Man, that is great!! Thanks for the write up as I am planning on doing the same thing next week. I just ordered a bunch of new mods and plan on spending a day getting everything done at once. This will make it alot easier now that I have a shopping list! Those lights look great on there, nice bike!
Wiring the Wal-Mart Driving Lights to the Highway Bars
3
Hi all, to those of you who asked about the wiring for the lights from my recent thread "Unveiling My Bike...", I had some time to recall the procedure for the wiring of the Wal-Mart Driving Lights
What you will need:
Pilot Motorsports: Wiring Harness w/Switch part PL-HARN3 from Pep Boys--- you will be cutting this harness up…
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1 spool of 12 gauge red wire and 1 spool of 12 gauge black wire from radio shack
Black wire ties from Wal-Mart
2 packages of heat shrink from Wal-Mart
2 “eye-type” terminal connectors to connect red and black wire to the battery - got it in a package from Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Driving Lights
An exterior grade 12v switch (tip: nothing from radio shack, nothing they make is exterior grade) -- either order a handlebar mounted 12v switch online, or go to a marine supply store, or your local motorcycle shop. I got a handlebar mounted 12v switch and took it all apart to the guts of the switch then mounted it into my speedo housing.
A roll of Plastic Wire Cover from Wal-Mart
Soldering iron and solder….I use small silver solder from Radio Shack
Instructions:
First off, I mounted the lights to the first bolt on the Paladin Highway bars…use lock tight for this, you don’t want those coming out on you. There is some issue that the U-bolts provided by National Cycle might not be long enough but this isn’t a problem…take one off and take it with you to the Home Depot and find the nearest larger one and bend it a little to fit then cut the threads to a more manageable length…the Home depot U-bolts are better than the ones that National Cycle provides anyway…also remember to use lock-tight and lock washers on the mounts for the driving lights.
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In this picture you see the Home Depot u-Bolt and the Wal-Mart driving lights and the plastic wire cover.
After I mounted the lights I moved on to pulling the power from the Battery….
Now is a good time to stop and talk about your connections…all of the connections that you will make should be soldered then heat shrunk…remember to slip on the right size heat shrink before you splice and solder.
First disconnect the battery cables so the bike is truly dead. (tip: place something like a short piece of spare 12 gauge wire under the nut on the battery terminal…this will help you get the screw back on later)
Take the in-line fuse that came with the driving lights and cut it off its wire leaving a few inches to either side. Then solder and heat shrink in about 10 inches of the red radio shack 12 gauge wire to one side of the fuse and about 5 ft of the red radio shack wire to the other side. Next at the end of the 10” side Crimp then solder on a Battery connector.
Next take about 5 ft of the black wire and on one end crimp then solder another battery cable. Do Not connect to the battery at this time….that will be the last thing that you do.
If you look where the main wires are headed from the battery to the headlight bucket you will see that they run up the right hand side of the top frame right under the tank. Your going to bind the red and black wires together every few inches with electrical tape and run it up next to those wires…to do this I needed a buddy with me. I unscrewed the back tank bolt and had him lift the tank up and inch or two, so I could route the wire and connect it to the main wires with a few black wire ties. ( tip: Be very careful not to let any vacuum hoses come off the tank in this process.) Your end goal is to get the bound black and red wire to fall with its slack next to the neck on the right hand side of the bike. This is where we will make most of our connections leaving enough of slack to push everything into the headlight bucket. Secure the tank back to the frame.
Now your ready to start to cut up the Pilot pl-harn3 wiring harness, and the wiring harness that the Wal-Mart lights were supplied with. In the wiring harness that came with the Wal-Mart Lights find the lengths of wire that connects to the lights and cut them several feet back from the connectors. Slide some large heat shrink over it and connect the plug connectors from the lights to the shot of wire. Next slide the heat shrink over the plug connectors and heat em’ up. (tip: I did not solder these connectors so if I want to replace the 15 dollar lights with something better someday it will be an easy job, but feel free to cut the connectors away and solder in the wire directly to the lights if you want) Now, route the wire up the frame next to the radiator then up inside the neck and have both sides exit the neck on the right hand side where the rest of the main wires exit the neck. You should have a few feet of slack left over to work with from each light.
Next, open the Head Light Bucket and pull out, through the back, the RED plug connector which contains a dark blue wire with white piping….this is the wire that we will use to trigger the relay. Cut that wire and splice in a few feet of 16 gauge wire remembering to solder and heat shrink the connection. This is the wire that will go to your switch, whether you put it into the speedo housing, or on the neck, or mounted on the handlebars. Now from the switch you will run another piece of 16 gauge wire to the trigger terminal on the relay housing which happens to be the thin white wire coming from the housing.
Also from that housing are 2 larger gauge double white wires. These are the wires that will go to your lights Connect the white wire from each light to the double white wire off of the relay housing in one soldered and heat shrunk connection. (tip: twist the white wire from each light together and then twist the two white wires from the relay housing together, and then twist the four wires together to form one large splice)
Connect our red wire from the battery to the large single white wire off from relay housing remembering to solder and heat shrink. This large white wire is the 12v in wire. Leave just enough of slack to place all of these connections back into the headlight bucket.
Connect the four remaining black wires together in a large soldered heat shrunk splice. The four black wires are: 1 each from the lights, the black main wire from the battery, and the ground wire from the relay housing, again, leave just enough of slack to place all of these connections back into the headlight bucket.
Now place all the wires back into the headlight bucket and affix the relay to the relay housing.
Clean up all of your exposed wires with the plastic wire cover.
Connect your Red and Black wires to the battery. (tip: remember to remove the little shots of wire holding up the battery nut) and your going to have to notch the flimsy red plastic casing that covers the red terminal to accommodate the new red wire. YOUR DONE!!!!
