Battery Brands/Sizes

[mothra]

Well I am waiting on seals and some electrical stuff.

While I was waiting I unwrapped the harness fully. Laid it out and went though the entire thing tracing it out. Talking notes about my findings and things to fix in my new harness. I am going to make a new one.

Parents weren't home so what a good use for the counter

While I was unwrapping, I got a little wet, yuck! What was that? Water had collected making a section brittle and cracked. Still it was better then the last time water had rotted wiring in something I owned.

Ill probably re-use some of the "odd" connectors from the original as they were harder to find. I labeled everything to trace it out, and it was helpful to remember where the connector came from after a week after it came off.

Then I went outside to check out the rest of the wiring. Found a bad rear brake pedal switch, and some bad wire in the tail section. Replaced some of those going to the rear brake light, and cleaned up the wiring in the rear. Created a harness for the rear blinkers too. Fixed the melted turn signal ground wire, and re-traced and tested the rear section. Oh look there is a chrome version of me in the fender! :lol:

The rear fender repair, here there was a break in the plastic wire wrap, so I replaced the worn wires and re-taped it. I should have gotten some more wire heat tube.

Went through the rest of the wiring, tested the ignition and the front wires up in the instrument cluster, and the headlamp area. Found all of the switches and what not. I added some heat shrink and some new connectors here and there, as well as replaced any wires that were needing replacement. Only found one that was damaged up there.

Next I fixed my hack job at the right turn signal wiring and got rid of my "solderless splice" connector with the plastic housing. Those were junk.

I think I went too cheep on the heat gun. LOL I ran it on high and smoke billowed out of it, I let it rest, and continued using it on low. It varied on fan speed but kept going. Never tried high again, but its probably going back at some point. $17 is a little too cheep for a heat gun I guess. You get what you pay for.

Well I guess that's it for this week. I ordered up a Superbike handlebar with some electrical stuff from Z1 for next week. I guess next weekend will be making a harness. WHOOT!

Anyhow thanks everyone for your help and answering my dum @$$ noob questions!

 

[mothra]

Hi! :lol:

Hey most of my parts came in this weekend, and it was another dog sitting trip at the parents house (who happen to have my bike in their garage. lucky me!), and they don't mind me working on things (used to "projects" like this LOL)

Started to go through and build up a new harness for the bike.

After about 5 hours digging though the old one with the schematic I got this far on the new one.

There were lots of wire splices wrapped in some old blue stuff. Then they "clamped them" in there with a little brass thingy. I was trying to avoid solder-less splices since they didn't work well in the rear and had created a few issues, in the end I just ended up soldering the wires together and heat shrinking them together.

Left the R/R ground wire to run to the terminal directly on the other side of the harness.

The stator wires were left alone for the time being, we will see how hot the connectors get when wires are not fused and shorting. Well its compatible with the stator connectors currently anyway, but I may put some blades on there I have plenty... I re-ran the stator wires directly to the R/R unit instead of having one go through the harness.

The R/R now has blade connectors on it instead of bulled connectors or melted plastic connectors on it. I ordered a few new connectors for the new harness, could not find two new ones, one "L" shaped that plugs into the turn signal relay unit, and the Ignitor big connector block. Those two I can recycle from the old harness though and fit new blade connectors in there. Don't mind the labels, they were to help me remember what connectors those were while I worked, actually pretty helpful to "undo" some interesting work...

All of the connectors have been soldered, non terminal connectors also got shrink tubing on them, so there should be no crimp issues, Hopefully the heat shrink tube along with fresh rubber insulation will protect them from the elements a little better.

Finally after a weekend of catching up on sleep and wiring, I have about 90% of the new harness done. Still have to double check my work on here and inspect the rest of the bike for any more potential electrical problems.

I also got a new R/R unit, but I ordered one that was well big. It was a used Compufire 5502 (or something) I am not sure if it will work or not, or where I'd mount it. Maybe I will try again for something smaller. Oh well it was an e-bay special.

