New Wiring Harness

After my little "incident" with the Battery Tender pigtail dead shorting my battery, I find myself in need of a new main wiring harness for my '74 Mk IIA. I thought this would be an easy thing to source but prices vary widely from around 45 quid from RGM in the UK to $250 from Klempf's in Minnesota. I'm not sure what quality differences there are, if any, and if the quality varies as much as the asking prices. A 300% difference in price seems odd to me. It would be nice to have a smaller and easier to stuff under the tank harness that didn't have all the useless (to me at least) Interpol/Police "stuff" built in but that doesn't seem to exist, so a properly made part that will fit is what I want. I suppose I could just unwrap my fried harness and replace the ground wires as that is what melted but the chance of missing another non-ground wire that might have melted from close contact with a ground is more than I care to risk. And making up a harness from scratch seems to be more work than I care to invest. Has anyone bought a harness from any supplier that they are happy with? Many thanks!
Terry

flyboy49 said:

After my little "incident" with the Battery Tender pigtail dead shorting my battery, I find myself in need of a new main wiring harness for my '74 Mk IIA. I thought this would be an easy thing to source but prices vary widely from around 45 quid from RGM in the UK to $250 from Klempf's in Minnesota. I'm not sure what quality differences there are, if any, and if the quality varies as much as the asking prices. A 300% difference in price seems odd to me. It would be nice to have a smaller and easier to stuff under the tank harness that didn't have all the useless (to me at least) Interpol/Police "stuff" built in but that doesn't seem to exist, so a properly made part that will fit is what I want. I suppose I could just unwrap my fried harness and replace the ground wires as that is what melted but the chance of missing another non-ground wire that might have melted from close contact with a ground is more than I care to risk. And making up a harness from scratch seems to be more work than I care to invest. Has anyone bought a harness from any supplier that they are happy with? Many thanks!
Terry

Click to expand...

On a previous harness thread someone mentioned that the Commando Specialities harness doesn't have that useless wiring for the Interpol model.
http://www.commandospecialties.com/Prod ... &ProdID=39
Doesn't say so in their description so you may want to give them a call.

I got one of the RGM ones, really like the quality, and it's sure as heck better than what came out :roll:

This place has great wiring harnesses...I have bought 3 of them....2 BSA and 1 for my 1974 Norton commando...The fit and function is great and the price is right...A really good company to deal with...And this harness doesn't have the extra wires...

Beach said:

This place has great wiring harnesses...I have bought 3 of them....2 BSA and 1 for my 1974 Norton commando...The fit and function is great and the price is right...A really good company to deal with...And this harness doesn't have the extra wires...

Click to expand...

Which place is that, Bill?

Ken

Knew I forgot something



http://www.britishwiring.com/

rx7171 said:

flyboy49 said:

After my little "incident" with the Battery Tender pigtail dead shorting my battery, I find myself in need of a new main wiring harness for my '74 Mk IIA. I thought this would be an easy thing to source but prices vary widely from around 45 quid from RGM in the UK to $250 from Klempf's in Minnesota. I'm not sure what quality differences there are, if any, and if the quality varies as much as the asking prices. A 300% difference in price seems odd to me. It would be nice to have a smaller and easier to stuff under the tank harness that didn't have all the useless (to me at least) Interpol/Police "stuff" built in but that doesn't seem to exist, so a properly made part that will fit is what I want. I suppose I could just unwrap my fried harness and replace the ground wires as that is what melted but the chance of missing another non-ground wire that might have melted from close contact with a ground is more than I care to risk. And making up a harness from scratch seems to be more work than I care to invest. Has anyone bought a harness from any supplier that they are happy with? Many thanks!
Terry

Click to expand...

On a previous harness thread someone mentioned that the Commando Specialities harness doesn't have that useless wiring for the Interpol model.
http://www.commandospecialties.com/Prod ... &ProdID=39
Doesn't say so in their description so you may want to give them a call.

Click to expand...

You may be referring to this post that I made . "The harness was made in the UK by little old ladies...Honest" (quote from the seller's e-bay ad). The harness came from Commando Specialties in the US.

The fact that the harness only has wiring for Roadsters was not advertised but, that was the way it was manufactured. It was of very good quality and all of the connectors were correct and it was properly sized.

I would buy another.......Hopefully I'll never have to again!

Here is that post:

" flyboy49,

The exact same thing happened to my Commando two years ago during the rebuild. Battery Tender Jr. pigtail shorted against the Z-Plate and smoked the main harness. I also had forgotten to put the little cap back on the pigtail and when I leaned against it .....it welded itself to the metal plate. My fault and I always think about this when I disconnect the plug from my bike. The Battery Tender Jr. does not have a polarity correcting feature and it must be hooked up with the red terminal to the + post on the battery or it will not charge the batt; which in turn makes the exposed post on the pigtail hot.

I got a replacement main harness from Commando Specialties for around $130.00 and all was well. The new harness has fewer wires because it is for a Commando Roadster. The OEM harness has more wires because it is designed for all models including Police and Interpol units.

Another valuable lesson learned........"


As an aside to Flyboy49 and others....It would be beneficial to you and other members, who are trying to assist you, to post where you live in the signature box located to the right of your post. Whether it's UK, USA, AUS or even BFE.....

I recently bought a set of wiring harnesses for a MKIII from Andover Norton, for a bike I'm restoring. I haven't used them yet, but on first glance they look well made, and the cost was a lot less than from British Wiring.

Ken

"The harness was made in the UK by little old ladies"

I'm beginning to wonder if all the suppliers are getting their harnesses from the same group of Little Old British ladiesand only difference between end sellers is the mark up.

I believe all the harnesses come from

http://www.autosparks.co.uk/harnesses.php

They sell their car harnesses direct but leave the motorcycle ones to the trade.

rx7171 said:

"The harness was made in the UK by little old ladies"

I'm beginning to wonder if all the suppliers are getting their harnesses from the same group of Little Old British ladiesand only difference between end sellers is the mark up.

Click to expand...

Well almost English, but are from the colonies..