1)
• 3M Scotch Super33+ Electrical Tape ($4)

Total: ~$275 + ~6 hours work time/3-5 days drying time

Tools Required

• Small-bladed common screwdriver
• T-15 torx driver
• Wire crimper capable of crimping pins for weather-proof connectors such as Hozan P-706
• X-Acto knife
• Utility knife
• Reamer
• Soldering gun/iron
• Solder
• A saw capable of cutting aluminum
• A hobby saw to cut the interior light lens to length
• Drill and various drill bits
• Dremel or other cutting tool
• 400 grit sandpaper
• Hobby brush/applicator

Please note the photos are hosted on Google drive, which is a google.com domain. Some employers block all images that originate from any google.com URL (so employees can’t look at pictures from Google Image Search), so you may not be able to see them while at work.

Due to message size limitations, this how-to is in multiple posts.

[AZBob]

Part I - Building the Interior Light

1. Gather the parts listed required from the list above.

2. Remove the top box outer shell on the top part of the case by removing the five self-tapping screws from the interior. If you put your top box together yourself, you know this procedure. Keep track of the middle screw as it has a washer.

3. On the top of the back of the inner shell of the case, there is a fairly large indentation/cavity/void/whatever you want to call it that sits at approximately 45 degrees when the case is closed. This is where we are going to mount the interior light and the mercury switch.

4. Cut the LED strip to encompass six LED’s, which should come to approximately 3.9” or 10cm.

5. Cut the aluminum channel to 6” -- this will leave enough room on either side of the LED strip when glued into place to drill a hole for the wires to exit the back of the strip and the end caps to not encroach on the LED strip when attached. I am giving exact measurements based on my experience, but if you choose other components for the light, be sure to measure everything and leave room for the mercury switch.

6. We are using the end caps as the mechanical attachment, so they need to have the extra bit of plastic under the round parts removed so they sit flush on the inside of the case. I removed these bits with a dremel tool using a plastic cut-off wheel, but they can also be removed with a hobby saw or X-Acto knife. Take your time and work slowly. (see the pictures for the exact material to remove) After you have them the way you want them, test fit them in the aluminum channel so you can see how they fit for later. We will be gluing them in, so you won’t hurt anything test-fitting them (but don’t fully seat them because they will be difficult to remove). Be sure to test fit them with the LED strip in place so you can see if you need to remove any of the inside of the end cap to fit over the LED strip -- if you cut your aluminum channel correctly, there should be enough extra room for the endcaps past the LED strip on each side.



7. Drill a 3mm hole in each of the end caps (see completed picture for location). We will mount screws through these holes to hold the light to the box (we will also use RTV adhesive/sealant to glue the light to the box and seal the hole around the light fixture).

8. Test fit the LED strip in the aluminum channel. Mark and drill a hole for the wires just past where the LED strip ends, but before the end cap starts. Fit a rubber grommet to this hole so the wires can’t rub through when mounted.

9. The aluminum channel is anodized and the plastic end caps are beige. We want them to be black, so now is the time to paint them. Prepare your pieces by sanding the aluminum channel a bit with 400 grit sandpaper to give the paint something to stick to. Likewise, sand the end cap plastic (don’t go crazy, just rough up the plastic bits, and get the surface areas of the aluminum channel dull). Be sure to wipe everything down with an alcohol-soaked towel and then use gloves to handle the pieces so you don’t get any body oils on the parts once they are clean. Use light coats of paint, generally three should suffice. The light will be on the inside of the case, so shooting a clear coat over the dried black is not necessary IMO, but go ahead if you like. Let the pieces dry for as long as it takes for them to stop smelling like paint (this could take anywhere from 24 hours to several days). Handling the pieces before they are fully dry will make you sad.

10. Once the pieces are dry, you can put everything together. Test fit the LED strip again, and then mix your epoxy (you will need very little, so don’t mix up a ton). Feed the LED wires through the hole you made in step 7, lay down a film of epoxy in the aluminum channel, remove the paper backing from the sticky back of the LED strip (if yours has one), and carefully lay the LED strip in the aluminum channel. You have a few minutes working time, so get it where you want it, then use something with some weight to hold the strip down while it dries so it doesn’t come up. Be careful that you don’t get any epoxy glue in the channel area other than where the back of the LED sits because it will make it difficult to place the lens, later.