On my list is also the leaky clutch area seals, I have all three to put in clutch, neutral switch o-ring, the chain and sprocket oil seals if they need it, and some new fork seals as those are starting to weap again. They did swell up some but didn't stay good for long, probably original, fork oil oozing out was kind of milky. I also got some fresh fork oil, and I Probably should get those o-ring oil seals for the forks as well. Need something to measure the fork oil amount. Got a jack for the bike for free, but it was a but to tall. However you can just hoist the bike on it and it serves its purpose, to keep the front wheel off of the ground LOL.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Fantastic looking job, or at least 1,000,000 times better than I can ever do. Congratulations.

Did you do up a new wiring diagram for the next person to follow so they don't scratch their heads on the wiring colors?

 

[mothra]

Well I hooked it all up this weekend. I double checked everything two or three times, and connected it up.... No dice. I give up. This is now a parts bike. Officially. Anyone want it?

 

[koolaid_kid]

Yes. Please move to an adjacent state and I will trailer it home. Please.

 

[mothra]

LOL Well my parents are moving but I am stuck here for a bit

Have to finish getting my degree here. I have move and transferred to many times already! I have very few classes left to graduate, so I am stuck down here until that happens!

I am serious though, I just don't have any more time to try to figure this bike out. Also the garage space is going away very quickly and I have not found a spot that I can work on it. I have a full time job, and am a full time student at night and weekends. I just don't have any time crammed in to continue working on it. That and I am at my ropes end with the B#*$#*(U#$ blowing up every time you turn around. :evil:

http://denver.craigslist.org/mcy/2884430384.html

Devil bike needs to go.

 

[Nessism]

Sorry you can't see this one though. Enjoyed watching you tackle the harness rebuild project. Hope you come back once you have more time and money.

 

[mothra]

Oh yea, for sure. I will be keeping my eye out for a GS in a little better condition next time. It served its purpose though, I got a license with that bike, learned to ride it around, and learned to work on them somewhat. More importantly I learned that I need a garage Thought I could get by with out one. But no.... When I get out of school I will get another GS. There is just no way that I will finish this in time, and projects are not allowed at my complex. They will just tow it. Some one had a 80's Seca that they were piecing together. Guy went on vacation for a week, and they paved the parking lot, the workers came and even moved the bike off to the side and placed it back when they were done, trying to keep it out of the way. Anyhow the managers put a note on it and towed it while he was out. AFTER the work had been done, wasn't even a reason to have it towed. He came back and was furious! Then he moved shortly there after. Not sure if he got it back or not. But that's how that place goes down there. Probably go for a 550E or similar. Oh and now I have most of the tools to work on it. So there's another plus. Oh well I am addicted to motorcycles. I think I will get one that will get me to and from work and school reliably and snap up a project bike when things settle down here and I find a garage.

 

[verde]

That's rough man. You were taking a solid approach there too. You sure I can't convince you to get motivated enough to do a bare bones chop harness from the ground up? It wouldn't much time after all this recent experience you've gained.

 

[mothra]

Yea, right now I am completely fed up. I am going to have to go back through the entire electrical. Everything from the Ignitor to the instrument cluster. I think there may be a problem with the ignition section. Same area that had melted wiring poped with the new harness coming from the ignitor unit. I was pretty careful when I checked it. There may be a problem with the main harness that I made but I would be surprised. I started to add components one at a time, got the lights on OK, then moved to the instrument cluster which was OK off, then the ignaitor area and POP. Took a look and double check the components against the schematic. :evil:

Its been a while since I blew up an electrical project though.. LOL nothing like hours of work going poof. Ahh yes, the joys of electrical work.

I'm just about over it. In the hella angry kind of way. Out of cash time and energy for this bike.

 

[verde]

I started to add components one at a time, got the lights on OK, then moved to the instrument cluster which was OK off, then the ignaitor area and POP. Took a look and double check the components against the schematic. :evil:

OK, if you're sure you got the wiring right for the ignition circuit then some component is fried and grounding out... and a fuse should be popping not the wiring. What all is on the circuit that burnt up? If you're not absolutely positive the wiring was right then do a hot wire test. Just jumper wires with quick and dirty crimp connectors, 30 minutes tops to wire up ignitor and starter only with external switch(s) and an inline fuse, run off battery power only. I start with checking absolute vitals, lights and what not can come later

Its been a while since I blew up an electrical project though.. LOL nothing like hours of work going poof. Ahh yes, the joys of electrical work.

