Two wire rear tail light

VMAX  Forum

Help Support VMAX Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Vmax Marine

Active Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2011
Messages
32
Reaction score
0
Location
Fredericksburg, VA
I am changing the rear tail light set up to a chock mounted style, the issue that I am having is that it is a two wire set up and I was wondering if any or you know how to properly connect this.
And I plan on taking the whole rear tail off but that is just my preference.
here is a link to the place where I got the shock mount set up

http://shop.noschoolchoppers.com/Shock-mount-setups/

any help would be GREATLY appreciated, and I will post some pics once I get this working.
 
there's a yellow wire that carries the "brake voltage". there's a blue wire that carries the "running voltage". both of these wires run to the stock tail light. so by "two wire" do you mean that there is a hot and a ground? if so, then you'll have to choose whether you want your shock light to always be on, or only on when you hit the brakes. or do you mean "two wire " such that there are "brake" and "running" wires, and the assembly itself is grounded? if so then, it should be a simple matter of matching up the wires and running a wire from the assembly to the bike frame.
 
I mean that there is two wires running out of the back of the light 1. Positive and 1. Negative.
that is what I assume because the black wire is generally negative and the green wire should be positive.
 
so not knowing the laws in VA, i can only assume that you have to have a continuously illuminated rear tail light AND a brake indicator that illuminates "brighter" than the tail light. the vmax accomplishes this with two bulbs (three wires).

so if you're gonna continue with the desire of a shock mounted tail light/brake indicator, you'll have to find a two-bulb (three-wire) solution, OR keep the two-wire, single bulb setup and splice in a set of diode(s) and resistor(s) that allow more current to flow to the bulb when the brakes are applied than what is continuously flowing otherwise
 
there's a yellow wire that carries the "brake voltage". there's a blue wire that carries the "running voltage". both of these wires run to the stock tail light. so by "two wire" do you mean that there is a hot and a ground? if so, then you'll have to choose whether you want your shock light to always be on, or only on when you hit the brakes. or do you mean "two wire " such that there are "brake" and "running" wires, and the assembly itself is grounded? if so then, it should be a simple matter of matching up the wires and running a wire from the assembly to the bike frame.

I looked in the unit and there are two bulbs one lower and one upper that correspond to the wires (which are still black and green) and what I don't get is the last part where you state "it should be a simple matter of matching up the wires and running a wire from the assembly to the bike frame"
the question I have on that one is where would I connect the third wire on the assembly?:bang head:
 
I looked in the unit and there are two bulbs one lower and one upper that correspond to the wires (which are still black and green) and what I don't get is the last part where you state "it should be a simple matter of matching up the wires and running a wire from the assembly to the bike frame"
the question I have on that one is where would I connect the third wire on the assembly?:bang head:

Didn't your new light come with wiring instructions? Don't go by the color of the wires as they may not be standard. I would think one wire is for your running light, the other one is for a brake light. If you have two bulbs then it has to be that way. Some lights I've seen do not use an actual ground wire but still work. How I don't really know, but they do. Hook up one of the wires to the running light wire on your vmax and see what happens :confused2: one of the bulbs should light up.
 
what i meant by "it should be a simple matter of matching up the wires and running a wire from the assembly to the bike frame" is some light assemblies have there bulbs grounded through the light assembly's frame, some are just floating/self grounds (nevermind about that for this). without knowing how your light is color coded, or how many bulbs, i had to assume that the two-wire was hot and ground (which apparently your light is), or two hots and a frame ground (which apparantly your light is not).

do you have a schematic or installation instructions, or pics of the light's wiring and bulbs? that would be very helpful.
 
yes the lower bulb will light up when the black is in ground and green is in either positives. but so far I am unable to get the upper bulb to light up
 
did a quick search and came up with this: Basically, it sounds like the light you got is self grounding so all you have to do is hook up the two wires from the headlight to your running light and brake light wires on the vmax. If it still don't work, just extend the ground wire from the vmax harness to the light housing and you should be good to go.

Hope that helps.
 
yes the lower bulb will light up when the black is in ground and green is in either positives. but so far I am unable to get the upper bulb to light up
That's because the black on the light is not really ground. It's power for the other bulb :). See my post above.
 
hehehe, i guess my "some are just floating/self grounds (nevermind about that for this)" should have been minded.
 
put the light's black on the bike's blue wire and the bottom bulb will more than likely light up just like misiek says.
 
Thank you for all the help I am will do this and get back with some (hopefully) working pictures. I do not have an issue with getting the lower light to work it is the upper that is being a pain.
 
I looked in the unit and there are two bulbs one lower and one upper that correspond to the wires (which are still black and green) and what I don't get is the last part where you state "it should be a simple matter of matching up the wires and running a wire from the assembly to the bike frame"
the question I have on that one is where would I connect the third wire on the assembly?:bang head:

so here's a pic of how a dude wired up his to his HD (so the bike wire colors are different). this is what i meant by "it should be a simple matter of matching up the wires and running a wire from the assembly to the bike frame". if you want the top bulb to be the brake light, wire the bike's yellow to the light's green. if you want the bottom to be the brake light, connect the bike's yellow to the light's black. connect the bike's blue to the other bulb wire. take some spare wire and attach one end to one of the light's mounting bolts and the other to the bike's ground (use the one ground wire that use to feed the stock tail light). a jumper from the light's frame to the bike's ground may not be necessary because the light maybe receiving sufficient grounding by solely being mounted to the shocks, which are mounted to the frame, but a clean ground is always good.
 

Attachments

  • 007-4.jpg
    007-4.jpg
    60.5 KB · Views: 6
Back
Top