[tdsnuggs]

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Good evening Gurus and others.

I'm giving serious consideration to replacing the brake/tail lamps and turn signal lamps on my 85 Aspy with LED bulbs. I need some input from those who have already done this mod and from anyone else that can help. I am familiar with the www.superbrightleds.com website, and am considering their products.

First question: Which bulbs have others used with success? Also, I want as much brightness as possible. Has anyone had success fitting the 30 LED bulbs, or are they too large for the space behind the brake and turn signal reflectors? What about the 30 LED right angle bulbs?

Second question: I know that due to the muchlower power requirements of the leds my thermal flashers will most likely be rendered useless. Can anyone recommend a part number and source for replacement digital flashers.?

Third question: Since the "tailight out" warning light on the instrument panel will likely come on due to the lower power requirements of the LED bulbs, is it possible to disable the warning light, e.g. remove the bulb from the instrument panel?

Thanks for any and all input,

TDS

 

[exavid]

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tdsnuggs wrote:

Good evening Gurus and others.

Second question: I know that due to the muchlower power requirements of the leds my thermal flashers will most likely be rendered useless. Can anyone recommend a part number and source for replacement digital flashers.?

Third question: Since the "taillight out" warning light on the instrument panel will likely come on due to the lower power requirements of the LED bulbs, is it possible to disable the warning light, e.g. remove the bulb from the instrument panel?

Thanks for any and all input,

TDS

Can't help you at the moment with your first question but the second question is easy several auto supply stores have solid state flashers that don't depend on current draw. You can use your current flasher, if it doesn't want to work you can load the output down a bit with a couple resistors to increase the current, that will also keep your tail light warning off. The resistors will increase the current closer to the original draw, but they are only on intermittently so the total effect including the other lights will still leave you with considerably lowered power draw.

 

[Patch]

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As for the bulbs, I bought a set from AutoZone and put them in the trunk light, behind the Aspencade. 2 minutes later, they came out. Standard incandescent are much brighter. I have wondered about the Right Angle bulbs. LED are so directional that if you are not directly in line with them, you don't hardly see them.

As for question 3, look at this page:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

Just a little over 1/2 way down the page there is a Load Resistor Kit. It is used to simulate the load of a standard bulb when an LED bulb is used.

 

[exavid]

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I'd think the LEDs would work well for marker lights, but I don't think I'd want to use them for brake or turn signals for that reason.

 

[Patch]

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The ones I have are 1157's. I also tried them in my fairing turn signals and did not like them. None of the lights face the lenses.

Also, I would think that if you used the 90 degree bulbs, all you would see is a round light spot through the lens.

 

[Gambler]

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they dont have the same presence as standard bulbs, they work good as add on marker lights. but I wouldn't use them as primary lights. they also don't have the same light output to the side.

 

[Patch]

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I like the idea of LED lighting as it does not draw on the charging system like standard bulbs do. As Gamblersaid, you don't get the same light output to the side. LED's are directional light. Once off to the side and no longer directly behind the LED, the visiblelight is greatly diminished. I have had several ideas on a way to solve this but have not worked on them as of yet. I will work on the best one this weekend and post back with my findings.

 

[johnmac]

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If you want to disable the tailight warning light without getting into the dash, Locate the sensor under the seat. Remove the White wire from the connecter and tape off.

The sensor on my bike is bad causing the warning light to stay on. This is how I did it. I didn't want to remove the speaker to get to the dash bulb.

 

[jdf]

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1984GL1200A:

Thanks for the post on the LED's from AutoZone. I was going to buy a set today.

Jim

 

[Patch]

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Better save your money. :goofygrin:

The ones I bought were 1157's and were almost $20.00 for 2 bulbs and they are laying on my workbench collecting dust.

 

[Dadoo]

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My friend bought the 48 L.E.D 1157 1.85 inch bulbs from Custom Dynamics. These units are brighter than any standard bulb. They are especially bright during braking. The downside is the price, $44.00 each. He also changed 10 of his light bar bulbs to L.E.D. His charging system was struggling with all the extra lightingbut afterchanging to L.E.D. bulbs, he now has enough power. It seems that you get what you pay for.

 

[tdsnuggs]

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Dadoo wrote:

My friend bought the 48 L.E.D 1157 1.85 inch bulbs from Custom Dynamics. These units are brighter than any standard bulb. They are especially bright during braking. The downside is the price, $44.00 each. He also changed 10 of his light bar bulbs to L.E.D. His charging system was struggling with all the extra lightingbut afterchanging to L.E.D. bulbs, he now has enough power. It seems that you get what you pay for.

Is he using them on a Goldwing, and if so, what vintage? The Autozone LED bulbs have only 12 leds, so I can understand those not being near bright enough. I'm thinking about the 30 LED units from Superbrightleds.com.

TDS

 

[twisty]

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You guys looking to get LED's. Do your homework.. A white LED behind a red lens will not be very bright.. Those LED's are very color (lightwave length) sensitive as well as directionally sensitive so if not the correct color for the lens,or the LED's don't point towards the direction the light must be seen at they will bevery hard for other motorists to see (especially in the bright sun light).

A lot of people install those LED's then go out at night & look at them & say WOW those things are bright, you really need to look at them in the bright sun light as a lot of those (even high dollar) LED's just can't be seen in bright sun light.

