Member Contributer Marooncobra Posted January 1, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted January 1, 2019 Happy New Year to you all and safe riding for the 2019 season. I am trying to find an LED rear light cluster for my 2002 6th gen. I have been using LED bulbs up until now but after a few 1000 km I am finding that the LED head breaks away from the body of the fitting. I have searched the web and can only find 5th gen versions. I did manage to locate a 6th gen version through a German company Thurn, but after contacting them they have confirmed that they have stopped supplying this rear light as the standard of workmanship was poor and failure rates were high. I am considering purchasing a 5th gen LED rear cluster and gutting it and modifying my 6th gen rear light with the LED components. Has anyone tried this,and not having a 5th gen bike to see if it is possible, am I barking up the wrong tree? Your assistance is appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer MaxSwell Posted January 1, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted January 1, 2019 I have a LED light that fits the mounting holes for the licence plate that I bought from Aerostich. https://www.aerostich.com/a-to-b-utilities/lights/tail-lights-and-turnsignals/stopper-led-brake-light-stopper.html One obsever, watching me leave, later said it makes the tail light indicators more conspicuous. I'm attachind a pic I have on file of the fifth gen rear combination light. With my machine tucked away for the winter, a decent pic is not possible. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Marooncobra Posted January 1, 2019 Author Member Contributer Share Posted January 1, 2019 MaxSwell Many thanks for the info and the photo. It looks like the 5 th gen has two brake/tail lights in a row where as the 6th gen has two brake/tail lights above and below. I don’t think this would be a problem as I could rotate the circuit board during the modification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer FJ12Ryder Posted January 2, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted January 2, 2019 Just curious why you don't just replace the bulbs with LED's, the 5th generation uses the same bulbs. I've used LED's for many thousands of miles with no issues. Or am I missing something here? Which is very possible, it has happened before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Marooncobra Posted January 2, 2019 Author Member Contributer Share Posted January 2, 2019 I have had three LED bulbs break over the last 3000 km. The head of the bulb, that has all of the leds on, breaks away from the holder, and it always seems to be the stop/tail light. I therefore thought putting LED boards in would rectify this issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer FJ12Ryder Posted January 2, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted January 2, 2019 I can see why you'd be unhappy with the bulbs, but I've had the Cree brand in mine since 2015 and they still work great. They don't strobe though, just work like regular bulbs. I couldn't find the dealer that I bought mine from on Ebay, but there's a ton of them out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbanengineer Posted January 5, 2019 Share Posted January 5, 2019 I also have issues with the bulbs falling out. It’s a bulb base issue. If your bulb had a plastic base I would safety wire it to ensure it doesn’t work it’s way loose. LED boards are way to expensive for what you are trying to do. 5th gen =\= in size at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Marooncobra Posted January 11, 2019 Author Member Contributer Share Posted January 11, 2019 Just thought I would post the modification I did with my 6th Gen Rear light cluster. Managed to get hold of a second hand LED Light cluster from a 5th Gen and stripped out the guts. To fit the indicators I Dremeled a slot in the indicator housing so the board could fit in the housing at the correct angle and then made up a plastic spigot to hold the board securely. I also used silicon sealant to fill any holes to stop moisture entering the unit. To fit the brake/light board I Dremeled a large area out of the top brake/tail light housing to allow the board to sit without fouling the lens. I used two long M3 bolts to hold the board securely to the housing. I then had to make up fillet pieces from aluminium to fill the large box area I had Dremeled away and secured them with silicon sealant. Finally I spray painted the brake/Tail light area satin black and stuck foam ''draft sealer'' between the brake and indicator areas to ensure there was no light infiltration from the brake light into the indicator lens area as I had Dremeled the plastic barrier away to fit the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer TriumphTraitor Posted January 11, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted January 11, 2019 That is a very interesting modification. I would really be interested in seeing how it looks all lit up. Curious to see if you would need a new relay or special resistors to maintaining the signal flash rate. Kudos on getting it all packaged in there nicely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Marooncobra Posted January 13, 2019 Author Member Contributer Share Posted January 13, 2019 On 1/12/2019 at 9:53 AM, TriumphTraitor said: That is a very interesting modification. I would really be interested in seeing how it looks all lit up. Curious to see if you would need a new relay or special resistors to maintaining the signal flash rate. Kudos on getting it all packaged in there nicely! TriumphTraitor I had already replaced the flasher unit for the LED bulbs fitted to the bike prior to this conversion but note that the 5th Gen Light had resistors soldered into the circuit boards for a correct flash rate. The boards came with prewired soldered cables which just plug into the OEM bulb holders to make the circuit. The pulsing brake light function is not part of the 5th Gen light as I already had a HealTech Brake Light Pro fitted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbanengineer Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 Holy hotness that LED set up is bright af! Please provide more detail on how you opened the rear taillight as I’ve looked into swapping some LED boards intothere becuse of all the lost bulbs I’ve also had. Im so impressed... love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Marooncobra Posted January 17, 2019 Author Member Contributer Share Posted January 17, 2019 Urbanengineer You can either put the cluster in the oven or use a heat gun to heat up the butyl rubber strip to allow the two half’s to seperate, same as a headlight. I looked around at LED boards in electronic shops and LED suppliers but couldn’t find anything that would really work so I managed to get hold of a second hand 5th gen LED rear light off eBay. I think if you buy a new one they are around $180. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer KevCarver Posted January 17, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted January 17, 2019 You won't know it's a 6th Gen without the one tail light being out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbanengineer Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 @BuzznerSuntrusts my dad followed me once and mentioned how he liked when the rear lit up extra bright... I had a bulb out of course. Only the highs worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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