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Clearwater Darla Install on '03 1150RT

ferroje

New member
I'm getting ready to install Clearwater Darla lights on my '03 1150 RT. Any suggestions or experience on mounting location? - fender bolt versus caliper bolt mounting? Source of power? I assume I can use the low beam headlight wire for the power source. Any installation tips or issues to watch for?

Thanks.

Jim in Ada, MI
 
I'm getting ready to install Clearwater Darla lights on my '03 1150 RT. Any suggestions or experience on mounting location? - fender bolt versus caliper bolt mounting? Source of power? I assume I can use the low beam headlight wire for the power source. Any installation tips or issues to watch for?

Thanks.

Jim in Ada, MI
Welcome to the forum!
There is a Best of Forum that may give you some Ideas-
http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?56217-12V-Power-Distribution
Good Luck.
Gary
 
Clearwater Lights Darla ? Install on 2003 1150RT

I now have my new Clearwater Lights ?Darla? LED auxiliary lights installed on my ?03 1150RT, and since I didn?t get many responses to my earlier post, I?m sharing the installation experience here for any others who may find this information useful in the future.
Installing the lights with the ?high beam feature? (the LED lamps go to 100% power when the high beams are flashed or switched on), requires you to access the high beam hot wire. In addition, you need to connect the hot side of the lights to a ?switched? hot wire on the bike, such as the low beam headlight hot wire.
To access the headlight hot wires, I removed both side covers on the bike, as well as the front fairing piece. This is the most labor intensive part of the job.
Removing the front fairing gives you good access to the wire harness connector feeding the headlights. The attached photo shows this harness, on the left hand side of the photo (throttle side of the bike).
The low beam hot lead is solid yellow, and is the second wire from the right in the photo. (Note that the wiring diagram in my Haynes repair manual incorrectly shows this wire as being white.). The high beam hot lead is the wire immediately to the left (in the picture) of the low beam lead. It was yellow/white. I tested both of these with a test lamp to verify they were the correct ones.
I used Posi-Tap connectors to tap both of these wires. The red/grey Posi-taps that come with the Clearwater kit are in my estimation too small to use on these to hot wires on the bike. I ordered the blue ones directly from the Posi-Lock web site, as well as the black ones, in case they were needed. I judged the blue ones to fit properly, and used those. The attached photo shows the two hot headlight bulb wires with the blue Posi-taps installed.
The rest of the wiring procedure is self-explanatory in the Clearwater installation manual. Attached is a photo of all the wire connections after I completed them, and before re-installing the front fairing.
The ?universal? installation kit that came with the Clearwater lights did not include mounting bolts that would work for installing the lights on the 1150RT. The two main optional locations for installing the lights are on the top fender mounting bolts, or on the brake calipers. I chose to install them on the lower brake caliper bolts.
Finding a correct replacement bolt of longer length to use for the installation was a challenge. I did find the correct size on the Fastenal web site, and Glenn (the owner of Clearwater Lights) also suggested to me another source for finding bolts.
However, I ended up searching the BMW online parts system itself, and found appropriately sized bolts to mount the lights on either the fender bolt location or brake caliper location.
The stock front brake caliper bolts are M8 x 32mm. I measured the length of the longest ?spacer? that comes with the Clearwater kit, plus the thickness of the light mounting bracket as being 37mm. Adding that additional bolt length to the length of the 32mm stock bolt results in the need for a 69mm bolt. I was able to find a M8 x 70mm bolt on the BMW online parts search, by entering the search term ?M8 x 70.? I found a bolt of those dimensions, used on the rear swing arm of a 650GS. The part is 07129903811. It is the same composition and style as the stock caliper bolt, but of a longer length. The only difference being that the replacement bolt does not have the same head taper found on the stock bolt.
I was also able to find a substitute ?fillister head screw? to use for mounting the lights on the fender mount bolt hole, if you so desire. That part number is 07129907544. This is an M6 x 80mm bolt that is used in place of the M6x45mm stock bolt that attaches the fender.
I mounted the lights on the brake caliper, as I felt that the fender mount would not be as solid as the caliper mount, given the much smaller bolt diameter, and the fact that it is threaded into a ?clip nut? with a low torque setting rather than being threaded into a casting, as is the case with the brake caliper.
Attached is a photo of the lights as mounted. Also attached is a photo showing where I mounted the Clearwater ?volume? control for the light intensity, on one of the dashboard screws.
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Always nice to have a follow-up to a post.....and with pictures, real nice.
OM
 
Clearwater Darla Install on 1150RT - two more pics

Here is the pic of the Darla light installed on the brake caliper bolt, with a "drip loop" in the wire as recommended by the install instructions. Also a photo of the volume control knob mounted on the dash. (rotated 90 degrees from what is should be) photo.jpg

Jim in Ada, MI
 

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