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Thread: 350x wiring question(s)

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    Guess I’ll need to figure out the 70. And geez I’m bad at explaining myself but I’ll try again.

    I’m planning on replacing of the stock lamps in the headlights with led, also-(If it works). I’ll most likely lose the high beam function, which is fine. I’ll put the 2 led floods (30watts-each) on a separate switch, so I can run all of them together (headlights + floods). With that, it should be around 80w draw versus the 143.5 running high AND low with old oem lamps. More light, less power is the goal.
    Edit: Since, I’ve changed my mind about the oem lamps-they’re going bye bye.
    Last edited by Jd110; 09-29-2019 at 12:22 AM.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    Ok. Now I’m a pain. If high and low function the same with led lamps, then I think the floods can be wired to the high (blue wire) and the headlights will work, also. I’ll try it.
    Edit: good suggestion, thank you.
    Last edited by Jd110; 09-29-2019 at 12:41 AM.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    USA
    --
    4,114
    I think there's 12v kits for them, don't know much about that setup though. So many people run the Chinese engines in them since it's a near bolt in thing and they are 12v + cdi based.

    Not a problem on the suggestion on the blue wire, the only trick is to get 3 connections on the double bullet female terminal (a male + double female short wire would work).

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    I’ve got lights tested & mounted on both machines. Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	260191. Still need to wire them up after I find a decent on/off switch. The 70 light is from a ct-70 parts machine- I scratched the led idea, to avoid the hassle. There are no mods to either trike, meaning the lights will come off without a trace. The angle bracket is mounted on rubber washers to avoid scratches.

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    USA
    --
    4,114
    Neat spot to mount them, my only concern would be the fender casting a shadow.

    Are those lights 18W or 60W? Guessing 18W though (aka it uses 3W rated LEDs or 10W, I think 5W exists too but haven't seen them much). I have a yard light that's 4 of the 3W leds with a 10W driver, under driven to last a life time and it lights up my yard pretty well and doesn't blind people driving by.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    Thanks, I found a switch, so we’ll see soon enough.

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    I was working on finishing up the 70’s neutral light, last night. I enlarged the center mounting bolt for the headlight. Drilled out the center, big enough for two wires with a green led light. Finished with an all thread coupling (for the body of the light) with a green lens on top.

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    USA
    --
    4,114
    Don't forget the LED needs a current limiting resister or it will burn out. Not sure if it's a premade LED for 6v, LEDs generally need around 3.5ish volts for white, down to like 2.4v for red, resister size and value is determined from max potential voltage it would see and voltage/current demand of the LED (generally 20ma).

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    Thanks, the information you’ve provided has been really good and has helped me quite a bit. I got it done last night. Overall, I’m happy with it. I actually like the oem lamps over the led. The halogens throw the light further and seem brighter. The floods are positioned just how I wanted them. Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	260276 oem halogens.
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    The fender does cast a shadow , but not bad, the headlights make it up. After you mentioned that I remembered I wanted them pointing to the side a little. Thanks again.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails CFFB1F98-7729-4F46-9AF0-62B713853BD2.jpg  
    Last edited by Jd110; 10-12-2019 at 09:46 AM.

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    USA
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    4,114
    Looks good, I'd count those as driving/helper/fog lights like on a car =). Generally speaking for lights you want to see for distance, you want spot, flood is just as it says, floods the area and spreads the light pretty thin. Really it's down to angles, 120 degree vs like 40 degree. Narrower the angle, more light in 1 spot.

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    Yes, I didn’t intend to spot light the bushes off the sides-lol. Floods work great for that. If danger is not within about 20’, I’m generally not too concerned. It’s the $9.99 led lamps in the headlights I was comparing to the oem. I agree- that’s where I’d like a little distance.

