Reverse lights on the CSC Viper...

I saw another thread further down but it is slightly different than my question. I also started a post over on the CSC Owners Only Facebook page about this. One thing I am not real thrilled about is that the reverse lights do not stay on all the time the GL1800 is in reverse mode. They only light up when the start/reverse button is pressed and when actually in motion backing up. I did a little digging as I have the trike apart anyway replacing my left heated grip and doing a bunch of preventive maintainance.

In reviewing the Viper installation manual and looking at the wiring diagram, apparently as part of the CSC addons wiring is a relay that controls the reverse lights. I searched high and low but never found that relay. From what I can see, it must be somewhere inside the conversion body. But it actually doesnt matter. While I was digging and going through the CSC manual, I discovered that there is a harness spliced into the starter solenoid as part of the conversion and that a new wire runs from that to wherever the relay is. That wire is a yellow/red wire. It matched up with what I saw as far as the trigger wire that activates the reverse lights relay on terminal 85 of the relay. I used a multimeter to confirm.

When the reverse mode button was pushed and the reverse indicator light on the dash came on, that yellow/red wire was dead. Once I pushed the starter/reverse button with reverse mode active, I got just over 12 volts. So it looks like I just have to figure out a way to get power from something that is only powered during reverse mode and connect it to that yellow/red wire.

FYI, I had to do some digging to locate that wire. I found it connected to a red connector along the left side of the frame, in a black boot, and just to the rear of the battery. Like I mentioned, it was part of the addon wiring harness for the conversion but it appears that the only reason it is there is to pull a signal from. The starter solenoid during reverse mode so I may just cut off the splice and figure out what to connect to the yellow/red wire.

On the FB post, one gentleman mentioned that he did something like this several years ago. He told me that on the right front side of the fairing, I should find a yellow wire that connects to the dash reverse indicator light. He said he tapped into that wire and ran a lead back and made his own relay setup for the reverse lights. I think I would just like to take advantage of the reverse light relay already there. I searched for that yellow wire and cant find it.

While looking through the GL1800 service manual wiring diagrams, I see that the dash reverse indicator is actually connected to the cruise module via a white/red wire. It is pin #24 in the black connector. That would probably work but that connector is buried and I would have to pull the air filter cover off to get to it. Even though I have the shelter off now, I don't feel like diving that far into it just to splice into that wire. I know there has to be an easier solution.

I'm thinking that maybe tapping into one of the fuses might be a way. There are 4 fuses related to the reverse system. There is RVS Fuse A, RVS Fuse B, RVS/Start Fuse and Spd Limit Fuse. It is a little confusing trying to decipher the wiring schematic for the reverse system. I will probably have to meter.each fuse and see if one is active only during reverse mode. That is probably going to be the easiest route. I'm also hoping that there is enough space under the cover to use a tap on whichever fuse meets my needs...

So any thoughts on this? CSC is supposed to be consulting with their engineers on this as we speak...

Here is a view of the yellow/red wire I was talking about. It is attached to a red connector. That connector harness has a red male and a red female connector and attaches inline to the starter solenoid. The particular inline harness only seems to be there for that yellow/red wire. So it seems like if I can find a 12v source that is only powered during reverse mode, I can just connect it to the yellow/red wire, eliminate the pass through extra solenoid harness, and I will have full time reverse lights...

No go with the fuses. I will have to look into the relays now..

Don't know anything about reverse. But every honda I have ever owned the yellow red wire powered the starter solenoid. If that wire has 12v in it when you hit start then its the starter circuit. If you apply 12v from another source to that wire the starter will stay engaged untill you remove that wire. Just a thought I guess.

Here is a View of that part of the harness disconnected. It is actually part of the CSC harness that gets added during the conversion. It T's into the GL1800 wiring at the solenoid to grab power. From the Viper installation manual, that wire then goes to a relay that I haven't been able to locate and is connected to pin# 85 on the relay. From my limited electrical knowledge, when power is applied to pin# 85, it energizes the relay and allows power to flow through the relay and turns on whatever is being powered by the relay.

I tested it on a multimeter and with just the reverse mode button pressed and 5he reverse indicator light activated on the dash, that wire is dead. It only got power when the start/reverse button was also pressed. So from everything I have been able to figure out, it is just the trigger wire for the CSC supplied reverse lights relay. My plan is to completely delete that small T connection and only utilize the yellow/red wire. Doing this, it will no longer be connected to the solenoid. Now I just need to figure out a source of 12v that is turned on only during reverse mode. And like I mentioned, the fuses will not work. I am researching other options...

I dont know if this will work or you will be able to enlarge it but this is a copy of the wiring diagram in the Viper manual...

It also appears that the CSC wiring diagram may be mislabeled. It shows terminal 30 as 12v power, terminal # 38 as ground, terminal # 85 as a 12v trigger source, and terminal # 87 as 12v output to the reverse lights. I cant seem to find any relays with that configuration. The relay information I can find on 4 terminal relays have 30, 85, 86, and 87. Based on that the CSC relay is correct on 30 and 87 but 38 should probably be #85 and is ground and #85 should probably be #86 and is the 12v source used to energize the relay. Does that seem correct?

With the help from another forum, I think I have come up with a solution. It was discovered that in the C18 connector which is tucked into the right side of the fairing, there is a yellow/white wire that goes between the reverse mode switch on right handlebars and the cruise/reverse module. When the reverse mode button is pushed in, there is power on that yellow/white wire. When the reverse mode button is pushed in and released to get out of reverse mode, there is no longer any power on that wire.

I made a makeshift test lead and connected it to the C18 connector and then disconnected the CSC solenoid harness and connected the other end of the test lead to that. When testing, no reverse lights on back of Viper when in normal mode. When I press the reverse mode switch, the Viper reverse lights come on. Now I just have to permanently attach the wire and I will have full time reverse lights. It's not the easy solution I was looking for and not sure how it could be implemented in the kits but it does work...

In the photos, my test lead is a yellow wire and its temporarily connected to the top left of the blue connector, 2nd pin. In the bottom picture, I temporarily attached my yellow wire to the positive pin in the CSC solenoid harness.