BONNIE MOD #20
Lockhart-Phillips Turn Signals,
British Customs Front Turn Signal Bracket, &
New Bonneville Front Signal Wiring Interconnects

For this post, I’m going to do something a little different and combine a couple different installs. In Bonnie Mod #16, I installed the Maund Speed Fender Eliminator Kit. I installed all four Lockhart-Phillips turn signals (with the help of the New Bonneville harness and interconnects) but didn’t document the front turn signals. I’m going to continue here with the install of the front turn signals and then continue with their subsequent relocation. Follow along and it’ll all make sense.

As you can see, the Lockhart-Phillips (L-Ps) are black aluminum body, dual filament/three wire (allowing for the use of running lights) with bullet connectors. The Triumph connectors are a square type plug. In order to fit the L-Ps into the Triumph wiring harness, you can either cut and splice the wires or buy an interconnect. I went the interconnect route as I felt this was a cleaner, easier solution and would keep the original wiring intact. Either way is fine, it’s up to you. The interconnects that I purchased were the New Bonneville interconnects. A bit pricey but well made. Honestly, it would have been more expensive for me to gather the necessary bits together to make my own. Note that these interconnects only support ground and blinker light. To utilize the L-P running light, you’ll need to draw power from another spot in the Triumph harness (I haven’t done this yet).

Okay, so let’s begin. We’re removing the stock turn signals and putting the L-Ps in their place.

The headlamp needs to be removed from the headlamp ears and opened up to expose the wiring. In hindsight, I recommend exposing the wires first and then removing the headlamp but either way works.

Start by placing a towel or jacket over the front fender. You are going to want to protect it from getting scratched during this mod as the headlamp spills out its entrails.

The headlamp is held to the ears by two 12mm bolts. Remove these, taking care to mind the collars nestled in the ears. They will fall out to the floor if you’re not careful.

Go ahead and loosen the nuts holding the turn signals to the headlamp ears. Now we have to disconnect their wires from the wiring harness. There are two small Phillips screws on the headlamp in the 5:00 o’clock and 7:00 o’clock position. Unscrew these, carefully pull the headlamp away from its housing, and place it on the towel on top of the front fender. Man, it’s a mess in there, isn’t it!

Now, you need to trace the turn signal wires to where they connect and unplug them. Take care to keep left and right visually separated. This will make it easier when you go to connect the L-Ps. Now gently pull the stock turn signals and wiring out from back of the headlamp casing and ears. You’ll find that you have to shimmy the wiring back and forth to get them through the nuts.

Time for the New Bonneville interconnects. Pull those out. They come with concise directions, by the way.

Install the Lockhart-Phillips turn signals into the ears and plug in the interconnects. As stated earlier, the New Bonneville interconnects only seat the ground and blinker wires of the Lockhart-Phillips turn signal. The third wire of the L-P is a running light. You don’t need it but it is nice to have in terms of safety. If you want to utilize it, you will need to tap into another wire in the harness. Otherwise, wrap it in some electrical tape and let it hang inside the headlamp case.

Run the wiring back into the headlamp casing and plug into the Triumph wiring harness.

Once the wires are properly seated, go ahead and run a quick test to ensure that all the lights are working properly. If all is good, put everything back together.

Well, guess what? The stems of the Lockhart-Phillips are much too long and crash into the headlamp.

In fact, if I had tightened them properly, they would have dented the headlamp. Maund Speed made no mention of this which I found a bit disappointing.

I had a few choices…
1. add in a spacer that would create a shorter shaft that needed to be tightened (thus not crashing into the headlamp),
2. purchase new shorter turn signals,
3. relocate the turn signals.

Option #1 made the easiest sense as it would require the least amount of work, and it was the one I was going to go with. However, during this time, Bryan of Joker Machine sent me a massively cool pair of clip-ons to try. To do so would require removing the stock headlamp ears which would require relocating the turn signals, so there you have it. Option #3 was decided – relocate the turn signals. (BTW, stay tuned for the clip-on install. I’m curious to see how they compare to the Dime City Cycle Clubman handlebar I installed in my first mod.)

A Google search of “triumph bonneville front signal relocator” quickly brought me to British Customs’ Front Turn Signal Bracket. Perfect, and only $20. One of the few fair prices for an after market Triumph bit, IMO.

Okay, so here we go again…

In a nutshell what needs to be done is to open the headlamp, disconnect the turn signal wiring from the harness inside the headlamp, remove the headlamp from the ears, remove the signals from the ears, install the bracket behind the rectifier, attach the turn signals to it, wire the turn signals back into the harness, reattach the headlamp cover, and reattach the headlamp to the ears. Whew, I guess we’re done. But seriously, let’s go step by step…

First remove the head lamp from the rabbit ears…
(make sure that you place protective covering on the front fender in case the head lamp falls against it. You’ll notice that this time I’m employing the Union Jack.)

We’ve been down this road before. Pop open the head lamp, remove the turn signals… (obviously, there is wiggle room in the work flow).

Now to install the British Customs turn signal relocator bracket. This is extremely easy. We simply unscrew the two bolts holding the rectifier, place the bracket behind it, and rebolt the coupled assembly. Note that British Customs supplies a pair of Allen socket head bolts but I opted to reuse the Triumph bolts

Run the wires back into the headlamp case and reattach to the Triumph wiring harness.

If you read my Joker Machine brake light mod post, you know that I utilized heat shrink tubing to ensure weather-proof seals. This is another ideal situation for the stuff. I’m loving it!

Test the electrics to make sure that all is good.

And pack everything back up.

We went from this…

to this…

to this.

Whaddya think? For me, there isn’t a huge difference whether the Lockhart-Phillips are located on the sides of the headlamp or underneath it. However, since I’m going to be installing some clip ons, that will require replacing the Triumph headlamp ears and relocating the turn signals.

Tools Required:
12mm socket
5mm socket
Crescent wrench
Small Philips head screwdriver
Heat shrink tubing
Bic Lighter

Company URL:
British Customs
New Bonneville
Lockhart-Phillips

Price:
$20 – British Customs Front Turn Signal Bracket
$22 – New Bonneville Front Signal Wiring Interconnects
Lockhart Phillips Short Stalk Turn Signals