How TO: Wiring, Re-Wiring, Custom Wiring, Electrics

[Mr_FJ]

I will be working on my harness in the next few weeks and will post pics in my build. I will be using Weatherpack connectors. They are a bit bulky but have seals for both the wire and between the plug halves making a very good seal. The seal is also held on by a crimp.
I purchased a 755 piece kit

A good idea of what they look like can be found here RJM Injection Tech WeatherPack Connectors

They look like they would be a bit of a pain in the butt to work with just looking at them quickly. Have seen them before but not used to any great extent. I also wouldn't like to put them under any sort of electrical load. Just by looking at thier construction I wouldn't be putting any more than 10A through one. I reckon you would/could burn out the connector pretty easily. I noticed further down the page they have 45A versions. Strangley enough they are 'spade' connectors.

They also look like a cheap version of Deutsch connectors by the way they are contructed and the tools required. Most people wouldn't use and cant afford to use Deutsch connectors (at $1 just for 1 crimp terminal !!!)

[darkfibre]

They look like they would be a bit of a pain in the butt to work with just looking at them quickly.

If you have worked on Holden EFI on any models after VN (Delco systems), you would have come across this style of connector.
As for current rating, they will be fine for everything on my bike except Starting and charging systems.

It is a trade off I want sealed connectors, but refuse to spend many hundreds of $$$ on Deutsch connectors. I prefer these to Quick connect spade connections.

Both weatherpack and Quickconnect from Narva are rated at 20 amps

I'm reasonably happy with the WeatherPack style connectors except for their size and density.

This is the bit that is annoying.

[sprung]

I've just finished wiring up my project bike and would like to pass on some lessons learnt. I won't cover soldering techniques and other technical stuff because other people have covered it already.

Firstly let me say I'm not a novice but still I learnt some very good basic things.

Firstly, don't use an Ultima wiring loom and control box. It looks state of the art with solid state fuses, etc, but it was a bit of a pain to figure out the wiring diagrams. A bit easier now because in the last two months they have made a correction to the front loom wiring diagram and put the wiring diagram for the instrument loom on their website. But the big drawback is when the brake light is initiated both rear indicators flash 3 times and then stay on for 30 seconds. So the brakelight has to be separately hardwired through a fuse from both brake switches.

Only buy black heat shrink. If you buy a multi coloured pack you will use all the black and be left with all the other pretty colours left over.

After you estimate how much heatshrink you need double this before you buy it, it will save you trips to the shop or waiting for internet orders. Same goes for the black braid that you will use to make exposed looms or wires look nicer.

After you estimate the diameters of the heatshrink you will need, get some lengths one size bigger than the biggest you think you will need, and also get some extra fill in sizes, that is, don't get just big and small, get a good selection medium sizes too. Same again for the black braid.

Don't get the flat rolls of heatshrink, get the long lengths of round stuff and try not to fold it. It is too hard to thread long lengths of wire through the flat stuff and it doesn't shrink as neatly, you can get wrinkles. Rolls of flat black braid are OK.

Use terminals on things that can be removed from the bike, like headlight, indicators, rear light. If you hard wire these with solder joints you have to cut wires and re-do joints if you want to remove them for any reason.

Where you run looms through the frame, or anywhere really, put a couple of spare wires in the loom in case you forget anything that needs power or other wiring.

When you estimate the lengths of wire you need on top of what comes in your looms, double it before you buy any.

Get as many different colours of wire as you can to stay consistent with your store bought loom.

You may be left with a few leftovers with wire, black braiding and heatshrink by doubling your original estimates, but a lot less than you would have imagined from the start. Besides this stuff will find a use elsewhere in the future. You can never have too many goodies in your shed.

I think that about covers it.

[brethren22]

some good tips in there sprung, thanks for sharing!

[Zerotime]

Where's a good place to buy coloured wire? I've got an RZ harness and an ignition switch here that could use some love, and I'd prefer to do it in the original colours if possible.

[Mr_FJ]

Its been a while since i have actually had to use different colours and ones with a trace colour. I think Alanco have a fair range depending on what you are after and how much. You will have to buy at least a roll of 30m of each colour that you are chasing. You wont find anyone that will cut 2m for you.

One place that I know will have what ever it is you are looking for is a place in Rockingham called Harness Master. They construct wiring looms for marine and mining equipment mainly and build to what ever your requirments are and beyond (of course it costs you for the privilege) If you cant find what you are looking for else where they may be able to help but not sure. Again you may not be able to just get 2m of said wire !

[Blenner]

If i'm doing a complete strip down and rebuild, when is the best stage to install the wiring?

on to the bare frame?

once the engine + carbys are in?

once the whole thing is back together - forks, wheels handlebars and all?

[Mr_FJ]

Its all going to depend to what extent you are going to rewire. One approach would be to remove the original harness in tact, lay out on the floor and duplicate the original.

