Practical Custom Wiring

grandpaul said:

speirmoor said:

one wire is ground and the other is for the taillight I presume but how did you get the brakelight to work?

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One wire for tail light, the other wire for brake light. The apparatus is grounded through it's metallic mounting to the frame.

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That's what I thought. So the aftermarket light has a red and a black wire (!). I added a third black ground wire for extra insurance.

I confess, I am a minimalist at heart. So, I try to use as few wires as possible. I'm pretty careful with good grounding, and I try to route my wires as discreetly as possible to maintain the clean appearance. I've had very good results overall; I attribute that to my Navy training in electricity and electronics. The most emphatic training I received in 4 years was Corrosion Control! (it's not just a Navy thing, as it turns out)

swooshdave said:

grandpaul said:

speirmoor said:

one wire is ground and the other is for the taillight I presume but how did you get the brakelight to work?

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One wire for tail light, the other wire for brake light. The apparatus is grounded through it's metallic mounting to the frame.

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That's what I thought. So the aftermarket light has a red and a black wire (!). I added a third black ground wire for extra insurance.

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That makes sense.I had alot of Guinness in me and wasn't thinking straight.looking back at your diagram Swoosh Where are you picking up the power for the brakelight?.Will that be the Spare circuit suggested earlier?

speirmoor said:

That makes sense.I had alot of Guinness in me and wasn't thinking straight.looking back at your diagram Swoosh Where are you picking up the power for the brakelight?.Will that be the Spare circuit suggested earlier?

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GP suggested that but that didn't make sense to me. If you put a light on the fuse panel that's unswitched won't it always be on? The other circuits on the fuse panel will either go to the ignition switch or a relay.

I think I'm going to segregate the ignition switch into "Lights" and "Ignition (+Lights)". In reality 99% of the time the key will just be in the "Run" position anyways. Then run a small junction block off that.

Something like this:



To run the power out as needed.

You have two circuits on the rear light.One will be "Taillight" which will be part of the 'Headlight " circuit.The other will be the" Brakelight".it will only be "on' when the brake circuit is activated .

speirmoor said:

You have two circuits on the rear light.One will be "Taillight" which will be part of the 'Headlight " circuit.The other will be the" Brakelight".it will only be "on' when the brake circuit is activated .

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Remember I'm going off the factory wiring diagram for guidance. Which is slightly worse that having nothing at all.

Are these ok to use for splicing?

Ah, I see where I confused you.

I use a heavy-duty keyswitch and run a single heavy wire though it from the battery to the main circuit breaker.

Key on = tail light & ignition on, light switch hot, horn button hot, brake light switches hot.

Key off = EVERYTHING off, including main circuit breaker & fuse panel, so you can work on them "cold".

I have used these squeeze things for years on several trailers. I HATE them. IMHO they stink. They don't make contact, so you go back and squeeze them some more and the the V shaped blade that is used to cut the insulation and then make contact, CUTS the wire, but you don't know it. Later it starts to short out. Did i mention that I HATE them.

Run one wire from the "spare" fuse to the tail light wire (black on your light), and two other wires from that same "spare" fuse to the two brake light switches. Then, run the "triggered" wire from the front brake back to a connection with the rear brake "triggered" wire, then to the brake light wire (red on your light).

Diablouph said:

I have used these squeeze things for years on several trailers. I HATE them. IMHO they stink. They don't make contact, so you go back and squeeze them some more and the the V shaped blade that is used to cut the insulation and then make contact, CUTS the wire, but you don't know it. Later it starts to short out. Did i mention that I HATE them.

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So what do you use? Is there anything made that replaces the double bullets?

If you want to splice wires the best way is to strip a section of insulation off, solder the extra wire on and seal the joint with self adhesive heatshrink.

I wouldn't touch scotch locks.

Rich_j said:

If you want to splice wires the best way is to strip a section of insulation off, solder the extra wire on and seal the joint with self adhesive heatshrink.

I wouldn't touch scotch locks.

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With a non-stock harness what technique should I use to create connections? Junction blocks like I showed earlier? For example the front brake wire (brown) needs to join with the rear brake wire to head to the tail light. What should this look like. I feel like I'm missing something simple here.

swooshdave said:

Rich_j said:

If you want to splice wires the best way is to strip a section of insulation off, solder the extra wire on and seal the joint with self adhesive heatshrink.

I wouldn't touch scotch locks.

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With a non-stock harness what technique should I use to create connections? Junction blocks like I showed earlier? For example the front brake wire (brown) needs to join with the rear brake wire to head to the tail light. What should this look like. I feel like I'm missing something simple here.

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In general terms I would aim to use the existing connection points and not add extras there is no need for terminal blocks. Taking your brake wires as an example you have 3 points where wires have to terminate, 2 brake switches and the tail light all of which terminate in connectors of one sort or another, rather than add another break point in the wires double up the wires into one of the connectors you already have. It does mean that some wires will have more length in your loom than optimum but the main weakness in the electrics are the terminations and you should aim to keep these to a minimum rather than save a bit of wire.

