GearJammer
11-08-2005, 09:49 PM
Was so impressed with "Are's" taillight mod (as seen in the Cool Mods section) that I decided to do something similar to this 450, using a vintage cat's eye taillight that I'd refurbished.
The 450 has 3 seperate wiring harnesses that disconnect from under the rider's seat & head towards the back of the bike. One harness is for the license plate light, one for the rear turn signals & one for the taillight.
Removed the license plate & turn signal harnesses completely as I wouldn't be using them anymore.
The taillight on the 450 Rebel has not one, but two 1157 bulbs inside of it. (On a side note, even tho' the taillight lenses on the 250's & 450's look exactly the same, they're not interchangeable as the mounting screw holes don't line up). The harness for the taillight is crimped right where it enters the taillight & there's 3 wires....2 feed wires that split into 4 to feed both bulbs & the 3rd wire is the ground.
Green/Yellow = Feed
Brown = Feed
Dark Green = Ground
I cut the wiring (all 3) directly in front of where the 2 feed wires split to become 4 wires since only 2 feed wires would be needed for the cat's eye taillight. Then I cut 1 ft. extensions for the 3 wires & used bullit connectors. The 1 ft. extensions were j-u-s-t the right length, tho' another 3" wouldn't have hurt.
Having removed the stock license plate light housing, that left the stock bracket that's tack welded beneath the tail-end of the fender. This bracket was used to mount the backplate & cat's eye taillight. Used cardboard as "Are" recommended to make the template for the backplate. Couldn't find aluminum sheet, so bought some galvanized instead & used that, making sure to spray paint it to avoid future rusting. Please refer to "Are's" mod to see the desired shaping.
Mounted the backplate, cut a piece of old inner tube to shape & placed that between the cat's eye & backplate for a bit of rubber mounting quality. In addition to the 2 mounting bolts on the cat's eye, I drilled 2 more holes to the left & right of those to use 2 more bolts for reinforcement in mounting the backplate. On one of these additional mounting bolts, I attached the Dark Green ground wire. The 2 feed wires were attached to the 2 wires from the cat's eye. It doesn't matter which feed wire goes to which taillight wire, they'll work either way...for the taillight or for the brake light or both.
Once done, the one harness runs along the top of the rear fender, then goes down thru the hole in the fender where the 2 harnesses for the license plate & turn signal wiring had used to go & then extends to the rear of the fender tip where the mod was installed.
The 450 has 3 seperate wiring harnesses that disconnect from under the rider's seat & head towards the back of the bike. One harness is for the license plate light, one for the rear turn signals & one for the taillight.
Removed the license plate & turn signal harnesses completely as I wouldn't be using them anymore.
The taillight on the 450 Rebel has not one, but two 1157 bulbs inside of it. (On a side note, even tho' the taillight lenses on the 250's & 450's look exactly the same, they're not interchangeable as the mounting screw holes don't line up). The harness for the taillight is crimped right where it enters the taillight & there's 3 wires....2 feed wires that split into 4 to feed both bulbs & the 3rd wire is the ground.
Green/Yellow = Feed
Brown = Feed
Dark Green = Ground
I cut the wiring (all 3) directly in front of where the 2 feed wires split to become 4 wires since only 2 feed wires would be needed for the cat's eye taillight. Then I cut 1 ft. extensions for the 3 wires & used bullit connectors. The 1 ft. extensions were j-u-s-t the right length, tho' another 3" wouldn't have hurt.
Having removed the stock license plate light housing, that left the stock bracket that's tack welded beneath the tail-end of the fender. This bracket was used to mount the backplate & cat's eye taillight. Used cardboard as "Are" recommended to make the template for the backplate. Couldn't find aluminum sheet, so bought some galvanized instead & used that, making sure to spray paint it to avoid future rusting. Please refer to "Are's" mod to see the desired shaping.
Mounted the backplate, cut a piece of old inner tube to shape & placed that between the cat's eye & backplate for a bit of rubber mounting quality. In addition to the 2 mounting bolts on the cat's eye, I drilled 2 more holes to the left & right of those to use 2 more bolts for reinforcement in mounting the backplate. On one of these additional mounting bolts, I attached the Dark Green ground wire. The 2 feed wires were attached to the 2 wires from the cat's eye. It doesn't matter which feed wire goes to which taillight wire, they'll work either way...for the taillight or for the brake light or both.
Once done, the one harness runs along the top of the rear fender, then goes down thru the hole in the fender where the 2 harnesses for the license plate & turn signal wiring had used to go & then extends to the rear of the fender tip where the mod was installed.