inside my California Sidecar, there is a bundle of wires coming from SOMEWHERE. its in the lift up clamshell...
there is a red, black, blue/white, blue/black and a a couple of 'zip wire' (like lampcord) but i dont recall the colors...
it LOOKS like there is power on the black and blue/white, at least when the key is on although i was only getting about 10.5vdc. that might be my battery (used bike, just picked up blah blah blah...)
does anyone know what these wires are for or how to get power to them? i want to add a cigarette lighter power point and a light underneath the clamshell...
I don't have a California sidecar, but 10.5 volts is nominal for a 12-volt system with the key on but the engine off. In other words, you can treat those two lines as 12-volt switched circuits. They are switched, right? Meaning there's no power to them with the key off? If you get 10.5 volts on these lines with the key off, then they're unswitched full power circuits. The other wires--some of them are grounds, for sure, and the others are probably going to the turn signals or the running lights. Try testing them with the engine running and the blinker on.
As for tapping into black or the blue/white for your light or accessory plug, it depends a bit on what those lines are already being used for and how big a fuse are they connected to. If the clamshell light you want to add is a little LED that draws 1/2 watt, then no worries. But it's a whole nother matter if you want a 10-watt spotlight, or gonna plug in 50 watts of heated clothing to the accessory socket.
You might get better answers if you posted some good pics of the wiring. But chances are, you got some investigating to do!
10.5 volts is LOW for a 12-volt system with the key on but the engine off. ive got 4 other motorcycles and not ONE of them puts out less than 11.9vdc....
ive only come across ONE of them that could be a ground (at least with the bike off/switch on)...
the 'pairs' are only about 18 or 20 awg...
ill have to look and see where these come into the hack and maybe just replace them all with switched from the battery without going through the ignition...
all i want for the lights is EXACTLY that. LED fixtures. i could even go with just some battery operated 'stick up' lights like ive seen advertised at wingstuff for use in the trunk...
thanks...
Ltdave, Harbor Freight has a battery powered unit about the size of a deck of cards for around $4. Has a 3 led "flashlight" off one end or a 27 led area light off the face. On the backside is a magnet for attaching to a metal surface or a hook to hang it up by. Batteries included and bright enough to read by at night.
for mine, I ran a pos and neg lead from the bike with a #10 wire from the bikes system ,.. through a trailer plug ran it to the chair,..behind the seat I put a truck battery that is fed from the bike,...my car's lights are fed from a switch on the bike that also turns on my spots below the head light,...when car is on,..the cig lighter powers my daughter's DVD player and in the cold or heavy load, the truck batt provides the extra reserve to keep the bike's battery from draining, while running both batts are charged,...I have also used a riding lawnmower batt. in the chair,....my car runs 2 tail lights, a front spot, 2 markers, 2 55 watt spots below the headlight,..and kids radio or DVD,...never a charging, cold start or power issues in 5 years,..as I frequently remove my chair for solo rides,..the quick pull plug works great,..and keeps the bike and chair system seperate,...yet charged while running,..I don't have signals on the chair,....run your color code to suit your needs with a black to ground and a color to feed the light or accessory and draw it out for your records and you'll be fine when the memory starts to fade,..hehe ,..good luck, crawf.
well, i looked at all of the wires again...
i have a pair, powered with key on and all of the rest are completely dead either key on or bike running...
looks like im going to try and set something up like Crawf...
XJ 550,..slammed one of those into a deer in '93,..great bike,..the key on power is your "charging feed" from the stator,.. other may be from headlight / markers... good luck with it cheers crawf.
Dave,
I have a CSC that came off a 91 Wing. I do not believe that CSC did the wiring as it is a mess and certainly not professional or even close to it. I have been working on it for over a week. As for color codes, there aint none!. However, here is what I traced out so far:
Ground
Headlights (spot lights)
Red Running light
Red Stop light
Left turn signal
Right turn signal
+ 12 volt power for radio and cig. lighter plug
7 in all.
My problem now is to locate all those connections on my Triumph. I am installing a switch to turn on/off the spot lights as I don't want them on all the time. Looks like this and the side car connection are going to be a winter project. I got plenty of fire wood for the wood stove.
The wires regarding the rear lighting can be tapped into the rear lighting harness wires using 3M connectors.
Lonnie
