Wing Lights

EZ SPLICE-IN PIGGY BACK METHOD
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Since this method will be used throughout and there will be more additions to this page as time goes on, the description of the method used to connect the wires is right here up front! I don't like Scotch locks for wire splice in. They are bulky, often loosen over time and corrode. Soldering is best, but that is sometimes very difficult if not impossible. I often use the "tuck and roll" method which works good on single bullet connectors, but that's sometimes not practical with these tight mini connectors. Using an ordinary ceiling tile staple from a staple gun, one can make a "probe" that will slip into a connector from behind on the plug as shown. Bend one staple leg straight and cut off the other leg. Solder your lead onto one end leaving about 1/2" of staple free. Put on some heat shrink and lube it good with bulb grease or Lube Gel and insert tightly into the back of the plug so that it makes good contact with the connector of the needed wire. Zip tie or tape it to the existing wire and zip tie to the harness too for good strain relief. This way, if you ever need to disconnect that which you have connected, simply cut the zip ties and "unplug" your piggy back EZ Splice. Works great and it's easy. One helpful thing here is to use a "Helping Hand" soldering stand available at Radio Shack to help make a neat solder of the wire to the staple.

ADD-ON "reflector" lights (18-625a & 18-625r)
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These are nice items from ADD-ON and add to the "sidemarker" lighting that Honda forgot on the GL1800 (more below). One thing you'll want to do is to fix the badly designed lens attachment of these lights. Remove and toss the two sided tape and run a bead of clear silicone around the perimeter. Press the lens in place and let set overnight. Peel off the excess next day. The bulbs come out the back for replacement so glue the lenses on good and tight. Once mounted, silicone the heck out of the hole too plus silicone the bulb boot where the wires go in. I mounted them all with 3M couble stick tape, not the supplied screws. The 625a's are for the front caliper covers and replace those reflectors with lights if you drill a 7/8" hole for the light. There are a coupla ways to hook them up, but I used a method that also blinks them in conjunction with your turn signals and hazard flashers as well. I ran two leads zip tied down the brake lines using four conductor black jacketed phone wire for a total of four wires on each side. Two wires are used for these lights each side and two leads are left over each side if I ever add decorative lights. We will use the YELLOW and GREEN leads of the phone wire for this application. Keep the GREEN wires for GROUND and use the YELLOW wires for hot on each side. Solder a new BROWN wire to your YELLOW phone wires (or whatever you used) and then SOLDER a BLUE wire to the RIGHT GREEN wire and a ORANGE wire to your LEFT YELLOW wire for the wires to run up the fairing. Solder the other supplied brown and green leads to the "bottom" end of the phone wire (down behind the covers) since you'll need to unplug them as they planned when removing the cover.

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When viewing the drawing take into consideration the leads from the lights as supplied are GREEN and BROWN so we use them. Whatever you used to run up the forks is up to you so remember which wires you ran to make the proper connections. We need a keyed +12v wire and since I had my stuff exposed, I used the BROWN/BLACK lead to the instrument lights as shown above. You can use the LT GREEN/BLACK wire that's in your ACC plug under your LEFT faring pocket. Pick one and hook your dual HOT wire there. For ground, we are going to "fool" the system and use the HOT wires from the turn signals as the GROUND wires for the caliper lights. The effect of this is to make the caliper lights blink inversely with the turn signals on the same side and they also blink with your hazard lights too. Take your RIGHT lead for the GROUND on the light and connect it to the LT BLUE wire of the bike's RIGHT turn signal circuit. I tied in to the signal indicator, but you can access this wire behind the RIGHT mirror by pulling back the boot and fishing out the plug to your turn signals. Use the LT BLUE for the RIGHT side. Repeat for the LEFT connecting GROUND to the ORANGE wire, either at the indicator or in the LEFT mirror.

FOR THE REAR LIGHT: as a brake light only or as a running light
The rear light from these folks mounts to the rear fender where your rear reflector goes and it's easiest to remove your rear fender. Drill a 7/8" hole for the lamp. I used 3M double stick to mount these instead of the screw supplied because the screw made the light crooked. Besides, I covered the screw hole with the double stick to keep dirt and water out of the unit. To hook this up as a brake light only (it's DARK until you hit the brake) hook into one of the saddlebag wires. To use it as a tail light that's on all the time, hook to the license light. These lights are very bright for the size and this one makes an excellent supplemental brake light. Very noticable and it's a great reflector besides so it acts like a tail light at night anyway.

SIDEMARKERS: Honda FORGOT sidemarkers!
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Honda put those beautiful wrap around tail lights on the saddlebags and they FORGET to light them up on the sides! We fix it right here and now! There is actually an indentation for a bulb in there and mirrored finish on the backside of these empty fixtures. I had some BLAZER red lens clearance lights (#C827R for $1.99 at Auto Zone) laying around. I had used these before on my Valk and knew that the insides would be ideal to light these up.

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Just tear apart the BLAZER and rip out the light socket (twist with pliers to break the metal). Try to get ones with BLACK sockets, but you can paint them black if you need to like I had to (actually, you should paint all the non-black parts black). Shown is a white one. Solder a good 8" long lead wire (shown here as a scrap piece of brown wire I had) onto the brass "ground" of the light socket making sure that it exits at a good right angle as shown. Make sure the original "hot" lead of the light is at least eight inches long. Prepare these leads for the piggy back splice-in using staples described above.

During the following steps, remember you are drilling into the SIDE of the fixtures where there WAS NO LAMP! Don't drill into the rear part where there's already a light!

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Now you have to cut out the fixtures. Easiest is to drill 1/4" to start with, then work at it with a Dremel and a cutter. Do this slow because the red plastic likes to crack easy. Keep your shop vac handy and also a compressor to blow air or use a can of duster air. Very often during your work, vacuum out and blow out the plastic fragments created. Make a square hole 2" up from the outer edge of the little "box" at the end of the light fixture and 1/4" from the inside of the red plastic (see pic). The hole is 5/8" long and 3/8" wide. Once done, make sure all of the stray plastic is out of there and then insert the light. Silicone in place making sure the light does not touch the plastic inside front or back. Let it set overnight. Tape it off then connnect your leads as shown above. Screw the light back in. VÒILA! To change the bulb later on if it burns, cut the silicone with a box cutter and replace and re-glue.
NOTE: this light will not be centered, but it will be where the indent is inside the fixture. Be careful! These fisxtures are not cheap!

BLACKOUTS: The turn signals on the mirrors are blacked out.
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Used Envision Black HLC0025 from Planet Superbike.
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Online Catalog
Headlight covers
Honda
Envision Black HLC0025

DRIVING LIGHTS: Electrical Connections Super White Driving lights for GL1800.
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Great product. Excellent lights. Excellent instructions and a lighted EOM look-alike switch (better than Honda's non-lit switch). One thing, the wiring could have been in a black jacket, but it's white (nothing a little flat black spray paint can't cure). Hard to adjust when installed fully, so test them with the cowls off.

NOTE THE SINCE THIS PAGE WILL BE ADDED TO MANY TIMES, LOOK IN TEXT FOR THE PARTS NEEDED
MATERIALS Listed below many small 4" zip ties electrical tape heat shrink ceiling tile staples Radio Shack Lube Gel	TOOLS several listed below #2 phillips power screwdriver awl wire cutter needle nose pliers solder gun