My LED turn signals don't work right
If you have converted your turn signals to LED bulbs, you probably have two problems: The signals flash too fast, and all the bulbs flash at the same time.
Fixing flash rate
This is the easy part. You need to replace the thermal flasher that came in your bike with an electronic one. An electronic flasher (aka turn signal relay) will make your flashers blink at the same rate no matter whether they are LED or incandescent. The thermal flasher that came with the bike doesn't work with the low current demands of LED lights. The pictures show the location of the stock flasher.
You should be able to find one at your local auto parts store. Maybe. If you get a blank look when you ask there, try one of these:
- SPEEDMETAL LED Signal Relay (#489421) from Cycle Gear.
- Super Bright LEDs part number LF1-S-PIN
To wire your new flasher, the wire that is orange with a green stripe is the 'hot' wire. It connects to Fuse 1 in the junction box. The solid orange wire runs to the turn signal switch.
Connect to the stock wires using crimp connectors and heat shrink wrap.
Connectors that are sold with heat shrink already on them are very convenient.
Fixing "all signals flashing at the same time"
When this happens, the signal indicator bulb in the dash is the culprit. The stock wiring depends on the resistance of the light bulbs to prevent current from flowing through the signals on both sides at once. You need to pull the light bulb out of the dash and replace it with a pair of 12v LEDs, one wired to the right blinker circuit and the other to the left. This makes two circuits out of the one that is stock.
The stock Kawasaki wiring relies on the opposite indicator (signal) filaments to provide the ground for the flashers (the bulbs on the right side ground the left, and vice versa.) LEDs don't provide as much resistance as incandescents, so enough voltage gets through the dash indicator bulb to light the opposite side indicators.
The answer to this problem is to make two separate circuits for the turn signals. There are two ways to do this. Pick the one you feel most comfortable with.
LED method
This method uses LEDs placed in the turn signal cluster in place of the stock "your turn signal is on" incandescent bulb. You'll end up with two separate LEDs, each fed 12V through the turn signal switch. Both are provided a ground from the Yellow/Black ground wire in the cluster.
To make this change, remove the instrument cluster:
- Remove upper fairing
- Remove headlight from bracket (four 10mm bolts located on the side of the headlight)
- Remove instrument cluster from bracket (three 8mm nuts on the back of the cluster). Take care to note that there are three black metal washers located under the nuts. They tend to stick to the rubber bushings that the cluster mounts to.
Now that you're down to the gauge cluster, separate the white plastic back housing from the black front housing by removing the phillips screws from the rear. (Pay no attention to the circles in this photo; in FAQ we use what we have.)
Pull the two halves of the cluster apart. All three analog gauges are now visible. If you gently pry on the colored plastic of the four indicator bulb diffusers (red, blue, yellow, green, aka 'idiot lights') you can get at the area the indicators live in. Now tap into the Yellow/Black wire wherever is the easiest for you: The high beam bulb, the tachometer, the water temp meter or any of the three gauge illumination bulbs. You just need to choose one; this is your ground. (Yellow and black wire is ground throughout the bike.) Use crimp connectors as detailed above, and run that new wire into the turn indicator bulb area of the dash.
You now need to attach two 12 volt LEDs to the stock bulb socket. Connect the anode (+) end of one LED to the green wire and the anode of the other LED to the grey wire. Wire both cathode (-) legs together to the black/yellow wire for ground.
To mount the LEDs, test fit one into the bulb housing first. If one leg of the LED fits nice and stays in after given a tug, call it good. If not, solder the LED anode (+) legs to bits of solid wire and then shove the wire into the bulb housing. LEDs weigh almost nothing, so once they're in they're probably not going to bounce around much. Use a prodigious amount of electrical tape on each leg and then the whole assembly, to ensure that nothing moves or shorts.
Put the 4 colored plastic bulb diffusers back in place, button up the cluster and reattach to the bike.
Look at my diagram in this post:
http://forums.ninja250.org/viewtopic.php?p=830372#830372http://forums.ninja250.org/viewtopic.php?p=830372#830372
The dashed box in the bottom center represents what's going on inside the cluster.
Check out the 2 circuits I've drawn here. The major components and wire colors are shown without connectors (for simplification). The left circuit is stock, the right circuit is for use with LEDs.
SRH: Here's my version of the LED/Diode turn signal mod
Here's the link to my pics:
http://s1081.photobucket.com/albums/j356/Eeven-Steven/Ninja%20250%20LED_%20Diode%20Mod/
Here's the link to the online 'LED gettin' place':
These are the part #s I used:
Rear pods: 3x 1157-R18-T Center Pod as: Run/Brake Left & Right Pods as: Run/Turn
Front pods 1 ea.: 1156-A30
Electronic Flasher: LF1-S-PIN
The diodes can be purchased at any Radio Shack.
Note: If either the two front signals, or the two rear signals are kept in the incandescent mode, the diode modification is not necessary, but you'll still need an electronic flasher to regulate the flash rate.
