Relocating Front Indicators Below Driving Lights

Triumph America/Speedmaster

Background

One of Triumph’s more questionable design decisions was to mount the front indicators on the handlebars of the America/Speedmaster. It tends to make the bike look like it’s pretending to be a dirt bike, or as if they were an afterthought. Cruisers generally have them mounted on either side of the forks, or below the driving lights when fitted. To relocate the indicators below the driving lights (using the Triumph lightbar or similar) there are two methods; the cheaper one and the better one.

Cheap & cheerful

Probably the simplest way to relocate the lights requires (carefully) simply drilling out the mounting hole in the body of the indicator to accept the mounting bolt of the driving light, the slipping the nut into the body and clamping the whole thing up. This has a couple of down-sides;

·         If you’re not careful with the drill, or have it running too fast you can easily damage the finish of the indicator.

·         It places all the force from the driving light mount on the small section of the relatively frail indicator body, possibly causing cracking under stress.

·         The light can’t be refitted to its original position later if you choose.

The better way

Having a small adapter made up to mount the indicator below the driving light should be fairly inexpensive (I had two of them done in stainless steel for about US$50) and provides a much stronger and more attractive mounting. It also allows you to refit the indicators as original at a later date if required. If this is required all you need do is solder four wires in place, use the new mounting bolts in the same way the old ones were fitted, and add a pair of “Nylock” nuts to the inside of the indicator bodies.

What you’ll need

Your first step is to have the mount made up if you choose to use it. You’ll also need the following;

Disclaimer: This worked for me and should work for you too, but if your bike blows up, it’s warranty is voided, your spouse leaves you, your dog dies etc it’s not my fault.

 
The mount

The mount replaces the nut keeping the driving light in place, and allows the indicator body to bolt up under it. Figure A shows the mount, and Figure B shows a cut-away detailing the threaded hole, with dimensions. Three dimensions have been left out, as they’ll depend on what driving light’s you’ve chosen to fit. The simplest method of deciding these is to take your bike to the machinist who’ll make the adapter for you, and have him measure the thread used on the mounting bolts of your driving lights (X Thread), and the length of the bolt protruding from the lightbar (Ymm). The chamfers at the top are to take a 19mm (or ¾ inch) spanner to allow it to be tightened. I had mine made from stainless steel and polished to a chrome-like finish to avoid rust, but if you decide you desperately need real chrome keep in mind that you can’t chrome stainless steel or aluminium, and have it made from mild steel.

Making it all fit.

First step is to remove the indicators from the handlebars. Remove the two Phillips head screws from the right hand control and remove the front of the control. Locate the white connector for the indicator wire tucked into the bottom of the control and disconnect it. Replace the socket into the control and refit the control’s cover to the bike. Remove the 10mm bolt securing the indicator body to the mounting bracket, then remove the second 10mm bolt securing the bracket to the hand lever mount. Put the bracket and two bolts away someplace safe as they will not be used again unless you restore the indicators to the original position. Repeat for the left hand control.

Remove the 2 phillips head screws securing the lenses to the indicator bodies. Disconnect the wires from the white plastic light bulb sockets, then remove the wires from the bodies. Cut the wires to remove the spade connectors, then remove the sleeving and grommets from the wires. [These will be reused, but the wires themselves will not, so place them with the other removed pieces. You might wish to cut the wires allowing space for them to be soldered back together at a later date if you wish to refit the indicators to the handlebars – or you could simply solder the wires to the light sockets, replace the spade connectors, or buy new wires from Triumph.] The light sockets need to be refitted turned ninety degrees from their original position to allow room for the cap bolt without fouling the electrical connections. If you examine the light sockets you should see two circular marks at ninety degrees from the original holes. These are in the exact positions where you need to drill two 2mm holes in each socket. Refit the lenses with the sockets in their new position to ensure proper fit, then remove again.

Place an indicator body into a vice with the mounting hole uppermost (protecting it’s finish with cardboard or similar). Using the drill on a low speed carefully drill the holes out using a 6mm bit. If you’re NOT using the mount, proceed to progressively larger bits until the hole is the appropriate size for your driving light’s mounting bolt. Remove and repeat for other body.

Remove the nut from the right driving light. If using the mount, fit this (with the light’s original washer) to the light, adjust the light’s position and tighten the mount. Mount the indicator body to the base of the mount using a drop of Loctite on the thread of the cap bolt. When you’re satisfied with the position of the indicator body, tighten the cap bolt into place. Repeat for other side.

 If you’re NOT using the mount, simply mount the body over the driving light’s bolt, fit the nut loosely inside the indicator, adjust the positions of both the driving light and the indicator body and tighten the nut. It’s easier with a spare pair of hands.

Place a rag or similar over the front fender to protect it’s surface, then slacken the nuts holding the lightbar to the underside of the lower triple-tree to allow access to the hole in the centre of the lightbar. [If you have a tool bag hanging there, it’s a good idea to remove either the entire bag or at least the tools first] Feed one end of the speaker wire into the hole in the centre of the lightbar until approximately 15cm protrudes from the end. Then feed the other end of the wire into the same hole until a similar amount protrudes from the other end of the lightbar. You may find that the wire gets jammed on the bends of the lightbar, or at the ends where there’s a small lip. Some judicious wiggling, cursing, and yelling helps here, as does liberal throat lubrication with your beverage of choice. At this point you should have a good-sized loop of wire sticking out the middle of the lightbar, and more than enough wire sticking out either end. DON’T cut any wires yet, or Murphy’s law states that they’ll be too short!


Remove the two Phillips head screws securing the headlight, then remove the headlight from its body. Disconnect the plugs for the headlight and parking light and place the headlight somewhere safe. Locate the two large plastic block connectors (one white, one black) inside the headlight’s body. The wires for the right indicator pass through the white block connector, and the black one has the wires for the left. Feed the loop of wire from the centre of the lightbar into the hole in the rear of the headlight body, routing the wire neatly to ensure that you have more than enough length. Cut the centre of the loop, and mark the wire that goes to the right indicator with correction fluid, a marker pen, or similar (to avoid connecting the lights backwards) Feed the wires through the harness tubing ensuring it goes all the way to the lightbar and into it a little for neatness. 

Locate the green wire with the red trace and the black wire coming from the black block connector, cut these wires, the solder & heatshrink the wires for the left indicator to them. Similarly attach the wires for the right indicator go to the green wire with the white trace and the black wire coming from white block connector.

[I generally don’t recommend using “scotchlock” connectors to join wires as they’re not good with moisture and create a weak spot in the wire, but in this case they’re fairly well protected by the headlight shell and there’s little room so you might like to consider them instead of solder & heatshrink. If you want to check that you’ve got the right wires before doing anything extreme, solder a couple of wires to the bulb sockets, turn on the indicators, and push the wires into the back of the block connector – the lights should flash and the flash rate should slow down]

Reconnect and refit the headlight to its body, then retighten the lightbar mounting bolts. Fit the original sleeves from the indicators over the wiring on either end of the lightbar, then fit the grommets etc over the wiring. Run the wires through the indicator bodies, then solder the ends to the bulb sockets. Finally fit the sockets and lenses, then sit back and enjoy.

  

A note to American readers: I considered converting all the measurements from metric to imperial, but considering that all the Triumph parts & threads are metric and that any competent engineer will be able to use the metric system I decided not to. “Indicators” are the same thing as turn signals, “spanners” are wrenches, and what you might think are spelling errors are actually the REAL way to spell those words in English. *grin*