Darla install

Ijuggle · May 9, 2015

I'm installing Clearwater Darla's this weekend on my '14ES and of course I want to do something not drawn in their instruction manual.

I have a 12 gauge wire coming from my under seat fuse block. I plan to attach the Darla's to it. It's only hot when the ignition is on.

I plan to:

Remove the fuse holder that came with the Darla's and attach directly to my wire from the fuse block.

I'll ground to the battery or frame.

Attach the white Volume Control wire to the high beam wire (yellow at the headlight??). Is the Yellow correct?

Of course I don't want to go looking for the existing relay as instructed. The existing wire harness is neat/tightly wrapped and I don't want to mess it up.

The iffy part is the "thin red wire" from the supplied relay. Can I hook it up the the 12 gauge wire that is powering the Darla's or do I have to find another "switched power source?

Thanks

Ijuggle · May 10, 2015

Ok fine.

Yellow worked.

So did the "thin red wire".

Twigg · May 10, 2015

I'd only suggest running the ground back to the Fuzeblock.

Keeping hot and return wires equal lengths, and close in origin reduces the tendency for ground loops to occur and interfere with other electronics.

AlleyCat · May 4, 2016

Ijuggle said:
I'm installing Clearwater Darla's this weekend on my '14ES and of course I want to do something not drawn in their instruction manual.
I have a 12 gauge wire coming from my under seat fuse block. I plan to attach the Darla's to it. It's only hot when the ignition is on.

I plan to:

Remove the fuse holder that came with the Darla's and attach directly to my wire from the fuse block.

I'll ground to the battery or frame.

Attach the white Volume Control wire to the high beam wire (yellow at the headlight??). Is the Yellow correct?

Of course I don't want to go looking for the existing relay as instructed. The existing wire harness is neat/tightly wrapped and I don't want to mess it up.

The iffy part is the "thin red wire" from the supplied relay. Can I hook it up the the 12 gauge wire that is powering the Darla's or do I have to find another "switched power source?

Thanks

When you say 'relay', are you referring to the CANbus relay that was included with your lights ? Just curious if that relay is even required for an install on the FJR.... I was just going to connect red and black to my PDM60 and ground block, the white wire from the 'volume' control to the high beam light and the trigger wire to the ignition trigger that is connected to my PDM60 (the license plate light). Just trying to figure this out before digging in too deep.

TomInPA · May 4, 2016

AlleyCat, try to keep your install as close to Clearwater's recommendations as possible, and don't hesitate to call Glen Stasky or his staff for any help. I think using the low beam headlight to trigger is ideal since the headlights don't fire until the engine has started. While the Clearwater harness relay is CANbus compliant, you must use it in the FJR to get the functionality of dimming ad bypass that are built in. The hardest part of the install is taking your time to be neat, and tie the wires back out of the way.

AlleyCat · May 4, 2016

TomInPA said:
AlleyCat, try to keep your install as close to Clearwater's recommendations as possible, and don't hesitate to call Glen Stasky or his staff for any help. I think using the low beam headlight to trigger is ideal since the headlights don't fire until the engine has started. While the Clearwater harness relay is CANbus compliant, you must use it in the FJR to get the functionality of dimming ad bypass that are built in. The hardest part of the install is taking your time to be neat, and tie the wires back out of the way.

Thank you for the info... Noted for the relay. I am taking photos as I progress and will post some of them here later on.

AlleyCat · May 5, 2016

Installed the Darlas.... went well. The hard part is keeping everything tidy. All works as intended. Will post photos soon.

Uncle Hud · May 5, 2016

AlleyCat posted: Installed the Darlas.... went well. The hard part is keeping everything tidy. All works as intended. Will post photos soon.

Thank you for the "Will post photos soon" promise. I'm interested. Where did you mount them?

AlleyCat · May 5, 2016

Uncle Hud said:
AlleyCat posted: Installed the Darlas.... went well. The hard part is keeping everything tidy. All works as intended. Will post photos soon.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the "Will post photos soon" promise. I'm interested. Where did you mount them?

I mounted them on the forks (with the supplied brackets from Clearwater. I just have to transfer the photos to the computer from the cellphone. I should have them on here by tomorrow evening. Really happy with the final result.