Rich_j said:

swooshdave said:

Rich_j said:

If you want to splice wires the best way is to strip a section of insulation off, solder the extra wire on and seal the joint with self adhesive heatshrink.

I wouldn't touch scotch locks.

Click to expand...

With a non-stock harness what technique should I use to create connections? Junction blocks like I showed earlier? For example the front brake wire (brown) needs to join with the rear brake wire to head to the tail light. What should this look like. I feel like I'm missing something simple here.

Click to expand...

In general terms I would aim to use the existing connection points and not add extras there is no need for terminal blocks. Taking your brake wires as an example you have 3 points where wires have to terminate, 2 brake switches and the tail light all of which terminate in connectors of one sort or another, rather than add another break point in the wires double up the wires into one of the connectors you already have. It does mean that some wires will have more length in your loom than optimum but the main weakness in the electrics are the terminations and you should aim to keep these to a minimum rather than save a bit of wire.

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If an existing termination point is a single wire how best to go two>one?

dave
i've seen 3way y connectors and 4way cross connectors from sherco in florida. i think one of the gadgets you depicted was from them. they also have solder/shrinkfit connectors for 2 into 1. i tried their solder shrink fit connectors but returned them as the heat required to melt the solder unshrouded the connector. local aircraft mechanic says crimp/heatshrink is best for high vibes. i'm real anxious for the final version of your wiring scheme as it dovetails pretty close to what i'd like to do on my '74.

rgrigutis said:

dave
i've seen 3way y connectors and 4way cross connectors from sherco in florida. i think one of the gadgets you depicted was from them. they also have solder/shrinkfit connectors for 2 into 1. i tried their solder shrink fit connectors but returned them as the heat required to melt the solder unshrouded the connector. local aircraft mechanic says crimp/heatshrink is best for high vibes. i'm real anxious for the final version of your wiring scheme as it dovetails pretty close to what i'd like to do on my '74.

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Sheesh, if you're waiting for me you'll be very disappointed. At least you'll have a good idea how NOT to do it. :cry:

Fasten your seatbelts...


If you recall I talked about using a relay on the ignition side to hopefully mitigate issues of a crappy kill switch. I'm wavering on this. But I plumbed it up just to see what it's like. This White wire is the + to the relay (30). What you don't see on the switch is the Red + power feed from the fuse block/battery/Podtronic side.


This is the ignition relay. You see the White (30) from the ignition switch, the Red (87) goes to the Coil + and the Black (85) is the Ground. What is missing is the White/Blue (86) that goes to the Kill Switch. Sheesh, I wonder if a Ignition Relay will even work...


Here is the + side of the Coil. Red Wires are coming from the Relay and from the Boyer Box.


Here's the - side of the Coil. This goes to the Boyer. There is also a White wire from the Boyer that will most likely ground to the Head.

Theoretically if I have the relay set up (which I'm not sure I do) the bike should have spark. Well, once I put the Boyer crap in the points area...


This is one of my handlebar switches. If you remember a long time ago the cover was broken in shipping so I need to find another one.


Here is the other end of the switch with the labels I've added.

Purple/Black = Horn
Blue/White = Main Beam (I think this means High Beam)
Blue = Light switch (the two position one on the headlight shell)
White = + Power for the switch
Blue/Red = Dip Beam (I think this means Low Beam)


And finally the start of the nest of wires. I've labeled them and more will be added.

I'll be studying the solutions to smoke tightness in post later, but
wanted to pique interesting in this non proper harness kit I think
will solve most of Peel special issues. Harley market has some neat
hand me downs I can use.

http://www.thunder-heart.com/Electronic/asm4260.html
The P/N ASM4260 Micro Harness Controller consolidates all of the electronic functions of a motorcycle (with the exception of instrumentation and engine management) into one, easy-to-hide system! The Micro Harness Controller avoids the wiring “bird’s nest” of other systems so you spend less time wiring your bike…and more time riding!

hobot

hobot said:

I'll be studying the solutions to smoke tightness in post later, but
wanted to pique interesting in this non proper harness kit I think
will solve most of Peel special issues. Harley market has some neat
hand me downs I can use.

http://www.thunder-heart.com/Electronic/asm4260.html
The P/N ASM4260 Micro Harness Controller consolidates all of the electronic functions of a motorcycle (with the exception of instrumentation and engine management) into one, easy-to-hide system! The Micro Harness Controller avoids the wiring “bird’s nest” of other systems so you spend less time wiring your bike…and more time riding!

hobot

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That's pretty cool.

$304 ($250 on sale) isn't bad. Granted I'll probably be half that much when I'm done.