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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...
