I tried to add a set of bullet lights to my tail light. When I turn the bike on it trips the breaker. I want them to be additional run/brake lights.

 

Welcome to the Forum!

Sounds like you have a direct short to ground. I'd double check your wiring.

What year is your bike? If you post up pics of how you have it wired you might get some helpful advice.

You could also purchase a run turn brake controller which is plug and play into your taillight harness under your seat, and use your existing rear turn signals as running & brake lights. I would think it would be perfunctory to piggyback your new bullet lights from your existing turn signals if you did that.

Be warned, adding additional lights to your system may over tax your headlight circuit. I was blowing my headlight fuse when I added a run turn brake controller, I solved the problem temporarily by using a 20 amp fuse, until I had the chance to rewire my passing lights to the Aux circuit which has the side benefit of allowing you to run your passing lights with your high beam as well. I have a how-too thread on this if you're interested.

 

Thanks Joe G. I have a 2013 Deluxe. In my 45 years of riding and building bikes this is the first newer technology bike I have owned. When I hook up the bullets to my tail light and switch the bike on a breaker trips. When I turn the switch off and then on again it lights for a few seconds then trips again. This is how I have it wired.

 

Your diagram looks like it should work. But, tripping main circuit breaker means you must have a dead short to ground somewhere in your wiring.

My experience is with older bikes with a fuse for the headlight/Taillight. Perhaps the newer bikes have a circuit breaker on the headlight system like cars do (which would make sense, I rode with no lights a couple of times after installing a Run Turn Brake adaptor until I rewired my passing lights (which were upgraded to 55w bulbs) to the Aux circuit).

Frankly the newer bikes with the Canbus systems and reporting on lights being burned out will not like your mod even if you get it I suspect, and you'll get the dash light for a light out.

I would suggest you just use a Run Turn Brake controller which will turn your rear turn signals into running and brake lights, you can get it from Harley or one that will blink the stop lights from Custom Dynamics.

If you are intent on wiring it the way you have it, I would suggest you go over your wiring carefully as I really think you have a short (remove the bulbs to check would be an easy way after visual verification), and if you find none, perhaps the extra bulbs are too much of a load for the system. Might want to try with the passing lights turned off as I think about it. If it appears to be a load issue and not a wiring issue, try using a LED 1157 which you can get cheaply at Walmart or online. The LED's will have such a low current draw that I would suggest that they wouldn't cause a problem with your can bus system. Be careful with the super cheap LED's you can buy on eBay, in my experience they don't last and the difference between running and brake is minimal.

LA_Dog has researched and found a super bright LED solution:

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...bs-ez-mod.html

 

Thanks, I already have the run/brake/turn adapter in my bike. I thought of the idea of trying led's. I'm going to check with my cousins friend who is a mechanic for Harley. I hope he has an answer. It's times like this I regret trading in my 72 FLH. lol. Thanks again. When I get some positive info I'll post it.

 

If you already have the RTB controller I bet the two extra bulbs are overloading the circuit breaker. I'd take the bulbs out of the new sockets and see what happens. If it doesn't trip, try LED bulbs.

 

I spoke to an old friend of mine who is a harley mechanic and he said the extra bulbs shouldn't be a problem on the load. I'll keep searching for the answer. I also want to add 2 directional lights. This is what I want to add. This is my bike. I photoshopped the extra lights in. Thanks for your help Joe.

 

Sweet bike!! Love the pan bags and rocket tips.

I would tend to agree that the extra bulbs shouldn't matter, guys on my heritage springer forum add extra lights all the time.

Did you try it without the bulbs installed? If it works with no extra bulbs, start plugging them in one by one until the problem happens. Try another socket to see if it's that particular socket or if it's a load issue. If you find a bad socket either that socket has a short or there is a wiring problem. If it happens with no bulbs in, then it's a wiring problem.

One thing I just realized - the rear bullet turn signals are made for 1156 bulbs - single filament. The RTB controller turns the 1156 into a running and brake light by varying the voltage. The tombstone is obviously 1157, dual filament. You didn't try to use 1156 bullets with your 1157 wiring from the tombstone, did you?

 

I haven't been down to my garage yet. I'm going there this afternoon. I have single filament 1156's for the directionals. The ones I want to use for the brake/run lights are dual filament 1157's. I might try just replacing the lights on the license plate with single filament lights and hooking them up to my front fender tip light and just have them as run lights. I haven't tried my directional lights yet because I'm waiting for my saddlebag guards to come back from the chromer.

 

The sockets are completely different for 1156 (a single contact in the middle of the socket) and 1157 bulbs (two contacts in the socket)

The bulbs have different keyed pins on the side so you shouldn't be able to put the wrong bulb in the wrong socket.

(Edit: removed nonsense about diagram, my mistake)