11. Test fit the now painted end-caps. We want to insert them where they go in the ends of the channel, but we want to glue them in place so they can’t come out because they will be holding the light in place. Place a bit of epoxy in the end of the channel where the end caps mate with the channel and push the end caps into place. They are a little bit difficult to get into place by design, so you’ll probably need a bit of pressure. This is why we need to make sure the paint is completely dry before putting the light together. Let the LED strip and end caps glue dry for 24 hours.

12. Measure to cut the lens to the correct size using a hobby saw with a blade specific to plastic (it makes it a lot easier). The lens just snaps/friction fits into place in the aluminum channel, however, if there are any gobs of extra epoxy anywhere, it might be a little difficult to do so. If you didn’t clean up prior, you may have some luck scraping the extra epoxy out with an X-Acto knife. Your best bet is not to allow any epoxy to get where it’s not supposed to and clean up any that does immediately with a water-soaked towel.

[AZBob]

Part II - Top Box Light Wiring/Light Install

After the interior light is built, we want to take the top box apart to the extent that is possible to run our wires (from doing the measurements in part I, the outer shell of the top of the case should already be off, but if you’re only doing the running/brake light, remove the outer shell of the top of the top box by removing the five screws from the interior). For this installation, we will need more wires run into the top box than Triumph does from the factory: an always-on 12v run direct from the battery (or power distribution block), and your running/brake light tap. Luckily, the stock connector on the sliding carriage/top box has two unused slots.

Regarding the running/brake light, it is important to understand that the bike's native running and brake light are on two different wires, so they must be combined to be able to do what we want -- I will explain how to accomplish that in Part III (the combined wire is required by the LED itself, so it’s not useful to waste the connector pin on the two separate wires -- instead we combine them before the bike-side connector so that we 1) save space in the top box and 2) keep the maximum number of the 4 connector pins on the sliding carriage available for our use.)

1. The first thing to do is cut the hole for your interior light. The light will face the interior, so we just need a hole the size of the rectangular bit of the aluminum channel and the enclosing part of the endcap (the endcap round bits will fit inside the case), as seen from its back (see picture from step 33 for clarification). The light should be roughly centered left to right and top to bottom. The best way to do this that I found is to simply use the light itself as a guide, and use blue painter’s tape to mark a void where you want the hole. I highly recommend cutting the hole a bit smaller than you will need, and then trimming it out to the size required with a utility knife, plastic file, or sandpaper. To cut the hole, I used a dremel with a plastic cut-off wheel to do the two horizontal cuts, and a utility knife to do the vertical cuts (the wheel’s diameter is too large to do the verticals without cutting way beyond the height required). Turn the dremels speed down to the lowest so you’re not melting too much plastic and WORK SLOWLY. Be sure to do all of your cutting from the OUTSIDE of the case because it doesn’t matter what that looks like. Test fit your light from the INSIDE however, because the plastic is thick and you may not be cutting it perpendicular to its plane, making the inside hole slightly larger than the outside, or vice-versa. It’s a lot easier to remove material than add it back., so work slowly and come up to the size you need gradually, test fitting frequently.

2. Once the mounting hole is the size you need to fit your light, temporarily fit the light and mark the two holes on the case from the inside where you drilled the 3mm holes in the end caps in Part I, step 7. Remove the light and drill these two little holes through the case. Put the light to the side for now and continue with the wiring (we will mount the light after almost all the wiring is complete). You may want to drill these a holes a little larger than 3mm because it will make it easier to line them up, later.

3. Flip your top box over (such that the bottom is facing you) and you will notice a panel with six screws. This panel provides access to the sliding connector (and its wiring) that mates with the static connector on the sliding carriage on the bike. Remove the six screws securing this panel.

4. With the panel removed, you can see how the connector works: pushing the handle of the top box down moves the connector rearward, mating it with the static connector. We are going to add the two extra male connectors from Triumph part no. T2353262 into the connector. Begin by removing the self-tapping screw that holds the connector parts together.



