BigBird63

2004 LS430. Trying to add a six-pin trailer harness. I thought this thread post #11 gave me all I needed on what wires to target, but things aren't working out for me quite right. I sure could use a dope slap and some insights.

It says the target wires in harness crossing the rear near the trunk latch are:
- Marker/running lights - violet
- Right turn - green/yellow
- Stop - red/white

Well, the right turn is good. Yay! But.....
1) I don't have a red/white wire.
2) When I cut the violet wire, I still have marker lights on both sides. With a voltmeter, the violet wire left side of the cut is around 0 all the time, and the right side is close to 3V whether or not the marker lights are turned on.

I searched and pondered, found these other threads here and here. The first one is more in play. I'm a bit like a dog staring at a ceiling fan with it, and I'm not sure which side of the Luggage Room JB I'm on with the harness I cut into. Seems to suggest either violet should have been right, or perhaps it is Brown for tail; on stop, either solid red or blue.

I'd prefer your wisdom over my guesses and patches when I fail..

I'm good for hot and ground coming off the trunk fuse box, and I'm counting on there really being a G/B wire for the left turn in the harness further over to the left that I haven't opened up yet.

------- THE FINAL ANSWER -----------
12V hot from fuse box as in the other thread. Always hot, not switched.
Ground from fuse box mounting stud.
Left from yellow with pvc shroud, i.e. has little dots every little bit. There's another yellow wo/dots, that's not it.
Right from green. Not light green.
Stop from blue. Not light blue.
Marker from brown. Not violet. Not one of the pseudo oranges.

Kansas

I suppose that it is possible that the wire colors changed between 2002 and 2004.

It's been many years since I installed a trailer light harness that wasn't plug-and-play (made specifically for the vehicle model) but when I did I used a simple 12V unpowered test light instead of my fancy tester to determine which wires to tap into - the kind of test light that has a sharp metal point that can pierce wire insulation.

It might be easier if you tap into wires near the tail light units. That is more similar to how vehicle specific trailer light harnesses are installed - those have connectors that plug into the vehicle taillight units.

rkw77080

Here is a typical wiring diagram for the 6-pin trailer harness...




For the 2004 LS430, you will find a wire bundle coming out of the trunk fuse box on the left side of the trunk. All of the signals you need are contained in this bundle of wires.



Here are the signal wires you will tap into...



Please note that the White and Black wires for power are larger gauge wires than the other signal wires. You should consider adding a fuse to the Black wire for better protection. You will find 2 each of the Stop Light (Light Blue) and Tail Light (Brown) wires in the bundle - just pick one of them.

BigBird63

Awesome. Thanks @rkw77080.

I'll repair the violet and try the brown and light blue.

Odd, the right turn G-Y is working for me, and I tapped in further down stream. I wonder if that 7 ICS box (connector?) is right at the light assembly.

@Kansas, concur, the test light is a lot better than a meter for this application.

rkw77080

There's no need to actually cut the wire if you need to tap into it, instead, use a solderless splice connector. Here's a Youtube video on applying one of these connectors. For the 2 larger Black and White wires, use the blue connector; for the other smaller signal wires, use the red connectors.

BigBird63

Thanks for the extra hint. From my motorcycle farkling, I have a religious aversion to those quick splices. Might use posi-taps but I don't have any handy. I'll slog my way through soldering and using some uninsulated butt connectors.

OK. Here's what I learned. By Braille, unfortunately. Recording for future searchers.I'll update the OP.

L is NOT light blue. L= Blue of any kind. Unfortunately, there are a lot of light blue wires around. The one I wanted was a proper semi-dark blue.

That's what I saw in practice, and it is backed up by semi authoritative into here I found as I was pulling more hair out. http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/elec12.pdf. There's a blue shout out, and it seems light blue is coded SB. That page below as an image.

Also I was mistaken about G-Y in my prior post. I cross-threaded the occasional dots of silver/yellow/gold/? that mark a PVC housing, with a second color which is a stripe not dots. BTW, there's a second yellow wire that is NOT the I wanted. The one for the left turn is yellow with PVC housing, so it has the occasional dots. The other one, which I'll be repairing in a moment, seems to be plain yellow.

Gronemus

I know, off topic but I'm going to venture a guess and say that you ride a sport touring bike or had in the past and now ride a dual sport. Close???

BigBird63

If I had more time and money, I'd have jumped on the Africa Twin or have a dual sport of sorts, but no. However, the Goldwing is certainly a SPORT tourer.

Gronemus

Close enough. I figured that anybody that used the word farkle generally isn't from from the cruiser crowd. I currently ride an ST1300 and have put 164k miles on that. Don't know whether I'll go dual sport next time or stay with a sport tourer. I like the Goldwing but I think that Honda needs to release the next generation version of it...

BigBird63

That's a noble steed.
I probably wouldn't have the Goldwing if it wasn't for the Mrs. having a vote and choosing the LaZBoy rear seat, but I've been amazed at how well it performs for a nearly 900lb bike. Super low CG and tons of torque at lower rpms than expected.
If it was just me, I might have an FJR and something dual sporty. Heck, if it was just me, I might have a few more bikes! Ha ha. Or at least ride the one(s) I've got a bit more.

BMW7_LS430

Thanks OP for this thread. I have a 2004 as well and I only knew about the other thread you mentioned. I was equally confused and desperate for the answers. Finally found this thread.
Everything went well except I saw that both the yellow wires had dots on then. The correct one is thicker of the two. Hope this helps someone else.