If you want to start completely fresh and reroute the wiring other than original, you would need all the components installed that you need to connect to, otherwise how would you know where you are going to go and what obstacles you will encounter ???

Obvisouly things like carbies, forks, brake lines aren't overly important in terms of physically connecting a wire to them, but then again they may be, just because you are not connecting any wires too them doesn't mean they are not going to be in the way !

Even if the bike is in bits you still have to imagine it as a whole to make sure that wires are going to be long enough, are not going to get pinched, are not going to get stretched, are not going to rub and wear through, are not going to melt with heat, etc.

[Marty MOOSE]

These guys here are really good too ElectroSport Industries - Motorcycle, Dirt Bike and ATV Aftermarket Electrical Parts

[sprung]

Where's a good place to buy coloured wire? I've got an RZ harness and an ignition switch here that could use some love, and I'd prefer to do it in the original colours if possible.

I went to Auto One, Supercheap and places like that. They generally have rolls of wires of various sizes and colours hanging up that you can buy by the metre. You may have to visit a few different branches to get all your colours though. Also try Jaycar, but don't bother with Dick Smith, they don't seem to have much "project" stuff these days.

[Triple]

I went to Auto One, Supercheap and places like that. They generally have rolls of wires of various sizes and colours hanging up that you can buy by the metre. You may have to visit a few different branches to get all your colours though. Also try Jaycar, but don't bother with Dick Smith, they don't seem to have much "project" stuff these days.

I'm also rebuilding my harness soon, and also want to follow the original wire colours is it easy to find all the different trace colours?? Red/White, Red/Yellow, Blue/Black, Green/White, Green/Blue, Yellow/Blue, Green/Yellow, Brown/White, Yellow/Black etc etc ??????

[Mr_FJ]

I'm also rebuilding my harness soon, and also want to follow the original wire colours is it easy to find all the different trace colours?? Red/White, Red/Yellow, Blue/Black, Green/White, Green/Blue, Yellow/Blue, Green/Yellow, Brown/White, Yellow/Black etc etc ??????

No thats the problem. General retail outlets wont have the trace colours just the singles. The only place I can think of off the top of my head is Alanco that I deal with a bit. They have a lot of trace colours available and in 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, ranges but you will have a by a 30m roll as they dont sell by the meter.

[SP33D]

use proper connectors if joining 2 or more wires together, even if soldered this will insulate it from heat or wetness. Can get from a hardware store, pack of 100 or so for about $10 never hav to worry about it coming apart again because they are screwed down inside the connector

[Zerotime]

I found an ad in a UK bike restoration mag this morning for a place called VWP that does multicoloured vehicle wire. Seems like they've got pretty much all the primary/secondary colours except for sky blue.

[hummingbird]

Firstly, don't use an Ultima wiring loom and control box. It looks state of the art with solid state fuses, etc,

Only buy black heat shrink....

After you estimate how much heatshrink you need double this before you buy it, it will save you trips to the shop or waiting for internet orders. Same goes for the black braid that you will use to make exposed looms or wires look nicer.

Mate, I just about done 90% of rebuilding my wiring loom. You're dead on when you say, DOUBLE IT! Pretty much unless you're super organised and get things 100% the first time, then you'll need to be prepared to strip the whole thing down and start again. I did. I reworked almost the whole damn thing!

Heat shrink's coming in the mail... plenty of black and plenty of it. I considered getting colours so I can label stuff, but really? If it works, it works and hopefully I'll never have to look into the wiring ever again. Worst case is overheating and wire's melt... still doubtful on that.

Q: Where did you get your braid? Is it any good? I can't find decent stuff anywhere. and whats this control box you speak of?

There's another thing - Cos my bike's running a TINY headlight, it's got a shitty 35/35w bulb (the old old type) and bearable but he high beam is terrible. I want to up the wattage on the highbeam, by getting maybe a 45w+ bulb and putting in a wattage control thingo. So when I hit the HB it will ramp up the watts and give me a bright HB. Would this work?

[NMBRPL8]

An absolute lifesaver when building a harness from scratch is this little mod from another of my favourite websites: Hacking strippers to do your bidding - Hack a Day

A similar result can be had from other types of wires strippers too, build a little bumpstop to limit the wire you poke in the wire stripper and have all your ends stripped perfectly and evenly ready for your uninsulated terminals to be crimped to. If your deft with your hands then you can use the same length for splicing and joining too. Someone many posts back mentioned uninsulated terminals tend to be only spade connectors, but they are available in all your favourite shapes and sizes. The mini spades are great for low current devices, senders and the like. Spend about $60 on the right tool for these crimps and the wire will snap before the crimp pulls off of them, they are OEM quality then ready for whatever you can throw at it.
I dont think i saw it mentioned, but if you have to join a bundle of wires, like extending a gauge cluster harness for example, dont cut them all to the same length, stagger your joins a half inch or so if you have enough wire to work with, then you will avoid a big bundle of joins in one spot in your harness - reduces bulk and reduces chances of accidental shorts.