5. Pry the retainer that holds down the pins up by using a small-bladed screwdriver. It is only held down by a dab of black adhesive.



6. Snip the zip tie that holds the wires to the assembly (be careful not to damage the wire!). With the retainer removed, you can insert the pins from the additional wires into the connector. I chose to keep the red and black wires together on the same side to make it easy to remember what was where.



7. In addition to the two wires we need for the running/brake light and interior light, we will also need a ground, so we need to tap the stock ground wire. To do so, carefully remove the tape to expose the insulation of the stock black wire back approximately where the wire curves into its slot.

8. Carefully remove approximately 1/4" insulation without nicking the wire using an X-Acto knife or other suitable tool. (in my pictures, I tapped both the existing switched power and negative wires; I don’t remember why I did this and I ended up just leaving my switched power extension unattached to anything, so ignore that)



9. Connect an 18 awg extension wire (the brown wire in the pictures) of approximately three feet by twisting an approximately 1/4" bare section of the extension wire around the exposed section of stock wire. Carefully solder this connection. Align the wire such that the extension will flow toward the front of the box so that when you tape it, there is not strain on the soldered connection.



10. Tape the exposed wire with your electrical tape to seal the connection from weather. Usually, I go over twice, once in one direction, and then back in the other.



11. Replace the self-tapping screw into the connector cover and secure the wires to the assembly as they originally were with a small zip tie and snip the excess.



12. Replace the retainer by placing a dab of hot glue down where the RTV was and pushing it into place.





13. Run the new tap extension, as well as the two new wires into the wiring harness tubing, and tape the wiring harness tubing to the stock wiring bundle with electrical tape much as it was originally, such that the new wires run straight toward the front of the box (see pictures), being sure to leave slack for the connector to move back and forward freely, without binding. Everything should almost look back to stock at this point, with a few extra wires running off toward the front of the case.

14. Now the hard part... drilling holes in our expensive case. We need to drill an approximately 1/4" hole in the case where we want the wires to exit from the bottom into the space between the inner and outer shell of the bottom of the case (see pictures for exact location). Be sure when drilling to not run the drill bit through the outer shell. Drill a small hole first, then step up to the 1/4” bit or you may find your bit walking on you. I used a center punch to mark my hole, followed by a small drill bit of less than 1/8", then moved up to the 1/4" bit, but even that was really too aggressive and I found myself man-handling my drill because the plastic is quite thick. Use this technique for drilling all three of the large holes in the case.



15. After your hole is drilled, I recommend placing a band of adhesive-lined shrink tube around the part of the wire that will be in contact with the hole to cut down on the possibility of the plastic rubbing through the wiring (see pictures). Nothing bad will happen, but your lights will stop working after while if it ends up cutting all the way through. An alternative would be to use a grommet, but the plastic is quite thick and I couldn't find a grommet that fit.



16. Once your wire is protected, feed it through the hole. We'll feed it up to where we want it to go from the other (top) side.





17. We’re done with the bottom of the case now, so replace the cover and the six screws removed in step 3.

18. We have to drill another hole (of the same size) to feed the wire from the bottom of the case to the top. I drilled this hole just to the left of the right hinge in the fattest part of that area (there is a molding mark there and I pretty much centered my hole in that mark -- see pictures for exact placement). It is easiest to do this by separating the top and bottom of the case. Do that by removing the four screws from the hinges. Note which side has washers so you can put them back in the same place.



19. Now that you have the second hole drilled, feed the wire up through that hole. The outer case wall has a lot of give, so you can temporarily pry it away from the inner wall to reach between them to fish your wire up. I actually used some plastic auto body pry tools because I did the work myself, but if you have a helper they can probably hold the outer wall far enough apart for you to reach in and grab your wiring harness and feed it through the hole.



20. As with the other hole, either use a grommet or apply a length of adhesive-lined shrink tube to the section of wire that goes through the hole so it doesn't wear through. Be sure the shrink tube is long enough to also protect against chaffing in the opened case through the hole in the top of the case, which we will drill next.

21. Drill the same diameter hole in the top of the case, directly above where you put the prior one so that the wire can run up into the top of the case. (see pictures for exact location).



