Sidecar wiring

[M61A1MECH]

I have been contacted by a fellow rider in Canada who has recently purchased a Fleximum sidecar. He wants to wire it to the bike to take advantage of the lights. Problem is the Fleximums are no longer in production and I can find almost no information on them. The sidecar has a 4 wire trailer plug on it, but there is no way it can be wired the same as a trailer as it has a forward facing amber turn signal as well as two rear facing turn signals, so it can not use the turn signal lights as brake lights like a 4 wire trailer would with red turn signals. It also has red tail lights, which I am assuming also function as brake lights. I could easily set up a system that would work if I knew how the side car was wired, so I am asking if anyone here has knowledge of the Fleximum side cars, such as the wiring schematic, a link to useful information of the web. The side car was built in Quebec and I have seen older posts saying that the builders were unresponsive to emails and inquires in English, I do not speak French, so even if I knew how to contact the builders, I could not communicate with them.

I did find one website that mentioned that brand, but it is less than helpful.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

[Andy Cote]

Steve,

Every business in Quebec can converse in English. They may not want to but they can. My French is not good enough to ask them any questions but if they don't respond to English, there is no guaranty they would respond to any enquiry.

Four will work (ground, brake, tail, right turn) but is might be easier and more reliable to hook a battery to the hack and just test out which pin does which function.

Alternatively, you could provide both male and female sides of a new plug, labeled for the four functions.

[M61A1MECH]

Andy,

I know they can speak English, but as you know, some do not want to.

I have asked the rider am trying to help to give me feed back as far as which contact in the plug does what on the side car, from there I can build a system, but I have to use a 5 wire isolator to separate the brake function from the turn function. Easy to do if I know where to put the brake function. Also because he has three incandescent right hand turn signal bulbs, he will need to change those to LEDs or they will over tax the isolator.

I think I can eventually get there, but more information is always better than less or no information.

[tamathumper]

I looked up the Fleximum.

That thing was beat with the ugly stick so hard that they broke the stick, and used the sharp ends to poke it in both eyes! :O

I can vouch for the Quebecois being able to speak English, and being @#$! enough not to, and also to give you change for American in Canadian and pretend not to speak the language.

Good luck with the wiring - maybe if they're handy as a last resort you can wire it all up, but leave the pins out of the back of one of the connectors and have him/her seat them where needed.

[WingAdmin]

Rather than depending on someone - just reverse engineer it. It's not too hard to do.

If it's a four-wire trailer plug, you'll be able to easily identify the ground pin - it's the female one on the trailer/sidecar side. The one that is enclosed in plastic:

So ground out that pin, and apply +12v to the other pins, one at a time, and look to see which lights turn on. Then you'll have your answer.

[M61A1MECH]

Rather than depending on someone - just reverse engineer it. It's not too hard to do.

If it's a four-wire trailer plug, you'll be able to easily identify the ground pin - it's the female one on the trailer/sidecar side. The one that is enclosed in plastic:

towsmart-towing-lights-1441-64_1000.jpg

So ground out that pin, and apply +12v to the other pins, one at a time, and look to see which lights turn on. Then you'll have your answer.

Yup, that is what I asked the owner to do, he is in Canada and I am in Florida, so that increases the difficulty level I have problems working out how to reverse engineer it, I actually have that part figured out, but I need to know which contacts are doing what in the side car.

[doumlab]

I'm in quebec, I have a Fleximum sidecar.In fact the builder of them is my stepfather.He don't built them anymore.Maybe I could help?

[M61A1MECH]

Thank you , but I have worked out a system for the owner, I will send him a copy of this thread, he may still have questions about the side car.