wires wires wires

:i have the frame stripped to the wiring harness on my 73 850 interstate.....has anyone removed the unused wires from the harness? any thing to look for?

i would like to remove to reduce the overall weight.

by the way thanks for advice on exhaust pipes....now looking for pipes.....not the balanced ones.....and a rocker feed kit..

again thanks for any input......hubby and i talk much more now that i can talk norton lol

sharon

Removing a couple of wires sounds like you are scraping the bottom of the barrel for weight savings!

Run 1 cup less fuel and you get the same result.

Heck, get a hair cut and you'll probably double that!

If the wiring is original then future reliability will be improved by replacing the whole thing. Your present loom will be full of damaged insulation, corroded connectors and work-hardened copper !

Using the bike as a jig, this is not a dificult task and allows you just to retain what you need for your particular charging / ignition set-up. It will also let you delete the unneccesary connectors fitted originally. (thus saving extra weight )

wires, wires

Sharon, first thing I did was isolate the (red) ground wires from the system, starting at the rear,
1 brake/taillight
2 rectifier
3 capacitor
4 old zener location on foot peg, now at top frame plate
5 battery
6 cyl head
7 + side of left hand coil
8 head light connector to shell

At least that is what my drawings show. I removed a great deal of redundant wire from the harrness. Used on old wood door I purchased from a swift store for a dollar and used it to lay out the original harrness and simplified from there. I purchase original wire from a place in New England and used 14 ga. mostly.
Jerry