22. You can screw the hinges back together now. Be sure to check that the case closes completely, and easily. There is some play in the hinges, so I'd recommend snugging the screws up, closing the case and checking to make sure it opens and closes easily, and then fully tightening.







23. Run the wire around the right side of the case, keeping it above the lip. I used some black Gorilla tape to keep it where I wanted it. Note that on the side, it has to run around the two square notches that the outer part of the top case mate with or else the outer shell won't sit correctly. (the outer shell has two tabs that sit in those notches)



24. Run the wire to the back where all the open space is. There is tons of room here, and this is where we will be mounting the interior light, mercury switch, and connector for the running/brake light. If you’re only mounting the running/brake light, skip to step 28.

25. Mount the interior light you built in Part I into its mounting hole and secure it with the two M3 screws, four washers, and two hex nuts (one washer inside the case, one outside the case, on both sides). The nuts should be on the outside of the case.

26. Mount the mercury switch next to the interior light on the same void. I mounted mine to the left of the light. Be sure to orient the switch correctly such that it is ON when the top of the case is at or near vertical, and OFF when it is horizontal (for the linked switch, this means mount it with the wires facing up). My switch mounts simply with two-sided tape, yours may vary. If it mounts with two-sided tape, be sure to clean the area where it’s mounting with an alcohol-soaked towel for better adhesion.

27. The ground wire coming from your wiring bundle needs to be run to both the interior and exterior light, so we need to connect a short run of wire to it. The easiest way to do this is with a 20awg butt connector, crimping the connection, however, if you don’t have one, you can fall back to simply twisting the wires together and soldering them (be sure to protect the connection with either shrink tube or electrical tape)

28. The interior light wiring can be made permanent, so run the positive wire from the LED strip to one of the wires on the mercury switch, and run the unswitched power wire from your wire bundle to the other wire of the mercury switch. As with the grounds, I prefer to use mechanically crimped butt connectors, but you can simply twist the wires together and solder them. You’ll want to cut the wires you’re dealing with to an appropriate length at this time to keep the mess to a minimum. You can use Gorilla tape to secure the wires to the case so they don’t move around while riding.

29. Lastly, connect the other ground wire you connected in step 25 (or the only ground wire, if you’re installing only the running/brake light) along with the running/brake light wire from your bundle to a two-pin connector. How you do this depends on the connector you use. Having a connector enables us to have short run of wire from the Radiantz LED so there isn’t a bunch of wire bouncing around, but still be able to get the outer shell of the top case off, if need be.

30. I specify the 10.10 inch Radiantz Z-Flex, but you can mount a longer light on the outside of the case if you choose by moving the light higher (the case dictates the maximum width of any light bar, obviously). The position and size I chose for both visibility and aesthetics. To mount the Radiantz LED, figure out where you want it to go and drill a small hole to run the wires through (I ran the wires on the right side of the light). The hole should be made such that you can’t see it when the light mounted.

31. Mount your light using the two-face tape. Be sure to wipe the case cover down with an alcohol-soaked towel in the area where the tape will adhere. If you have waxed or otherwise applied some manner of paint protectant to the case cover, be sure to completely remove it or else your light WILL eventually fall off. I measured where I wanted the light with a ruler and marked the bottom and left/right of the area with blue painter’s tape so that I only had to align the light with the tape and press -- all of the measuring was already done without any exposed sticky tape waiting to stick on something.

32. The leads from the Radiantz LED are quite long, so you’ll want to cut them down to something manageable and mount them to the opposite gender connector you used in step 26.

33. All of your wiring should be done now, the only thing left is to seal the lights. If you installed the interior light, using the RTV adhesive/sealant, run a bead all the way around the BACK of the interior light to seal it. Be sure to use enough to close the gap between the hole you cut and the aluminum housing of the light, as well as the screw holes.



34. You’ll also want to put a little bit of the RTV adhesive/sealant where the wires from the Radiantz LED come through the painted top case cover to seal that hole.

35. Before you put the top case cover back on, I highly recommend testing your installation at this point. If you have access to a 12v DC power supply, it will be relatively easy, however if you don’t, you can always pull the battery out of the bike and use it as your power source.

