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J
What manual is vague?
J
76 Commando 850 basket case
Hello, a friend inherited an 850 Commando from his dad that passed away. Knowing that I've worked on a lot of bikes. He asked me to put it together for him. I may have bitten off more than I can chew, this whole positive ground system has my brain completely twisted. His dad was in the middle of restoring it and to his knowledge, nothing was mechanically wrong with the bike. Had the tins painted, new tires. Etc. I thinking this was a slam dunk to putting it back together. I threw a new battery in, hit the key, and nothing, no lights, horn, starter or spark. Where should I start? Please don't tell me to get a manual, I have 2 for the bike and they are vague at best.
Especially the five wire connector unit.
Excellent. A very good thing.A '76 should make it a Mk3 which doesn't have the rubber five way connector.
Hi, welcome.
J
76 Commando 850 basket case
Hello, a friend inherited an 850 Commando from his dad that passed away. Knowing that I've worked on a lot of bikes. He asked me to put it together for him. I may have bitten off more than I can chew, this whole positive ground system has my brain completely twisted. His dad was in the middle of restoring it and to his knowledge, nothing was mechanically wrong with the bike. Had the tins painted, new tires. Etc. I thinking this was a slam dunk to putting it back together. I threw a new battery in, hit the key, and nothing, no lights, horn, starter or spark. Where should I start? Please don't tell me to get a manual, I have 2 for the bike and they are vague at best.
Unfortunately that manual does not cover his Mk111. There is no Mk111 wiring diagram in it.Hi, welcome.
Please tell us more about your skillset, so we can be more expedient with remote troubleshooting.
Are you using the factory manual?
One note on Grant's MK3 drawings. The blue wire between the two switch consoles is not always blue even though both blue is correct for most. This drawing shows how it was with standard switch consoles on the MK3 I recently rewired: https://granttiller.com/greg-marsh-mk3Grant's site has lots of harness variations including recommended changes for EI installs, but the one I posted is his correction of the manual wiring and follows what should be on a std MK3 with the exception of his deletion of unused wiring. All covered in his comments,
Agreed. Fixing harnesses, especially if changing to EI and/or Solid Stat regulator takes longer than making new and unless you check/change every connection you still probably have problems waiting to arise.While my sold off ‘72 was a 750 … I found it simpler to make up a harness from scratch , 25 yrs plus and afaik still running like a top ….![]()
It is possible you have connected the battery with negative to ground and positive to live. That would get you no power and likely smoke on a positive ground bike, assuming battery has a good charge. Red wires will be positive and connect battery positive to ground, likely more than one location on bike frame and engine.
J
76 Commando 850 basket case
Hello, a friend inherited an 850 Commando from his dad that passed away. Knowing that I've worked on a lot of bikes. He asked me to put it together for him. I may have bitten off more than I can chew, this whole positive ground system has my brain completely twisted. His dad was in the middle of restoring it and to his knowledge, nothing was mechanically wrong with the bike. Had the tins painted, new tires. Etc. I thinking this was a slam dunk to putting it back together. I threw a new battery in, hit the key, and nothing, no lights, horn, starter or spark. Where should I start? Please don't tell me to get a manual, I have 2 for the bike and they are vague at best.