Now you are ready to test and button up everything.
I hope this helps those who want to tackle this type of installation. Here is a schematic I found on the internet that might also help with the wiring.
![]()
Good Luck!!!
Joe
What you will need:
Pilot Motorsports: Wiring Harness w/Switch part PL-HARN3 from Pep Boys--- you will be cutting this harness up…
1 spool of 12 gauge red wire and 1 spool of 12 gauge black wire from radio shack
Black wire ties from Wal-Mart
2 packages of heat shrink from Wal-Mart
2 “eye-type” terminal connectors to connect red and black wire to the battery - got it in a package from Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Driving Lights
An exterior grade 12v switch (tip: nothing from radio shack, nothing they make is exterior grade) -- either order a handlebar mounted 12v switch online, or go to a marine supply store, or your local motorcycle shop. I got a handlebar mounted 12v switch and took it all apart to the guts of the switch then mounted it into my speedo housing.
A roll of Plastic Wire Cover from Wal-Mart
Soldering iron and solder….I use small silver solder from Radio Shack
Instructions:
First off, I mounted the lights to the first bolt on the Paladin Highway bars…use lock tight for this, you don’t want those coming out on you. There is some issue that the U-bolts provided by National Cycle might not be long enough but this isn’t a problem…take one off and take it with you to the Home Depot and find the nearest larger one and bend it a little to fit then cut the threads to a more manageable length…the Home depot U-bolts are better than the ones that National Cycle provides anyway…also remember to use lock-tight and lock washers on the mounts for the driving lights.
In this picture you see the Home Depot u-Bolt and the Wal-Mart driving lights and the plastic wire cover.
After I mounted the lights I moved on to pulling the power from the Battery….
Now is a good time to stop and talk about your connections…all of the connections that you will make should be soldered then heat shrunk…remember to slip on the right size heat shrink before you splice and solder.
First disconnect the battery cables so the bike is truly dead. (tip: place something like a short piece of spare 12 gauge wire under the nut on the battery terminal…this will help you get the screw back on later)
Take the in-line fuse that came with the driving lights and cut it off its wire leaving a few inches to either side. Then solder and heat shrink in about 10 inches of the red radio shack 12 gauge wire to one side of the fuse and about 5 ft of the red radio shack wire to the other side. Next at the end of the 10” side Crimp then solder on a Battery connector.
Next take about 5 ft of the black wire and on one end crimp then solder another battery cable. Do Not connect to the battery at this time….that will be the last thing that you do.
If you look where the main wires are headed from the battery to the headlight bucket you will see that they run up the right hand side of the top frame right under the tank. Your going to bind the red and black wires together every few inches with electrical tape and run it up next to those wires…to do this I needed a buddy with me. I unscrewed the back tank bolt and had him lift the tank up and inch or two, so I could route the wire and connect it to the main wires with a few black wire ties. ( tip: Be very careful not to let any vacuum hoses come off the tank in this process.) Your end goal is to get the bound black and red wire to fall with its slack next to the neck on the right hand side of the bike. This is where we will make most of our connections leaving enough of slack to push everything into the headlight bucket. Secure the tank back to the frame.
Now your ready to start to cut up the Pilot pl-harn3 wiring harness, and the wiring harness that the Wal-Mart lights were supplied with. In the wiring harness that came with the Wal-Mart Lights find the lengths of wire that connects to the lights and cut them several feet back from the connectors. Slide some large heat shrink over it and connect the plug connectors from the lights to the shot of wire. Next slide the heat shrink over the plug connectors and heat em’ up. (tip: I did not solder these connectors so if I want to replace the 15 dollar lights with something better someday it will be an easy job, but feel free to cut the connectors away and solder in the wire directly to the lights if you want) Now, route the wire up the frame next to the radiator then up inside the neck and have both sides exit the neck on the right hand side where the rest of the main wires exit the neck. You should have a few feet of slack left over to work with from each light.
Next, open the Head Light Bucket and pull out, through the back, the RED plug connector which contains a dark blue wire with white piping….this is the wire that we will use to trigger the relay. Cut that wire and splice in a few feet of 16 gauge wire remembering to solder and heat shrink the connection. This is the wire that will go to your switch, whether you put it into the speedo housing, or on the neck, or mounted on the handlebars. Now from the switch you will run another piece of 16 gauge wire to the trigger terminal on the relay housing which happens to be the thin white wire coming from the housing.
Also from that housing are 2 larger gauge double white wires. These are the wires that will go to your lights Connect the white wire from each light to the double white wire off of the relay housing in one soldered and heat shrunk connection. (tip: twist the white wire from each light together and then twist the two white wires from the relay housing together, and then twist the four wires together to form one large splice)
Connect our red wire from the battery to the large single white wire off from relay housing remembering to solder and heat shrink. This large white wire is the 12v in wire. Leave just enough of slack to place all of these connections back into the headlight bucket.
Connect the four remaining black wires together in a large soldered heat shrunk splice. The four black wires are: 1 each from the lights, the black main wire from the battery, and the ground wire from the relay housing, again, leave just enough of slack to place all of these connections back into the headlight bucket.
Now place all the wires back into the headlight bucket and affix the relay to the relay housing.
Clean up all of your exposed wires with the plastic wire cover.
Connect your Red and Black wires to the battery. (tip: remember to remove the little shots of wire holding up the battery nut) and your going to have to notch the flimsy red plastic casing that covers the red terminal to accommodate the new red wire. YOUR DONE!!!!
Now you are ready to test and button up everything.
I hope this helps those who want to tackle this type of installation. Here is a schematic I found on the internet that might also help with the wiring.
Good Luck!!!
Joe
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I HAVE THE SAME LIGHTS INA DIFERENT PLACE
atriot:Thanks for the write up! I will try this.
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