'98 GL1500 LED Upgrade - Driving & Position Lights

[Eboness]

Hi All, First things first, The information on this site is amazing and so glad I found it. Found both these upgrades on GL1500 How-To- Articles.
The pictures and direction where simple and straight forward. So if you haven't done this yet give it a try. Upgraded both Position lights and
Corner lights with LED's. Well ok on a 1998 GL1500 they are on all the time so technically they are driving lights. Thanks very much Goldwingdocs.
Ride safe.

[WingAdmin]

Great, it looks good! What I like is that those lights, both of which are prone to burning out, should likely never burn out ever again.

[rescuemark]

Very nice. Been thinking about changing to LEDs for a while.

[fysty-1]

Looks graet & you baby sure nuff is purdy. Welcome to the site, neigbour. Angela aka fysty-1

[airpane]

I just did this cornering light upgrade to the 1988 I'm working on. However, when i tried to do it by the instruction the lights would not come on. At fitrst I thought I had a bad light from the company so I tried the other one. It would not come on either. I tried reversing the red and green wires and the lights came on. I had to hook the green ground wire to the lead coming off of the back of the LED light and the red wire to the bulb housing. I had already cut the red wire from the inside of the housing . I did not want to cut the green ground wire from the bulb houding so I got a tiny screw driver and releseded the wire conection blades from the plug on the wireing harnes end of the wires and switched the position of the two wires in the plug. This reversed the positive and negative flow of electricity. This made the install work as stated in the instructions. On the 88 model there was three slots inside the bulb housing that used to secure the tangs on the old bulb. After the spring and new LED bulb were inserted in to the bulb housing I bent the three tangs that formed the slots in toward the center of the light housing to hold the bulb back against the bulb housing. To make the new LED lights stay on all the time I had to find the cornering light relays by following the cornering light wires back toward the wireing harnes. On the 1988 there is one on each side. I cut the orange and white wire on one side and the green and white wire on the other side. This made the cornering lights stay on all the time. I love the new blueish tint that the LED lights have and the fact that they do not draw too many amps nor do they get hot. You can actually hold them in your hand while they are on.

Thanks for putting this upgrade in the how to site. I love it.

Airplane

[Eboness]

Hi Airpane, Your description on how you did your switch to LED's was very interesting. The cornering light re-wire seem strange to me because everything worked for me as described in the DIY. I decided to check my Honda Shop Manual for the 1998 GL1500 and in the electrical section under GL1500 SE circuit diagram it shows the ground as being green, attached to the bulb housing and the brown/white wire as being power. Honda even calls the lights in the circuit diagram as left & right accessory lights. So everything I did to my 98 GL1500 was exactly as in the DIY instructions. This tells me that the 1988 GL1500 is wired differently as you described. Which actually makes sense since it was the first year the GL1500 was produced. You might consider contacting WingAdmin and letting him know there is a wiring difference for some of the early years GL1500's, if he does not already know. This would help any other early year GL1500 owners do this LED upgrade without any problems. I do know that years 1998 to 2000 GL1500's where the first years that Honda changed the cornering lights from on during turn signal usage to always on like driving lights even though you don't get much road coverage lighting from the stock bulb or even switching to LEDs. As the saying goes.....All the better to see you with my dear.
Take care & ride safe.

[cbx4evr]

Did you use the same LED's as WingAdmin or something different.

Living where you do, do you have a ferry pass?

[Eboness]

Hi cbx4evr, I used the LED's WingAdmin suggested. Not sure what you mean by a ferry pass, but yes we live in the town of Tsawwassen which is located about the BC Ferry Terminal. Google Earth Tsawwassen and you will see what I mean, the terminal is that long narrow spit west of Tsawwassen.

Ride safe.

[WingAdmin]

It's very unlikely that Honda wired some 1500's differently - in every Goldwing since the very first GL1000's in the mid 70's, "green" wires have been universally used for ground.

I suspect one of two things:

- Previous owner cut/changed wiring somewhere in the bike
- LED was manufactured incorrectly

Checking the voltage coming out of the wires with a voltmeter to ensure that the green is in fact providing ground will decide which one of these it is.

I know there are aftermarket wiring harnesses that make side marker lights flash by reversing the connection to the main turn signals - and using these harnesses means LED turn signal lamps will not work.

[Eboness]

Hi WingAdmin, Although I don't doubt what your saying and most likely you are right, my comments where based on his description
of how he wired up his LED upgrade. They did not match my experience as your DIY had shown. Everything went exactly as your
installation had said. Again you are most likely right about what happened to Airpane.

Ride safe.

[Jabberwokki]

Greetings!
Great forum.
I recently became the proud owner of a well kept 98 GL1500.
The owner before me upgraded the headlights with a goldwinghid plug and play kit and I have had my right side headlamp bulb go on and off then quit completely.
I tried to track down info on the kit but it seems that site is no longer available.
Can anyone tell me if there is a possibility it is just the bulb or would it be something like the ballast on that side going out?
Does anyone know of a replacement bulb?
I am considering ordering the newest version from SoCal with the positioning light included (those are still original) but hesitate at spending that kind of cash if a bulb would fix the problem.
All other lights are working normal even with that one out (it won’t work either on high beam or low beam)
Thanks to anyone who can help.