I set the rear signals aside for the silicone to cure and moved to the fronts. Because of the angle of the sidecar body the outer end of the original signal was always tipped forward a bit. It bothered me a bit at first but I eventually got used to it. When I mounted one of the new, longer signals that in the same hole it looked even worse and I decided if I was going to do anything about it now was the time.
If I had thought about it when I was doing the bodywork on the sidecar I could have hammered in a bump with a face that was parallel to the axis of the machine but to do that now would surely mess up the paint so that was out.
Spacers bevelled to match the angle seemed like the solution but after an hour of searching I gave up on finding anything suitable to make them out of (I really need to get a lathe
). But neighbour Lee is always looking for useful things to make on his 3D printers so I gave him a sketch and the next day he handed me 2 perfectly angled spacers.
You probably can't see them in the pic but I lined them up carefully, bolted them together and drilled a hole that is a snug fit on an alignment pin made from #14 house wire, then lined one of them up carefully on the outside of the body while I marked the location of a hole in it for the pin.
- 05 - Right front (parts).JPG (81.05 KiB) Viewed 1939 times
With 2 coupling (long) nuts between the original left signal and the wiring/speaker box I used a short piece of threaded rod to join the 2 nuts and brought the wires out through the side of the nut closest to the signal. The new signals are enough longer that only 1 of the coupling nuts would be needed to get it past the windshield so after running the appropriate M10 tap into the previously unmolested 3/8" coupling nut I put the bolt that attaches it it to the box into the drill vise, carefully lined it up and drilled through it, starting with a 1/8" bit and working up to the biggest size I dared (the hole exits the end a bit off centre and I ended up shortening it a bit because I drilled out the bottoms of the last couple of threads)(I REALLY need to get a lathe
).
The original signals were small enough that it didn't look too bad on that skinny coupling nut but the new ones are wider at the base so it looked wrong just screwed into the nut. I built it up by adding 6 layers of heat shrink (each a bit longer than the nut), then trimming them and finishing up with the disc sander so that all the layers of HST and the end of the nut are perfectly flush.
I think the new front signals are mounted much more nicely than the old ones
- 06 - L & R front (new).jpg (111.47 KiB) Viewed 1939 times
And the rears look better too
- 07 - L & R rear (new).jpg (166.43 KiB) Viewed 1939 times
Then it was time to make the changes to the indicators. As I mentioned before, the LEDs in the Danmoto instrument panel won't blink with the flasher removed but there were 2 white LEDs in the face of the speaker/wiring box just below the Danmoto that indicated when the bike & sidecar headlights are on. I removed the white LEDs (& their circuitry) and installed flashing green ones (& their circuitry) in their places, then connected the wires to the non-flashing green LEDs in the Danmoto to the circuits for bike and sidecar headlights. When nothing is lit the only visible difference is that the white LEDs were flat top and the green ones are domed.
- 08 - Inside spr+wiring box.jpg (146.89 KiB) Viewed 1939 times
BTW: When I first started using LEDs on bikes a lot of them failed prematurely before I learned that LEDs can be killed by voltage spikes that occur in motorcycle electrical systems. Since I have been adding an inexpensive diode to protect the LED from reverse current (as shown below) I haven't lost any.
Note that the resistor can be in either the positive or ground side of the circuit as long as it is in series with the LED and diode. And FWIW, I used 5600 ohm resistors with the flashing green LEDs (0.25 mA) and they were bright enough that I darkened them with a Sharpie to make them a bit less ferocious.
- LED circuit for motorcycle use.gif (17.48 KiB) Viewed 1939 times