Uncle Hud · May 6, 2016

.... because I'd like to mount them on my forks, too. You know, throw some light on my intended path rather than just straight ahead wherever the bike is pointing at this second.

griff · May 6, 2016

Hud - I just got a set and haven't installed them - hopefully this weekend. Very nice fork brackets included. Come on up and check them out when I git them on.

Uncle Hud · May 6, 2016

Sorry, griff, but I have a much more attractive invitation for this weekend.

AlleyCat · May 6, 2016

As promised, here are some photos from my install. I will try to do this right....

The relay you need is the one indicated with the arrow. This is on the left side of the bike (left side when you are sitting on the bike).

The relay is hooked on a rubber piece which has a slot in it. The rubber piece is itself hooked to a metal support. The red circle shows the hook in question. I was able to wiggle the relay of the rubber support by moving the wires above it out of the way without cutting the wire tie which keeps the cables in position. Very tight and patience is required. Otherwise, cut the tie and move the wires easily (you will need to place a new tie in place to keep the wires where they should be).

The Posi-Tap goes on the yellow wire for the high beam trigger (white wire from the Clearwater harness), the other Posi-Tap goes on the green and blue wire for the trigger (red wire from Clearwater harness)

The wires are spliced together - I wanted a thinner profile so I cut the different splices so that the blue caps are not all bunched in a thick heap side by side.

The Clearwater relay got tie wrapped there.

The drip loop on the wire is recommended.

The finished product..... Looking mighty fine.

It is much easier to do the job with this panel removed.

The taped up portion got tucked into the cavity under the glove box (lots of room).

The remote went here.

https://i1317.photobucket.com/albums/t630/Alleycat711/IMG_1913.jpg

mcatrophy · May 6, 2016

Photo assist

.... [iPad battery getting low]

ionbeam · May 6, 2016

Edit: I see I'm slow, it must be because the Brits are a few hours ahead of us. I'll let the duplicate pixs stand with the interleaved text.

AlleyCat said:
As promised, here are some photos from my install. I will try to do this right....

The relay you need is the one indicated with the arrow. This is on the left side of the bike (left side when you are sitting on the bike).

The relay is hooked on a rubber piece which has a slot in it. The rubber piece is itself hooked to a metal support. The red circle shows the hook in question. I was able to wiggle the relay of the rubber support by moving the wires above it out of the way without cutting the wire tie which keeps the cables in position. Very tight and patience is required. Otherwise, cut the tie and move the wires easily (you will need to place a new tie in place to keep the wires where they should be).

The Posi-Tap goes on the yellow wire for the high beam trigger (white wire from the Clearwater harness), the other Posi-Tap goes on the green and blue wire for the trigger (red wire from Clearwater harness)

The wires are spliced together - I wanted a thinner profile so I cut the different splices so that the blue caps are not all bunched in a thick heap side by side.

The Clearwater relay got tie wrapped there.

The drip loop on the wire is recommended.

The finished product..... Looking mighty fine.

It is much easier to do the job with this panel removed.

The taped up portion got tucked into the cavity under the glove box (lots of room).

The remote went here.

AlleyCat · May 6, 2016

The yello wire is the headlight high beam (if you hit the high beam button, the Darlas come on full power).... the green and blue is the trigger wire (turns on the Darlas when the motorcycle headlights come on)..... For power I wired the positive wire to my PDM60 and the black wire to the ground block.

AlleyCat · May 6, 2016

Thanks guys for assisting with the photos..... I found my mistake and corrected my post. Lots of photos now.

BigOgre · May 6, 2016

Nice write-up. Should definitely be a benefit to some in the future.

Not that it makes much of a difference but I did find it easier to posi-tap into the two wires a little further away from the relay. Looking at your picture you can see the wire bundle to that relay sort of forming its own drip loop. I carefully put a small slit in the sheath at the bottom there and accessed them at that point. Just gives a little more room to maneuver when moving it all.

griff · May 7, 2016

Alley Cat - I see you mounted the volume control on the handle bar. Did you use the hardware Clearwater sent you? It looks like you used the upper bolt on the handle bar assembly.

Darla install

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