A cheap alternative to save a little current is to replace all the original 1034 & a1157 bulbs in the bike with 2057 bulbs.. Those have the same CP on brake light but slightly less on running light. Not a whole lot but with ALL those 1157 bulbs in a Honda dresser it makes a difference.. Those 2057 bulbs were developed as an energy saving bulb for the newer cars & trucks with daylight running lights that stay on all the time. Because older bulbs degrade over time in most cases the new 2057 bulbs will be brighter than the bulbs that were replaced.

Twisty

 

[Dadoo]

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Twisty is right but the 48 L.E.D bulbs that I describe above are RED andmore visible in the bright daylight than anything that I have seen. They are being used in my friend's 93 Venture Royale which has a rear lens very similar to my 82 Wing. I tried them in my bike and they worked great. They are rather expensive so I haven't bought mine yet as I don't have extra lighting on my Wing so my charging system is OK for my setup.

 

[Patch]

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Again, in an application where the bulb is facing the lens, they might be brighter. Most of the wings, at least theGL1200's, have bulbs that do not face the lens. Theyare at 90 degrees when compared to the lens. Unless you want to spend extra to get the 90 degree bulbs, they will not work. I put the standard LED RED 1157's in my tail lights and atnight they looked great, but out in the sunlight, youcouldbarely see them.

 

[twisty]

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1984GL1200A wrote:

Again, in an application where the bulb is facing the lens, they might be brighter. Most of the wings, at least theGL1200's, have bulbs that do not face the lens. Theyare at 90 degrees when compared to the lens. Unless you want to spend extra to get the 90 degree bulbs, they will not work.

I put the standard LED RED 1157's in my tail lights and atnight they looked great, but out in the sunlight, youcouldbarely see them.

1984GL1200A, that seems to be a common complaint on most LED's.

It would take a lot of re-work but if a person could install LED's for tail & running lights & keep the incandescents for stop lights that would be the best of both worlds as most tail lights can't be see in daylight very good anyhow but at night the LED's would be easily seen..

I was involved withsome early on testing of LED brake & tail lights for automobiles & light trucks & the daylight vision problem was one problem but another was angle of view, because they are so directional the off angle rear & front side view wouldn't meet DOT specs. Basically it takes a special lens to disperse the light correctly to even get close to an all directional view rear or front brake/turn LED signal..

Twisty

 

[Patch]

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The thing that I found was that there is no sort of reflective material inside the lenses. Most taillights have some sort of a chrome surface to help reflect the light out towards the lens. I am in the process of trying just this. My idea is to take the tail light assembly and cover the area with some sort of reflective material to see if it would make the LED's give off more light.

 

[Lone Star]

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I have a third brake light on my '86 :12beige:, it had 3 halogen20 watt bulbs in it ( BIG DRAW at idle ) I got 3 of the 1156 LEDS, broke the bases off , removed the circuit board with the LEDS, wired the three of them together, gutted my third brake light and hot glued the LEDS into the back of the third brake light facing out towards the lense. It works great.

One thing I can tell you from this is the LED assemby must be facing the direction you want it to be seen (but thats the obvious part.) They must be positionedabout an inch or morebehind the lense to gain the brilliance needed to be visiblein all light conditions.

You can get direct replacements for the side markerlights inLEDat a trailer place or parts house for about $15.

Good Luck

Keith

 

[SilverDave]

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 My 1200 used to concern me, especially at stop lights, and towing a well lit trailer.... with  10 "queen " lights, side,and front side lights, top box, and bumper all lit (way too many lights) , .... and the concern was  not the low voltage at a stop sign , but the fact that it took 3 to 5 miles to come up to  14 volts after a night startup, and many miles  , even without the trailer  to bounce back to 14 after applying the brakes   ... Going shopping at night meant that I was forced to  connect a trickle charger every night../forums/images/emoticons/shock.gif....                                                                                                                                                                                                I looked into LED's .. and there are three problems.... They must face rearward, they must be Red in a red lens, orange in an orange lens, white in a white,  and  they are quite pricey...... and adding a dropping resistor will not help the stator problem ... the battery will have to drive the LED ,and heat up the resistor as well....    /forums/images/emoticons/mad.gif                                                                                                                                                                                     My really cheap  fix ?                                                                                              I  added an EC harness, and every spring I clean up  ALL the posts,  all the grounds, and all the fuses,   hard solder what I can, and clean the nub on the end of each bulb, specially the 1157's , in both the trailer, and bike... The charging system comes back to 14.2 within  2 minutes of startup, and  I can run around with the trailer , and all the lights,and new 35 watt driving lights ,too, and  it still bounces back quickly to  14.2 ../forums/images/emoticons/big_grin.gif. I think  all that ground connection, and  all that bulb base /forums/images/emoticons/emoticonsxtra/cooldj.gifresistance really starts to add up ..........  /forums/images/emoticons/emoticonsxtra/grinner.gif                                                                                                                                                                and Yes ... standing at a long stop light, brake on, radio blaring,  does drive the battery down to 11 or so.... but its back up within a few blocks, and I rarely have to add a trickle charger  anymore ./forums/images/emoticons/emoticonsxtra/weightlifter.gif.                                                                                                                                            SilverDave 

 

[Patch]

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After installing my EC Harness and properly rewiring my voltage gauge, I can be at a stop light at night with full illumination (all original factory lighting, add on LED lighting, ROF) plus have my 55w driving lights on and also the radio going and the gauge still shows 13.9 to 14.2 volts at idle of 1040 RPM.

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