Making your accessory wires 'switched': Difference between revisions

The box itself slides out of its rubber mounts by gently pushing it forwards, towards the front of the bike. When you have it out of its mounting slot, take out the two power wires. These should come out with just finger pressure, but you may need to use a screwdriver to depress the release button as you use pliers to pull them out. Be careful: they are fairly soft and you don't want to wreck them.  

Once you've removed this from the bike, go to your favorite work station. You will need to remove the back of the box, so bring all of the tools and materials you haven't used yet with you. Take all four screws out with your small Phillips; be careful not to strip them, as they are soft. Remove the rubber baffle on the back; this comes off fairly easily with hand pressure.  

Now that you have the back off, you should see an exposed circuit board. This is where all of the fuses are connected. From now on you want to keep all metal tools away. You '''don't''' want to scratch this board (until you need to). Locate were the fuses are connected, and observe that the diagram on the cover will be mirrored. You can draw one yourself, just to make life easier. This makes it readily apparent what goes where on the circuit board.  

This is where you're going to remove power from your "ACC" fuse when the ignition is "Off". The only other item that receives power when the ignition is in the "Off" position is the Fan, and you can see here that they are connected by the circuit (refer to earlier diagram). The best way to do this is to sever this printed circuit. At this point you need to take your small, sharp, flat screwdriver and make a "cut" in the board, as in the picture below. You want to make many slow motions with minimal force; you don't want to go off target and hit a portion of the board that you don't want scratched. You need to keep going until you see a yellowish color instead of the silvery metal color of the circuit; this shows you are through the metal and the link is severed. Use your tester to ensure that these two points aren't connected anymore. Put one arm of the tester on each metal contact (not on the board itself; there is a protective coating that is non-conductive on it).  

You will now need the small piece of wire, preferably between 18 and 12 gauge – no larger than 12 for clearance issues. 16 AWG usually works well for moto applications. Strip a few mm off of each end, but not too much; you want the coating to occupy most of the length to prevent any issue of touching another piece inside the fuse box. Refer to your own board for exact length; you can see how it will be used in this photo.  

Crush both ends lightly with your pliers, just enough to flatten them for clearance issues. Use your solder paste, dabbing a bit on each end, to help the solder itself. Draw some solder into each end of the wire with the solder gun, making sure it is well saturated before you solder it onto the board. Take the wire, and one end at a time solder it to the applicable connectors. You are connecting the power, before the fuse, of the horn, to the power, again before the fuse, side of the ACC. This way, if your ACC fuse blows, you won't also risk blowing the horn fuse (as it is at a lower amperage after your modifications).