Hi guys, I'm a new member here but have been lurking and reading some useful info for a long time. I bought a 96 Springer this fall with the plans of re building it this winter. Well I put a heritage rear fender and replaced the rear turn signals and brake light with an aftermarket tombstyle style with the blinkers in it. The factory harness is a 7 wire and the new lights is a six wire, power and ground per bulb. As I sit here mocking it up all my lights are on, blinkers are solid when I hit the switches, and brake light is always on. My question is do I need a module to get this 7 wire (factory) to 6 wire (aftermarket) system to work right? If so, is there one you would recommend from personal experience? Sorry about the lengthy post and thanks for any help in advance!

 

Try running that 7th wire to ground. I have a 98 Springer and recently swapped out my tail light assembly for a bad boy style. You've got two wires per turn signal and three for the brake light. It's just a hunch, but give it a shot. All you'll be wasting is time.

Or maybe tap into the ground for the tail light and run that to the 7th wire in the harness.

 

Thanks for the help Bighec, I'll give it a shot tonight. Your probably right as I suppose I have to have a complete circuit for anything to work right.

 

I've found that many aftermarket lights tend to be self grounded while Harley provides an individual ground wire for just about everything. My guess would be that the wire that "missing" from the aftermarket light is the ground for the tail light...

 

Exactly. The tail light kit I bought had one of the three wires running to ground on the body. I just spliced that into the existing harness to make it work like OEM.

 

Alright, tonight I grounded the ground for the taillight to the frame hooked up the taillights and still the same thing. Both filaments of the bulb are on. On the turn signal side, same thing, on constant with the switch. One thing I forgot to mention before was that I removed the front turn signals completely. I'm thinking now that I need a load equalizer to correct the problem? Also on the factory wiring I've got voltage on blue wire constant to taillight, and red wire is brake light, do both wires get hooked to power on my aftermarket set up? Hell I deal with electricity everyday as a lineman, but wiring always seems to stump me for a bit. Thanks for the help guys.

 

You may want to get a factory manual. Lots of good info there.

Looking at my 1997 Heritage manual, the wiring is as follows:
black - ground (there should be three different wires, one for each light)
brown - right rear turn signal
violet - left rear turn signal
blue - tail light
red/ yellow - brake light

You did not say what light you have but you will have to have 4 lines with power - 1 r turn signal, 2 l turn signal, 3 tail light, 4 brake light. These will be separate lines. Do you have any instructions for the new light?

You probably will need a load equalizer for the turn signals since you eliminated the fronts. The turn signal module is sensing the load and trying to indicate a bulb is out.

 

Kona- yep your right, same wiring as what I've got. The factory service manual I have is right on as well. No, no instructions with the light, it's a JP cycles tombstone kit. Might not have been my best choice now but I've already drilled and painted the fender to fit the light so I'm kinda suck with it. Ok I'll look into a load equalizer for the front turn signals, appreciate the help.

 

If it was this tail light - J&P Cycles® Tombstone Taillight and Turn Signal Combo. J&P had instructions online, see the attachment. All the wires on the tail light are signal wires and ground is through the chassis.

 

Kona- Yep that's it! Dang I didn't think to look on line, would have saved allot of questions! You've been allot of help and its much appreciated!! Thanks again.