Well, I wish that I had taken pictures, but the install went so smoothly that I don't think that they are necessary. I was installing a Diamond Star Headlight Modulator from Signal Dynamics. A bit of online research convinced me that this modulator was more featureful and nearly as easy to install as those from Kisan or other manufacturers.
My bike is a red 2001 naked SV with a windshield added by the previous owner. To begin with, I stopped by me friendly local dealer (Millennium Cycles, Glendale, CA) and got a photo copy of the wiring diagram for the SV with color codes (very, very helpful). Then I read the online instructions with pictures a couple of times. Once I was familiar with instructions and wiring diagram, I grabbed my screwdriver and got started.
With my handy phillips screwdriver I removed the windshield. I needed access to the area between the instrument cluster and the headlight bucket, but I didn't want to have to readjust the headlight angle, so I just unscrewed the plexiglass (or whatever it is) from the brackets. Next I removed the headlight and laid it on a cloth on the front fender.
Note: The wire colors that I quote below are from memory and should be reality checked against the bike and/or diagram before being followed.
After familiarizing myself with the wiring inside the bucket, took the modulator and fed all of its wires into the bucket through the right-hand access area (throttle side). Then I affixed the module itself to the inside of the right headlight bracket where it is not visible from the side.
Note: I did the following steps out of order, but I can't see why it would matter.
Although my mechanic thought that the horn wire would be accessible inside the bucket, I couldn't find it and traced it from the left grip to the area under the gas tank and air filter box. Rather than puzzling out how to remove the air filter box, I just fed the purple wire from the modulator alongside the throttle cables and into the area under the air filter box. Then I fished the wire out over the top of the radiator and along the horn wire bundle to the plug at the horn. There I installed the t-splice for the heads-up-alert (maroon female t-splice) on the switched horn wire (black/blue tracer).
After the horn wire, the rest was easy. The hi-beam is the yellow wire going to the headlight. You put two t-splices on it and then cut between the splices. The red wire from the modulator is attached to the yellow supply wire (ie. from the switch), and the red/white wire is attached to the yellow headlight wire. I put these splices just below the right (throttle side) wire bundle tie inside the bucket. I wrapped the red and red/white wires around with the other bundled wires (counter clockwise) to use up the slack.
The low-beam is the white wire going to the headlight. I hooked up the low-beam just like the hi-beam above except I moved the splices a bit so that the wouldn't interfere with (bump into) the hi-beam splices.
The last step is to hook up the ground. I just spliced it into the headlight ground nearer to the headlight (again so it wouldn't interfere with the other splices).
Now I did a quick test before I drilled any holes. It this point I could have removed everything and patched up the wires with no holes in the headlight bucket. My test was successful using a halogen light to trick the light sensor.
The photo sensor requires a 5/16 inch hole in a location which points at the road and is at least 18 inches above it. The instructions suggest putting it in the bottom of the headlight housing. I placed it at about 7 o'clock as you face the headlight bucket and an inch back so that it wouldn't interfere with the light or be visible from the front. I drilled the hole from the inside out with no problems.
The switch I placed at about 10 o'clock about 3/4 inch back. It required a 1/4 inch hole. I drilled this hole from the outside in and had a bit of trouble keeping the bit in place since I couldn't get perpendicular to the surface with the front break reservoir in place. Eventually I got the hole drilled and placed the switch. I covered up one scratch with the supplied sticker (Off/Max Auto/Nova Auto).
Although I had wanted to put the mode switch on the instrument cluster, the mechanic at my dealership (Josh) said that there was insufficient clearance inside the cluster and that taking apart the cluster was at least a 2 hour job. This coupled with the fact that (I think) you have to remove the headlight to get at the instrument cluster encouraged me to restrict myself to mounting the switch in the headlight bucket. You can see it clearly to the right of the speedometer and reach it while seated on the bike but you'd probably not want to try flipping while riding. Not to mention that it makes sense that the switch to control the headlight is on the headlight and that you really aren't going to be fiddling with it much anyhow.
The whole process was easy, straight forward, and took about an hour. Considerably less if you are familiar with taking these parts apart. I think that my next project may be getting their break-light modulator if I can find the place where the single break light wire splits before the taillight.
If you have any questions or comments, just drop me a line stough.at.ginkoleaf.dot.spam.dot.net (no spam, please).
Later,
Tim.