Rear/Tail brake lights installation questions

[FezUSA]

So this weekend I plan on tackling the installation of an Admore light bar. I've got the bar which came with Posi-Taps (awesome connectors btw!) and I have the service manual. Looks like it should be pretty straight forward, however I have questions with this being my 1st forray into working with the NC's electrical system (OEM heated grips & frunk outlet were done by dealer).

My service manual and this online wiring schematic (if you click the link it fails until you drop the 's' from https:// but fixing the link pre-post isn't working!) shows that the wires from the tail light should be pink/blue, green, and green/yellow. I need to tap into all 3 to provide ground, tail, & brake - not necessarily in that order. So this morning when I fueled up I took the opportunity to look under the seat at what wiring access I would have as I believe that is where most people place their taps. I see the 3P brake light connector, but the wires look like they're blue, black, and black!!

So for those of you that have wired in rear lights, what am I missing? Am I correct in saying that I drop the underside of the rear fender and feed the Admore cabling up into this area to make my taps? Do I rather need to somehow peel back an area of the covering on the main wire loom on the right of the picture to reveal the wires I should be using? I will also be tapping into the right/left indicator wires so figure they'll all be present in that loom. Or when I drop the underside of the fender will I be presented with a more accessible place to make the taps?

Your help is much appreciated! Pictures even more so!!

 

[Red NC]

As long as you are back there, are you adding a brake light modulator?
I put in one of these, not long after I purchase the bike.

Universal Brake Light Flasher/Strober - M1 model [FLSHR_M1] - $19.95 : 3rd Brake Flasher Web Site

In fact, I have an extra, it you want it.

 

[flyinfree.00]

The Admore has built in modulation I believe. Following this thread as this is a planned winter project.

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[FezUSA]

Eric appreciate the kind offer. Flyinfree is correct though, the Admore has built-in modulation (and progressive turn signals!!). So I should be good on brake light modulation.

Still looking for input though on where to tap into the bike wiring. Thx.

 

[Red NC]

Eric appreciate the kind offer. Flyinfree is correct though, the Admore has built-in modulation (and progressive turn signals!!). So I should be good on brake light modulation.

Still looking for input though on where to tap into the bike wiring. Thx.

When I tapped into the wires to add the modulator, I placed it right in front of the brake light assembly.


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[Tiny Tim]

I feel your pain when conductor colors don't match schematics!

However, it is what it is and we have to move forward,

1. Grab yourself a multimeter and switch it to "continuity" when you touch the 2 leads together, you should get a "beep"
2. Open up the plug and socket identified in you pic.
3, With one lead on the bike's earth or battery -ve touch each of the connectors in turn. One will Beep. This is the earth - write it down.
4. Now switch the meter to D.C. Volts and touch the flying lead of the meter to the battery +ve. This should give you 12v or so. If it gives you -12v, just swap the leads around.
5. Now, switch on the ignition and, if necessary, turn on the lights. Take the flying lead from the Multimeter (not the one connected to the frame or -ve) and carefully touch it to the other 2 connectors, in turn. Be careful not to short out any connectors, this may blow a fuse. make a note of the one with 12v or so - this is the tail light. Write it down or label it with a tipex (correction fluid) dot
6. Repeat 5. above with the brake applied and the last connector should go to 12v. This is the stop.


Take your time - it's only electricity!

 

[lue42]

Check out this thread form when I installed the AdMore side bag lights. Even though I had to deal with the signal lights too, it might help you...
Admore V35 side bags lighting - wiring question

 

[DirtFlier]

In Hondaworld, black is a positive wire and green is a ground. Then you have offshoots of these using various colored stripes which are sometimes nearly impossible to see such as a dark brown strip on black! And it doesn't help that my eyes are old!

 

[FezUSA]

So here's what happened today, got around to installing the Admore light bar!