Haha, yup, the simple pleasures in life

 

[mothra]

The CDI Igniter, and the big connector going to the igniter unit is where the short occurred. Which is strange because I just connected the battery (with the key off). I don't think that that should short out there. LOL Umm I double checked the connections and they look ok. I don't think they are incorrectly wired in there. During the foggy angry glance over, I didn't notice anyhow. Right now I am 10/10 on my frustration level. I have spent like 2 grand on it fixing it up, it runs perfectly, and the electrical is utterly hosed!!!! :evil::evil::evil::evil::evil: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! I didn't get to much interest in a huge pain in the butt project (surprise surprise) so far on Craigslist. I do have some more parts coming, a cheep R/R unit (Electrosport) to try out while I continue to work on electrical and a 7" headlamp conversion kit for a 50W halogen bulb kit so maybe I will just try the basics on the electrical first. I can connect the original harness and run it with accessories just don't expect to charge it. Maybe a repair job on the old one would be possible... I don't know. Right now I need to cool out. Maybe a Dyna coil system would work? Do you still need the igniter unit with Dayna's? Kind of overkill for the twin though but if it works. Looks like the problem area is the Ignition system, ie the Igniter.

Anyhow I am cooling off from this weekend and will probably take a fresh look when I have settled down and gotten over the "to heck with it all" frustration level.

 

[mothra]

LOL So I announced that I give up on the electrical and I got asked over and over by several people... Hey you didn't get it working this weekend. So then my shop manual showed up today back from the void, I got a new R/R unit, and headlight that came in (early and unheard of for USPS) and a coworker offered me a spot in his garage to work on it as he put it, "dont PU$$ out bring your bike over". LOL then Verde sent me a picture later in the day of a diagram to test it out and my tax refund came back... and I got all kinds of advice and ideas from the lab about what to check and where I should look and what to try. Unbelievable! Funny that I listed it on CL and I got like 5 new resources to keep working on it. I was feeling so depressed because I was loosing my space to work on it, it wasn't ready, and I had less and less time coming to work on it and it seamed like I would just have to give it in. Then when I threw in the towel all these resources appeared out of nowhere...ray: Luck of the Irish... Or Christine bike OK then, :dancing: Will keep working on it. Message received, I am cooled off and have some things to try. Stressing out and taking it out on my bike I guess. Bugging out. Alright I'm done bugging, I am re-centered and have some stuff to try. My girl says that I was wound up tight this weekend and that I should "chill".
Sorry for bugging out. Back to normal here. To many case studies and programming projects going... Copious amounts of beer and the problem solved. More beer next time, just not at the same time wiring. Project revitalized.

 

[mothra]

Ok so taking a step back. Re assessing my priorities and motivations tuning out everyone else’s advice and all that I realized that I bought the bike to learn how to work on it, have something to fix up and have something fun to ride around on. Wanted a project of some sort and well that’s what I got, a regular garage queen. But in all fairness my purchase was not based on being a financial benefit to me at all, it was to have something that fulfilled a desire to branch out, do something different and as a means to try something new inexpensively (relatively) with out getting into trouble. So far it serves that role; I have gotten a lot of riding time learning how to ride and increasing my skill. Have a Motorcycle license which some friends bagged out on, made some new friends that are into motorcycles, and I am still on the exponential learning curve of working on engines and bikes, and I have a project. I needed to realize that it’s not going anywhere and I have the title, no one took my project away and none of my work has been wiped clean. The crabs are still cleaned and stored properly, the timing is still correct, the rubber boots and new seals are still there, and all of that stuff is still there. I forgot that. Sometimes life isn’t about bottom line, deadlines, time frames, return on investments, and financial benefit. Just do it because you like it, screw everyone else’s input (within reason). If everything was about return on investment, what kind of cool stuff would we have, there would be no concept cars, there would be personal computer, that stuff came about because someone though let’s do it why not? So there you go, do something different, do it because its fun, learn something new, enjoy life, screw the naysayers, oh and put a cap of say...under 10 grand... you know don’t get to crazy. That’s my epiphany. Who knew that a $700 bike could give you that insight? So let’s get the electrical system going!

