Clearwater Krista install

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garyahouse

newbs need the forum
Joined
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Location
Spring Hill, Florida
It all began with changing out the bezels for the 25.00 upgrade to blue. They come in black (below)
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Getting them off was a challenge as the factory puts them on pretty snug. I used a vise... and an oil filter wrench. I wrapped the lens with a couple layers of masking tape to prevent damage. However, I learned that the white logos come off when using this method. Look closely at the black bezel. Notice that part of the Clearwater logos came off. Good thing I don't need to keep these black bezels. Do yourself a favor and have 'em done at the factory before you order them. I simply hand tightened the blue bezels.
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I didn't like the factory supplied "box" supplied for the dimmer control. So I decided to fab up my own. I started with doing a little measuring, then i drew it out on a piece of card stock paper:
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I cut it out and then traced it onto a piece of sheet metal:
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First i drilled the holes. You'll notice that the front and back are off center a little. This is to accommodate the shape and location of Clearwater's switch...
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One of the two larger holes (the one on the left) was supposed to be a lot smaller, but a decent sized washer cured the problem later on.
Anyway, next, I cut it out and filed the edges:
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Then it was time to do some bending. I wanted to make it so that the flange was located on the bottom, with the hole slightly off to the side so that it would fit right where i wanted it to go... If I had it to do again, I would have made it about 1/4 inch shorter. Oh well.
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Below, right next to my finger you can see the factory screw ready to be replaced by a longer stainless cap screw and an appropriate sized sleeve (available at any hardware store):
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A couple coats of gloss black paint, and it's ready to go in:
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Installed exactly where I want it... ignore that fool in the mirror...
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So, on to the rest of the install. After removing the four inner panels I put the brackets on. They were supplied free with our group buy from Clearwater. Here I'm tightening one of the mirror nuts
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I mounted the Kristas a little differently as I have a set of Baker air wings that need to go on as well. This was a lot more difficult than it looks. 3 separate trips to the Hardware store and many hours of trial and error. This combination looks like it should work pretty well:
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This attempt to take a short cut was a disaster. On the phone with Glen from Clearwater, I learned that tapping this green wire for a switched source (sends the signal to trip the relay that turns on the Kristas) was a bad idea. The Gen 1, which uses H4 bulbs, shuts off the low beam when the high beams are activated. However, tapping the yellow high beam light here worked out fine: I ended up removing the red trip wire from the green low beam wire, per Glen's instructions.
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Below is the finished job. Here I tapped into the green wire with the blue stripe coming from the headlight relay, like I was supposed to. It's located just above the wires I'm pointing to. You'll also notice that I strapped the Clearwater module to one of the FJR steel rails with a blue zip-tie-- just to the right of my finger below.
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Next I drilled a 1/2 inch hole in one of my panels for the Clearwater's on/off switch with its little red LED light...and wired it up with the red, yellow, and black wires per Clearwater instructions.
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Hooked up the battery, tested it out, and everything's working great. Sure did appreciate the help Glen from Clearwater gave me over the phone. I also learned something: Do not try to tie into the horn on the Gen 1. It cannot be used to trigger the Kristas as the instructions say. This is directly from Glen at Clearwtaer.
At one point during the installation, I feared that I'd fried the circuit board due to my wiring mistakes. Glen gave me a VERY generous offer to replace it for a reduced price, though I lucked out and it turned out that a weak ground produced some weird symptoms that caused him to suggest that maybe I'd fried the circuit board. Turned out that everything was just fine, once I got the thing properly grounded.
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They are seriously bright. I'll need to do a little more adjusting, but I'm a happy camper.

Gary
darksider #44

 
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I like the fix you did on the Positaps by drilling them out to fit the Yamaha wires. I wish you told us about that earlier as it is tight in there to get a solder gun, and the quick splices from the local auto parts store are junk . You may want to share this information here as well for others that have not installed them yet.

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Very nice, great pics, and thanks for sharing the idea on drilling the positaps! I may still solder since I love the clean and corrosion free connection you get, but it's more time intensive and looks like a pain in that tight area...

Glad you're happy with the Kristas, they should help you see and be seen both day and night!

Happy (brighter) miles ahead,

Abraham

---EDIT: Oh yes, and nice idea on the mini control box! Were you by any chance an engineer or machinist? Just a hunch, some friends of my dad's are crazy good at hobby tinkering and would bust out a box like that from freehand drawings in a couple hours. I could try all day and end up with a 4" square mess with no corners straight and the hole for the rheostat on the back side! ;) Nice job!