Determined that even though mine is a 2016, the harness coming from the LED tail light assembly is actually the same as what was on the previous model year bikes according to the electrical schematic in the service manual. Close examination of the wires verified that I had black/blue, black, & black/green.



So after disconnecting the negative and then the positive battery connections I set to work. First up, remove the 7 screws holding the underside of the rear fender in place. It's dirty under here, obviously my Skidmarx rear fender is providing only a small amount of protection, and that is mainly to my rear shock. The 2 rear-most screws had to be located by shining a flashlight into the dark deep recesses of the fender. At first I couldn't see them and thought that maybe the manual was incorrect here as well, but the flashlight revealed them!



After I removed the fender I noticed that it had a small cutaway in one corner



and flipping it over revealed a potential cable pathway!!



Awesome, especially as it happened to be on the side of the bike that the Admore cable would be coming from the light bar on!!

After fiddling with removing some electrical tape to reveal more cable between the 3P harness and the brake light I decided to disconnect the harness, undo the two bolts holding the light in place and then remove the light fitting. It was then a simple process to remove the tape, place the Posi-Taps, add some replacement tape and then re-insert the light and bolt it back up. But here's where things slid a little south on me. One of the nuts tried to escape into the bodywork, and then a moment later one of the washers tried the same trick. Fortunately I had a magnetic parts tray and magnetized a socket extension to retrieve them before they slid out of sight.



And then things did turn ugly. As I removed the back caps of the Posi-Taps one did successfully make a runner and managed to plummet into the depths of the bodywork. I decided to keep calm and carry on, using the caps from one of the others that came with the Admore kit.



At this point I used one of the other Posi-Taps to connect the ground wire using a green wire on the bike that was under the fender in the orange 2P connector (could just have easily used the green in the light blue 2P connector too). Reconnecting the battery and turning the bike on revealed that the light bar came on and using the brakes showed that working fine too. So then I cleaned up the connections and electrical taped the whole topside shebang as well as wrapping the blue & red wires below. I had run the wires through the whitish shroud that Honda routed their wires through, so I just taped a short way into that before moving the shroud back up the wires.






I then proceeded to place the Posi-Taps for the orange & light blue connectors, but only had the one cap left. I connected the left turn signal in and then put the right turn signal next to the Posi-Tap it will be using come Monday night when my shipment of Posi-Taps should be here by. Once that was all done I re-connected the battery again and after verifying everything worked I wrapped electrical tape around the the 3 lower wires (ground, left turn, right turn) and then around the rest of the Honda taped wires leading from the shroud to the turn 2P connectors and license plate light 2P connector. When they were all neat and tidy I slid the shroud back down to cover everything.

I then ran the Admore cable out through the gap in the corner of the cover and after carefully making sure that no wires were being trapped etc. I put it place and put back the 7 screws. The Admore kit did come with two metal plates to be used vertically if I wanted the bar at the bottom of the license plate,, however in my instance it looked like it would cover my registration stickers which I wasn't thrilled about and don't really want to give the Fuzz any reason to pull me over! Mounting at the top doesn't require these backing plates but I did find that the supplied hardware was not long enough to go through my license plate cover + license plate + Admore horizontal mount + metal license plate mounting bracket on the fender. The bolts only went though by a couple of threads. My dad happened to stop by so I had him go grab a couple of longer ones (and some lunch while he was at it!!). The Admore mount provides for two heights within their bracket and I had to use the top one and to rotate the bracket to give me the highest option to make sure the light bar would not cover the top of my license plate, which it did when I dry fit it on the lower holes or with the bracket oriented to the low setting. Once my dad was back we bolted it all up and checked out how it looked.






I did mount the bar as far rearward as possible within the slots



which gives the license plate light a gap to shine through, however the Admore bar also has a downward facing light specifically for this purpose, albeit disabled in the configuration by default. I'll have to download their software and connect my laptop to the light to turn that option on if the bikes license light doesn't look like it will cut it.