36. Allow about 24 hours for the sealant to dry and then plug in your LED connector and replace the top case cover using the five screws removed in Part I, step 2, keeping in mind that these are self-tapping screws so it’s easy to cross-thread and over-tighten them. I usually place the screw in the hole and turn it COUNTERCLOCKWISE until I can feel it hit the start of the thread (the screw will actually drop a millimeter or two), and then start the screw. Using this method I’ve never cross-threaded a self-tapping screw.

[AZBob]

Part III - Bike Wiring

To mate with the two new wires we ran into the top box from the stock connector, we need to run two wires into the connector on the rear carrier (as previously mentioned, a 12v always-on source direct from the battery (or power block) and the brake/running light wire).

1. We’re going to need to remove the rear carrier and take off the sliding carriage to run the new 4-wire sub-harness through it. These are the instructions for removal from the service manual:

• Remove the pillion seat.
• Remove the four fixings and detach the sliding carriage assembly from the luggage rack. Collect the flanged sleeves.
• Invert the sliding carriage assembly and carefully rest it on the rack.
• Remove the seat latch fixing and allow the latch to drop.
• If fitted,disconnect the rear heated seat switch connector and detach the harness from the rack.
• Remove the four luggage rack fixings, noting the location of the fixings and flanged/plain sleeves.
• Detach the grommet and feed the top box harness connector through the hole in the luggage rack and remove the rack.

2. Turn the sliding carriage over, cut the zip tie holding the sub-harness to the sub-harness cover, remove the two screws holding the sub-harness cover and remove it.

3. Remove the one screw from the sub-harness retainer and remove it.

4. Remove the rubber grommet from the sliding carriage and pull the sub-harness completely out of the sliding carriage.

5. Somewhat of a leap of faith is required here as you’ll need to cut the AMP weatherproof connector off the sub-harness and remove the rubber grommet from the sub-harness. I also removed the tape from the harness to lessen the diameter of the wires and be consistent (you will HAVE TO remove the tape from the extra harness you’re adding).



6. Take your Triumph Part no. T2353276 (the female end of the sub-harness, a duplicate of the one you just cut the weatherproof connector off) and cut the weatherproof connector just like on the stock harness, and remove the tape so both wires can removed from the plastic connector.

7. Feed the new sub-harness wires into the plastic connector the stock wires are in (remember, I ran the red and the black on the same sides as the stock ones, so do the same thing you did back in Part 2, step 6.

8. Feed the wires through an appropriate length of wire harness tubing. You will probably want to mark the two stock wires (the outside pins of the connector) on the opposite side so that you know which ones are which when you rebuild the weatherproof connectors. Now would also be a good time to mark the stock connector on the bike so you know which one is which when you run the new connector, later. Mark either the new or the old one, but do the same thing, unambiguously, in both places (I marked the stock wire with a small piece of blue painters tape).

9. You may find it worthwhile to add a small length of shrink tube to the connector pin side to hold the wires together to keep them in the connector easier.



10. Ream the hole for the rubber grommet so that the new 4-wire sub-harness so that it fits and run the grommet up the harness.

11. Connect the bare wires on the opposite side to the two male AMP 070 Econoseal J Mark II Series weatherproof connectors. Be sure to orient the black and red wires according to the female connector on the bike.



12. We will need to cut a relief in the sub-harness cover because the sub-harness is now more than double the size it was previously. I cut a v in it using a hobby saw and then sanded it round (see pictures).





13. Replace the cover and retainer in the sliding carriage (don’t strip the screws!), being sure the pins are in the connector all the way (it’s kind of tricky). Replace the zip tie you removed in step 2.







14. Run the harness through the hole in the sliding carriage (run one weatherproof connector and then the other) and replace the grommet in the sliding carriage.

