1973 850 wiring harness
- Thread starter Boone89
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Matt/CnW made a beautiful custom wiring harness for my 7/73 850. Give him every electric component as well as their location on the bike. He also provides detailed
wiring instructions and a wiring diagram. Kit also comes with all necessary connectors. Great weight savings, super clean installation as you don't see very much of the wiring. Everything dead ends in the headlamp shell. It also uses the stock switches . Money and time well spent.
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i've seen this post on one of the norton facebook forums. i had to replace my 74's harness and just bought a lucas service replcement harness. fits 71-74 commandos. a slight mod to fit a tri-spark, but everything pretty much fell into place. it was pretty much plug and play.
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one thing i found when fitting the lucas harness. seems over the years, the factory positioned several components in slightly different locations on the bike - mostly the starting cap, flasher, and rectifier. what i found worked best - route the harness, and locate the components to fit the harness. the flasher is less of a problem, and the upgraded podtronics type regulator has leads long enough that it doesn't cause issues. as i recall fitting the starting cap required some minor attention. since fitting an electronic ignition, all the wiring associated with the ballast resistor and condensers was stripped from the harness. i did have to slightly relocate the warning light assemulator. i was quite surprised, overall, how things fell into place and ease of installation. the Grant Tiller wiring diagrams are an outstanding aid when rewiring the commando. https://granttiller.com/norton-commando-wiring-diagram
ashman
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Best way to rewire a bike is make it yourself for your bike and keep it simple and use good connections using the right tools, make a wiring diagram for your needs and have a few rolls of different wire colours, the less wiring the less troubles you will have long term and you get to know every bit about your wiring.
I have done many rewiring jobs on old British bikes made it simple and have never had any come backs from their owners as well I have also learned not to run your earth wire in the main power harness keep it separate from the main power wires.
Also use heat shrink where possible after laying all the wires out before adding connectors.
I have done many rewiring jobs on old British bikes made it simple and have never had any come backs from their owners as well I have also learned not to run your earth wire in the main power harness keep it separate from the main power wires.
Also use heat shrink where possible after laying all the wires out before adding connectors.
Jdub
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Ashman, the separate ground wire is interesting - would you explain? Do you run a 14g (red) wire alongside in a separate sheath or is distance the key? I used GreggM and GrantT to figure things out, following the Tail light to headlamp 14g ground to which all grounds were spliced.
ashman
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One of the reasons I run my earth wire separate from the main wiring is once on my 81 Triumph Thunderbird there was a short in my main wiring harness and it shorted through the earth wire, the whole earth wiring melted, what a mess but the power wiring was saved just melted everything else, all the wrapped insulation was melted was lucky I got it before it melted the power wiring, I reinsulated the power wiring and just ran new earth wiring outside the power wiring insulation.
After that happening all my wiring jobs the earth wire is run separately to the power wiring, I just cable tie the earth wires to the outside of the harness.
After that happening all my wiring jobs the earth wire is run separately to the power wiring, I just cable tie the earth wires to the outside of the harness.
The ones i've had to deal with were far too stiff to route around the frame. If you want to unwrap it to remove or add wires you will find the ends of the tape are superglued and then they also hold all the oil and shite that gradually builds up in all the nooks and crannys. Commandos never came with cloth covered looms, Lucas had moved onto PVC wrapped looms years before.
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Where do you get your wire from? I am having difficulty getting similar colors as per the original loom.
texasSlick
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See Post #10
Useful Links: Universal Parts and Accessories
Lucas bullet (0.188) connectors: http://www.triple-c.com/Products.cfm?pa ... arch=lucas http://www.britishwiring.com/Bullets-Sn ... w=5&page=3 bullet (0.180 & 0.156) and other connectors: http://www.waytekwire.com Tube fittings, Dowty seals: http://www.fittingsandadapters.com/...
www.accessnorton.com
Slick
ashman
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Because I do my own wiring and because I run a Joe Hunt magneto I have very minimal wiring I draw up my own diagram and 5 different colour rolls of wire, red is always earth, black, blue, green and yellow are my main colours, most of my wiring and things connected to it is all under my seat in the tool tray on the Wideline Featherbed frame as well now a small battery that I share with my Honda dirt bike just for running bright lights even I need it I have only 4 main wires running up to the head light and handle bar switch, + one main earth wire which I don't run in the main wiring harness I keep it separate.
Keep it simple and you will have less problems and use the right tools as I just use crimp connectors but I have a ratchet crimping tool and after 40 years have never had any problems with crimp connectors.
Ashley
Keep it simple and you will have less problems and use the right tools as I just use crimp connectors but I have a ratchet crimping tool and after 40 years have never had any problems with crimp connectors.
Ashley
texasSlick
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If you plan to make your own harness, lay it out on a nail board.
Slick
Slick
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Thanks
Matt /cNw made one for my '74 850 and I couldn't be happier. I gave him a list of all of the electrical components and their locations. He provides a wiring diagram with it for future reference should the need arise........
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when I was younger (in the 80 's !) I was cheap and had the opportunity of 50 yards of red wire , which I used to make a new wiring for my cdo , and it works for me , but as I had done it during few days , then I need a multimeter to know where I was the previous days to continue my job .......
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