I might also look to see if I can find one of those adhesive cable clips that someone posted on here came with an oiler and they had a spare that they used to route one of their cables with. If iI can find one smalll enough I could mount it here in the red circle (above and below) to tidy up the cable even more.



So all in all I'm pretty happy about it. The light bar itself is awesome. The Posi-Taps are simply fantastic!! And as soon as I get more on Monday I'll drop the rear fender cover and get the right turn signal connected in. I already put the tap portion in, just need to wind the cap with the wire from the Admore light in to place. I also need to remember to reconnect the cable clip on the underside of the bike. While I was working on the cable routing I realised that there was a cable clip that I released to make working with the cables easier; and when reviewing the pictures for this post I remembered that I hadn't put the cables back into the clip! See below.



While I was a little worried going in, taking my time and not rushing, this was actually quite easy. In fact it was only marginally more difficult than swapping out the stock horn for one that was a direct replacement (no relay needed). Anyone that is considering doing this should absolutely give it a shot. There's no need to pay someone good money for doing this project for you. On a 1-10 difficulty scale I'd probably give this a 3. Not using Posi-Taps would increase this, but the fact that they come with the light bar makes it an obvious choice.

If you haven't yet tackled this one and you're going to, couple of extra tips:

1. have extra Posi-Taps on hand. After reading up on them I had planned on getting some just to have around and keep in the frunk/tool kit. If I had them already, this project would be fully completed already!!
2. use magnetic bits when possible and consider stuffing the gaps with rags or something to help prevent small parts making a runner for the depths of your bikes bodywork!
3. handle small parts carefully and try not to drop them, especially when standing over your bike!
4. don't put the back caps on the Posi-Taps until you need them! If I had taken them off before I made the taps on the bikes wires then I wouldn't have had to remove them when getting ready to connect in the light bar wires. One less opportunity to drop them!!
5. check your mounting hardware to ensure it will work for your particular situation
6. check your mounting location and be sure you're happy with it before tightening everything up

 

[flyinfree.00]

Thanks for the step-by-step! Looks good!

By mounting it on top of the plate you may have avoided an issue, I seem to recall reading here somewhere that someone had the plastics crack when it was mounted on the bottom from the weight of the Admore and the lever action acting on the plastic. The extra brackets you were speaking of may have alleviated that but I don't know.

The Admore comes in two sizes which size is this?

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[FezUSA]

You're right about the cracked license plate issue, but I think the way Admore addressed that by including the two metal mounting plates that connect vertically on either side of the license plate to support the light bar, should alleviate the issue, they're decent sized pieces. They also took into consideration different heights of license plate by providing a crease mark in the two plates so that you can shorten them if necessary. I'll check for the exact model # and post back later.

 

[FezUSA]

New Posi-Taps arrived so last night I dropped the rear fender cover and connected in my right indicator wire, tested and then put the cables back in the clip that I had previously forgot about, and then after taking a picture (electrical) taped it up and put the cover back on. Very very happy with this set up.





Also, here's a picture of the 2 metal plates that they provide if you're going to install the light bar at the bottom of your license plate. They put a crease in them in case you have a 4" plate and need them to be shorter. They look like they should support the bar quite easily and fix the problem of the actual license plate holding the bar and eventually breaking due to fatigue. That's a quarter for size reference, and you can also see the p/n on the box for anyone interested in the specific model I bought. It is the small premium bar, so it has modulating brake light, tail light, progressive indicators, a white flashing center vertical strip of LED's that are on while the brake lights are on solid, and a white downward facing LED to light up the license plate if needed. There's a USB port on the back covered by a weatherproof insert and it comes with a cable that allows you to connect it to your computer. You can then download their free software to further customize the lights. There is an Android version of the software also I believe. All mounting hardware and Posi-Taps are included, although you need to make sure that it works for your particular install and to be careful not to drop any pieces in to the bike!! Spare Posi-Taps on hand are always a good idea I learned!!