 
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Very nice, great pics, and thanks for sharing the idea on drilling the positaps! I may still solder since I love the clean and corrosion free connection you get, but it's more time intensive and looks like a pain in that tight area...

Oh yes, and nice idea on the mini control box! Were you by any chance an engineer or machinist? Just a hunch, some friends of my dad's are crazy good at hobby tinkering and would bust out a box like that from freehand drawings in a couple hours. I could try all day and end up with a 4" square mess with no corners straight and the hole for the rheostat on the back side!
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Nice job!
Yes, I was a machinist for 20 years or so. The picture I posted at the beginning of this thread can be copied. Not sure if Gen 1 and Gen 2 switch modules are the same size and configuration, but there ya go. Anyway, below is the info about the pos-i-taps that I posted over on the Clearwater group buy thread:

...The Pos-i-taps that came with my Kristas were too small to fit the wires I was attempting to tap into. If I tried to force the pos-i-tap over the wire, the end cap spread apart and would no longer thread into the housing (of the pos-i-tap). However, by running a drill through the slot of the pos-i-tap to open it up to the size of the wire, I was able to use it, and it worked just fine. The whole process took about 2 minutes.

The pictures above show these "drilled out" pos-i-taps being used on wires that would normally be too large for them.

Gary

 
I got the Darlas. Wish I could see a install write up on those. I was planning to just run mine off a PC8 fuseblock. Wasn't going to tap into factory wires. But not sure. For the guys that have lots of electrical add ons where do you put all the wires? I got fuseblock, cruise, Darlas and heated gear. Thought I had lots of room until I started to put everything on the bike!

 
Reacton57:

90 % of what you need to do is the same for Kristas or Darlas. The only diff is routing the wires down to the Darla location. The hardest part of the install is finding three wires. For me, it was finding two wires, since I cannot use the horn wire to activate anything, according to Glen at Clearwater. The two wires that I'm referring to are the ones that need to hook to a switched positive and the other to the high beam. I chose the low beam feed from the relay per Glen's instructions. That's it. The rest is pretty simple. See my 14th picture where I'm holding the wires in my hand? That's the plug that goes on the headlight bulb. You simply reach in there, wiggle the headlight plug a little, and pull it out. It hooks on to the headlight just like the one on any old car: simple to remove. Splice into the yellow wire as I did above in the pictures, and you're half way done. (Don't splice into the green wire like I did... I took that off later and hooked it into the wire coming out of the relay in the picture just below it). That wire coming from the relay is the final difficult wire to find; and it is the only hard one to deal with. I can tell you exactly how to do it on a Gen 1, but the Gen 2 relay is in a slightly different location, or so I'm told. Mine was directly behind the LED display panel of my gauges. You can see my finger pointing to this same wire I tapped in one of the pictures. The wires stick out the bottom where they can be reached easily without any fuss. It's just a matter of knowing WHERE the relay is. Where do ya stick the excess wires? There are all kinds of nooks and crannies available under the fairing. It's not hard, really.

Gary
darksider #44

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I was a machinist for 20 years or so. The picture I posted at the beginning of this thread can be copied. Not sure if Gen 1 and Gen 2 switch modules are the same size and configuration, but there ya go. Anyway, below is the info about the pos-i-taps that I posted over on the Clearwater group buy thread:
...The Pos-i-taps that came with my Kristas were too small to fit the wires I was attempting to tap into. If I tried to force the pos-i-tap over the wire, the end cap spread apart and would no longer thread into the housing (of the pos-i-tap). However, by running a drill through the slot of the pos-i-tap to open it up to the size of the wire, I was able to use it, and it worked just fine. The whole process took about 2 minutes.

The pictures above show these "drilled out" pos-i-taps being used on wires that would normally be too large for them.
Gary, good helpful post, so thanks for that. I'm going to suggest you scan that photo so anybody wanting to duplicate it can get it from you by PM or email. At least on my screen the picture and the dimensions on it aren't as clear as they could be. My adjusting knob is mounted similarly and it's the best place for it, IMO.

The other thought is about the Posi-taps. When you put one over a slightly-too-large wire and the ends spread, I've always been able to compress them with a pair of needle nose pliers enough to get the female side over the threads. Seems a little easier than drilling, or at least a quick alternate. I just did this yesterday connecting some low-voltage yard lighting. Had to use a Posi-tap I had in the garage when I F'd up the snap-in connector that came with the lamp. The wiring seemed WAY too fat for the Posi-tap, but it went on with a little squeeze.

(BTW, I'm a huge fan of Posi-taps. Easiest and most secure wire connectors ever--you can even re-use them.)

 
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