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    Quote Originally Posted by ps2fixer View Post
    Don't forget the LED needs a current limiting resister or it will burn out. Not sure if it's a premade LED for 6v, LEDs generally need around 3.5ish volts for white, down to like 2.4v for red, resister size and value is determined from max potential voltage it would see and voltage/current demand of the LED (generally 20ma).
    Got it, after some repurposing. It’s nothing special, but works great. I had a defective exit sign for parts and found something to house them in. Actually, I had most of it, except the tail light, switch and male stator plug.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Needed a tail light, too Click image for larger version. 

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  13. #28
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    Here’s what happened when I put cheap heat shrink on this aftermarket light. Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	260633. I fixed my mistake with the soldiering gun. Two wires for brake/tail filaments. I only used one, but how is it grounded? Through the base. You can see my single black wire above, that was bolted to the inside of the metal light case.

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    USA
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    4,114
    On a standard bulb, the outer part of the base is the ground, and grounds through the socket which generally has a wire soldered or riveted to it, and the contact(s) on the bottom is the power wire. Like a dual filament bulb is housing ground, 1 contact for dim power, the other probe bright power.

    From what I can see in the photo, that light housing seems to be a budge likely china made (guessing usa designed maybe, we love to use frame grounds etc instead of real wire). I say that because the mounting holes is what grounds the light from what I can see, which means you have to sand down the surface to get a solid contact, bright shiny metal which wont stay bright and shiny for long with no anti corrosive (dielectric silicone for example). Just thinking out loud, but you'd probably be best off scratching up part of the housing (pull the wires out if you can) and solder the ground wire to it, and wire that wire to the atc's green wire so you don't have to worry about the housing getting a good ground through bolts and such.

    From what I've seen on Honda stuff, the ground point for the harness is always a welded in nut to the frame, and the bolt that goes into it grounds through the threads and the inner face of the bolt head to the brass ring terminal. It seems to work so well that it water proofs the bolt threads with the brass and corrosion is rarely an issue, kind of like a banjo bolt with copper washers for seals.


    Here's a photo to show as an example of what honda does for their factory headlight sockets on a ATC350X. Socket isn't orig from a 350x, but it's the same design. Also FYI, that disk that pops out can be installed backwards, so it can reverse bright vs dim wires if installed backwards for a dual contact socket (like I photoed).

    Also, China & Taiwan made stuff can be extremely low quality, one of the headlight sockets I source start out with the ground wire stripped back about an inch and just wrapped over the plastic housing, and the metal socket housing pressed in against the wire for the ground. Super shotty design. I scuff up the metal and solder my own ground wire directly to the metal housing, OEM Honda was spot welded like the image below but a different socket design. I would show a pic, but I already threw all the china wire in the scrap pile from my last batch lol. Here's one of my template ones to show the solder work, I don't claim to be the best in the world at soldering, but it turns out pretty good and 100x better than how they came to me. FYI, that is a steel housing, you can solder to steel, but it's more of a challenge than say brass or copper. You always need flux and clean metal and a temp controllable solder iron is a huge plus, too hot and it won't want to stick and the flux just burns away, too cold and the solder doesn't want to flow well and "cold solder joints" can happen.

    Hopefully this is interesting and helpful, bare min couple pics to give an idea on how to get a solid ground =). BTW, the bulb to socket ground is via the two little prongs that stick out if the bulb type you have is the type I'm thinking of. On the 350x, it's part of the headlight lens housing (the face of the bulb base goes against it), and the 3 fingers that lock it in grounds to the bulb housing. The white plastic style ones is the 350x style in reverse, bulb has the 3 prongs that stick out, so that's what grounds to the housing. Basically all wearable surfaces, so installing and removing the bulb should fix grounding problems in most cases if the ground issue is at that point.
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  15. #30
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Idaho
    --
    777
    It is interesting and helpful, too. Here’s why: I noticed the night I did my test on the 350 lights, that one of the oem lights went real dim. So I swapped them with the cheap led headlights. Next time out, the same light wasn’t working at all. Haven’t found time to look into it until now. Thanks to your last post, I think I found it.
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    I would clean that ground connection with baking soda/water. What would you do? Much appreciated!!

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