Turn Signal Switch Install

With my modified turn signal switch in hand, I set out to install it on the bike. The first thing to do was to remove the old horn-only switch. I unhooked the wires from within the headlight housing, disassembled the switch housing and tried to pull the wires out from inside the handlebars. They were in there fairly snug. Unfortunately I ended up tearing the wires off of the original horn switch, but I got them out. To facilitate installation of the new switch, I had attached a piece of string to the old wires before pulling them out of the bars. I now had a string running through the handlebars, along what would be the route of the new wires.

Well, that all sounds great. But there was a problem. The old hole, to get wires into the handlebars from the switch, was too small. The new switch has more wires and requires a larger hole. How was I going to drill out the hole without loosing the end of the string running through the bars?

Well, I decided to push the string just inside the bars and then drill the hole. I was hoping that I'd be able to fish it back out somehow. The string ended up slipping too far into the bars and I was unable to see or reach it after drilling. The solution I came up with was to use air to blow the string back towards the hole. I don't have an air compressor, so I used that canned air you use to clean out electronics. It worked great!

The switch housing had a pin in it which protruded towards the bars, presumably to make sure the housing is properly oriented on the bars. Since my bars lacked a receiving hole for this pin, I just cut it off and ground it down flat.

After much wresting and a bit of re-soldiering, after I tore a wire loose from the switch, I got the new switch wires run and the housing mounted. Unfortunately it is not perfect. I cannot get the housing to close all of the way. I don't have a good picture of it, but there is about a 1/8th inch gap between the upper and lower parts of the housing. The wires internally are keeping it from closing. I'm not sure what to do about it, perhaps I started from the wrong switch. But for now it is installed sort of. Fitting the new switch was by far the hardest part of adding turn signals to the bike.