15. Replace the sliding carriage and luggage rack in the opposite way it was removed.

16. Run the sub-harness wire to its previous location on the left side of the bike.

17. As I mentioned previously, the brake/running light wire is actually two wires on the bike, so we need to tap the two wires and turn them into one -- thanks to the magic of LED’s this is possible, we just need to reduce the voltage output on the wire for the running light. The tail light connector is a 5-pin connector with two wires we need to tap: yellow, which is the running light, and green/purple, which is the brake light. The connector is behind the tail light. You can access it by removing the tail light assembly (take the pillion seat off, remove the pin, and unscrew the plastic nut, then slide the tail light assembly off; the connector we are looking to tap is the bike-side one, not the one on the tail light itself). There are numerous ways to tap these wires: use Posi-Taps, wire your own connector in between the tail light assembly and the bike connector, etc. However you do it, you need to get those two wires from the tail light connector over to the left side of the bike, where the connector for the rear carrier lives.

18. Once you have those wires run, you have a choice to make: purchase a small harness that will turn those two wires into one, or build your own. Honestly, the $5 one that Radiantz sells is guaranteed to work and is cheap enough not to worry about, however, if you want to create your own, go on to the next step, otherwise, skip to step 25. If you have a brake light controller such as the Skene Design P3 lights with the IQ-260 controller, simply connect the same wire that controls your additional brake LED’s (the gray/green wire) to the black wire side of the weatherproof connector and skip to step 25.

19. Because the LED light can be dimmed simply be reducing the voltage, we can create a single wire harness to do this for us. Connect a ~510 ohm resistor to the wire tap off the running light, connect the 12v/1amp diode to the wire tap off the brake light, and connect the open ends of the resistor and diode together via a wire that connects them both. This wire is the wire that you will connect to the black side of the weatherproof connector. The resistor will lower the voltage of the line so that when the running light is on (normal), the LED will be at about half brightness; the diode is there since we are connecting these two wires together, we don’t want electricity travelling down the brake wire just because the bike is on (that would cause the bike to think the brakes are on and your cruise control wouldn’t work).

20. If you are installing the interior light, you will need unswitched power. To get it, we need to run a wire, either directly from the battery, from another unswitched power source, or from a power distribution block that can provide constant power. If you run a wire directly from the battery, you will need to make sure to use at least 16awg wire and to include a 5 amp fuse in the circuit to protect it. I do not have information on which circuits on the bike are unswitched, so I can’t advise on what circuit to tap for power. I highly suggest getting a power distribution block (since I doubt this is your one and only electrical modification) and those always have to be fed directly from the battery.

21. Once you’ve figured out which wire to use for the running/brake light and where to get unswitched power from (if you’re installing the interior light), connect the unswitched power wire to the red side of the female weatherproof connector and the running/brake light wire to the black side of the female weatherproof connector (the black and red sides refer to the color of the wires as they appear positioned in the existing, stock connector that connects to the luggage carrier).

22. Connect the sub-harness from the sliding carriage into the connectors being sure to connect the correct ones to the original and new connectors (you marked them in step 12, right?).

23. Now would be a good time for a continuity check using a multimeter. Simply turn the key to run and use your probes on the sliding carriage electrical connector to check the +12v always on (if installed) and the running/brake light pins (ground is the right-most pin, running/brake light is the second from the right, and the unswitched is the second from the left). The running/brake light should show 12v when the brake is held, and some amount less than 12v when the brakes are off.

24. Put the sliding carriage and the luggage carrier back together. Installation is reverse of removal.

25. At this point, everything should be done. Mount the top box on the sliding carriage and open the top box. The interior light should come on. Turn on the ignition (no need to start the bike), the rear running light should illuminate. Pull the brake lever or push the brake pedal, and the rear running light should turn bright to indicate braking.

26. If you installed the interior light, you now have an unswitched power wire exposed in your sliding carriage connector, so be sure to carry your rubber connector cover that came with the bike with you in case you take the top box off (e.g. on an overnight trip) so that you can replace it to protect the contacts from being shorted via water or foreign material ingress. Obviously, if you ride without the top box, also be sure to install the rubber cover.

[earthman]

Very good, thanks for posting.

[OhioWinger]

Wow, one hell of a how to!

Thanks for sharing!

[ShaunDW]

 

A lot of time and effort obviously went into that - thank you!

 

[RPDATA]

And the "how to" Oscar goes to........

Thanks for taking the time to do that. Very helpful.

Rob