In panic mode over Custom Lighting

[rickyboy]

Well it's only "three more sleeps" till "midge" and I hit the road and head for Custer.....I go to get on the bike last night to leave for work and notice one of my LED run/turn/brake lights is out. I give the lens a tap and it flickers,....I remove the lens thinking it must be loose. WRONG ! The cluster is "hanging by a thread"... of the wire, at the base of the cluster. So now what?? ??? Can it be fixed? Not enough wire where it broke to do a splice. ::) So into the car to go to work....no time to try and fix it. I search the net {on Co. time} for somewhere locally to purchase a new one. No luck. I get home at 2:00 AM from work and immediately try to dig out what remaining wire there is, sealed in the back of the cluster. The box knife slips and I slice open my index finger of my left hand. This is not looking good now. Oh, and the blood is gushing almost, from the tip of my finger. I try and power away at the job with blood running through my fingers and onto the light. Finally I get some wire where I can try and solder the wires back together. {Try and solder two wires together by yourself with a paper towel wrapped around your index finger and your thumb applying pressure to try and stop the bleeding } I had to leave it there because I doubt my neighbors want to hear my bike fire up at what is now 2:45 AM.
I better call it quits till the morning, and get this finger bandaged and me into my bed. Now all I can think about is,...if this splicing doesn't work,...how am I going to get a light shipped to me at my US address { I live in Canada } by the time I'm suppose to leave on Thursday. Without it I can't go. :(" title="" border="0"/> So I call Custom Dynamics this morning at 7:00 AM and tell them my dilemma. No problem they tell me. They'll over-night it and it'll be there tomorrow. Now I have to trust that they send the correct light. Oh and so I don't get caught like this again, I better order 2 frt. amber ones and two red rears. Just so I have replacements, in case it does. So,....after $153.39 I should be good to go. $50.00 to over-night the lights. But hooray for Custom Dynamics for making it right. .......as long as they send the right lights. No sleep again tonight worrying if #1 the light get here tomorrow and
#2 that they're the right ones.
Wish me luck. Or You'll be sending me pictures of the rally. :'(
Now I'll go and see if the splice job worked...it's 8:10 time to wake the neighbors up. .........well the splice job didn't work... ???
But now another problem.....the frt. ambers don't come on. I started the bike and no amber lights or any run/turn/brake at the back end. The stock tail light works. And if I turn the signals on, they all flash except the broken tail light as emergency flashers. Not something they ever did before. What could have happened. I haven't touched the wiring in any way. Could it be just because I have a light out in the rear??? Must be...any ideas??? I'd appreciate hearing them.

[cactusjack]

Dude...lay off the caffeine and calm down. You're making me jumpy.

I have no experience with the kind of lighting you have, but I'm sure someone will be along that does. Oh, and check your fuses.

[rickyboy]

Scott, I'm off the caffeine. I'm worried I won't make Custer without this fixed. I'm going to check the fuses. Thanks.

[schoeney]

Hi Rick,

Can't help but here is hoping it gets fixed in time for Custer.

[cactusjack]

...and take care of that finger!

[classic1]

When you spliced the wires, did you get the wires crossed? Could be a ground problem.

[rickyboy]

The finger is still bleeding and dare I say,....throbbing ....
I'm going to check the fuses now. I checked with a friend that helped me with the the change from stock to LED and he figures it's because led's are single directional and with missing one "link in the chain" {one led cluster} the circuit isn't complete.

[rickyboy]

No... blk. to blk. red to red, orange to orange... that's all there was. But maybe I missed something. The clusters are sealed in the back and maybe these three wires were somehow connected to an unseen ground. I guess I'm going to have to wait till tomorrow when the new LED shows up, before I'll know anything for sure. In the mean time I'll check the fuses and try and get this finger stop bleeding. Band Aid # 200

[classic1]

good luck!

[rickyboy]

Well that's one problem fixed.
I guess like classic1 suggested, when I spliced the wires back on the cluster there must be a ground tied in there somewhere within the cluster. All you can see on the cluster is three wires. Orange, blk. and red. I spliced them correctly. Anyway, the 10 amp. fuse for the taillights had blown so I replaced it and the amber and one working, turn/brake/ run light in the rear comes on again. So I feel a bit better now, but will feel a whole lot better<s> if</s>....when the new led cluster arrives tomorrow. I'll post when I have the light in and it's working again.
Thanks to you Scott for trying to keep both my feet on the ground and your suggestions. Same to you classic1. It's all appreciated.

[cactusjack]

That's good news.

[rickyboy]

Oh for sure. I really don't have time to start tracing wiring issues for the LED's. Thanks again Scott.

[blowndodge]

That's why I don't like to "graft" extra crap on my Nomad's electrical system .

My TFI was plug and play. I'm not much of a electrical guy. I have done this sort of stuff in the past. I got over adding all kinds of fancy extra electrical stuff to dress my Nomad or Truck. TEHO

[rickyboy]

I hear you BD. I'm not an elec. type guy either. I had an engineer friend do the lighting and anything else elec., for me. So if I have a problem with any of it I'm screwed. I mean I didn't even think of checking the fuses when my other running lights stopped working. Duh???
Now I'll keep my fingers crossed that Custom Dynamics sent me the right lights. I should be on schedule for the Thursday departure for Custer if all goes well.

Oh and my finger stopped bleeding too, until I knock it or pick something up with it. Trying to type has been a chalenge too.....going to the middle finger instead of the index finger. I usually only use the middle one for specific things, if you know what I mean.
See you in Custer Bro.'s

[blowndodge]

Ok Ricky. Take a beer, get some butterfly bandages and close up that finger after some good antibiotic ointment. Don't need to get an infection on top of everything else!