A while ago I stated that I wanted to clean up the look of the turn signals on the bike. I knew that I wanted to re-use the original signals and shorten the ridiculously long stalks that Suzuki deemed necessary. The main reason for keeping the original turn signals is primarily a financial one and secondarily a cosmetic one. I really can’t think of any new aftermarket turn signals that would blend with the looks of my 32 year old bike so combining that with the extra cost involved, I set about modifying the stalks to make them shorter.
I had hoped that I would be able to have my machinist friend shorten up the original stalks and re-thread them but he stated that it would be too much work so my next plan was to find shorter bolts in the same diameter and thread pitch (M10 X 1.25) and have him drill out the centers which he found to be more agreeable.
After he drilled out the centers, all I had to do was hack-saw off the heads and grind a bevel on the cut end.
These obviously, are much shorter than the original stalks.
I did add a nut to each signal to act as a small spacer to make sure that there was no contact between the turn signal and the headlight mounting bracket.
I had to cut the connector on the positive lead off to get the wire out of the stalks since they were put on after the wire was run through the stalk and the connector was a larger diameter than the wire itself. Consequently then I had to re-solder the wire together.
That was a pretty simple task and as I am typing this I am realizing that I used black electrical tape to cover the soldered bits when I actually have shrink tubing and a heat gun, so I will have to go back and re-do the job properly later.
I was only able to get the front signals mounted as the rear signals were originally mounted to the luggage rack-type thing which I removed. My plan is to drill mounting holes in the rear fender and mount the turn signal directly to that.
I am really happy with the results on the front and am sure that I will be happy with the rear as well once they are mounted but I will need to do some searching for a tail-light smaller than the original but bigger than the smaller one I had found on side of the road, proportion will be key.
That’s it for now, thanks for reading, and look forward to some more turn signal work next time and I will be working on finding parts for the intake leaks on the engine as well.