With that, I have a color code question. Let’s make sure that I didn’t switch wires to the igniter (pop fizzle) (noodle is somewhat dyslexic) It would be not unheard of to have switched wire colors around and glance it over three times (why I try to mitigate that by looking it over at least three times.)

 

[mothra]

I don't think that I have ever been at the end of my rope out of ideas and ready to throw in the towel on a project so many times. I think all of that previous hard work and a few pokes kept me going. Thanks for everyone for your help. Well I got the new harness WORKING. WHOOOO WHOOOOO WHOOOO.

I got the harness routed through the underside of the frame (pics to follow) and I wrapped it in tape and routed into the headlight. So its officially installed on the bike. Now I have an excuse...it ran. I have not heard that engine fire up in a long long long time! Refreshing. I have never had an electrical project so frustrating. You guys don't even know how many people told me to give it up. I caved. I wishie washied a few times, I tried to tun them out, and I stuck it up on CraigsList.

Luckily a few people came to the rescue on here several times, and kept dangling the carrot in front, keep going, try this... Thank you thank you thank you for your help so far.

I probably have about 60 hours of poking and prodding on there. Usually my meter at work goes for about a year, this time the battery lasted 4 months. LOL Officially I hate automotive / motorcycle electrical, and I am glad that I can try a new r/r unit out and that my new harness is working.

 

[mothra]

A huge thanks to cowboyup3371 for coming over to help me with my Bike!

Thank you Sr.Verde too for all of your help and suggestions!

I would not have the bike if it were not for you two and your intervention and help.



I rode it around the block once on the battery It was fantastic! The new harness is installed and working pretty good. I think that I found another wiring issue, but I fixed it easily. Turns out that the Side stand switch wire had a loose connector end going into the instrument cluster area. I re-soldered the end on in there and it worked with out any more trouble. Now you can start the bike up every time, with out jiggling or bumping. I have to finish sanding down the battery box pan and re-paint it. I have some paint ready and some new foam to insulate the battery from the bottom of the box. I may also re-crimp the wires on the ignition switch as I found a connector loose. (They like to pop out) I Checked over the other crimp connectors and they were tight and didn't want to pop out, so only that 4 pin ignition switch one seems to have issue with those crimp on blades. I was not overly impressed with those crimp on blade connectors, they didn't want to stay in another connector as well, but I think it was just my newbie crimp skills because a second time around and they stuck better for the other ones I had to re-do, I had another terminal that needed to be re-crimped as well, those were the first two that I had done. Not surprising.

I need to get some longer screws to hold in the new R/R unit on there so I didn't put that in yet. I also want to ride it around the block a few more times to make sure that there are no more loose connectors or obvious shorts.

Tested the stator and its still going strong. Tested well within specs, and so that's good news. I am really really happy that the ignitor and coils are OK and functioning. I was worried there with the short near that area, but brown and black are pretty close together for me in the dark garage.

And I discovered why the warm up was so incredibly slow. Usually it fires right up. (We forgot to connect the right cal spark plug wire LOL) OOPS... :lol: found that re-routing the wires up into the frame. Everything is connected up and working. No more wiring issues. The lights are much much much brighter then they were, and all of the grounds are common. There is no jiggling to trip the "safety switch" and it seems to run a lot better.

Here are some pics as she is back together, and some of the skeptics around the house are quite again (Least I am not hearing "you should sell it" from everybody) I am glad that I didn't

I routed the wires underneath the frame and had them come out from under the frame after the gas tank and over to each side.

I put the wires back in the same spot they were routed for the steering column.

I don't recommend that you try to re-wire the entire electrical harness but after some serious effort, frustration, time and a little prodding... It can be done. Although I recommend that you not try it under a deadline to move out of the garage / house while you are working on it. I do wish that they just continued to make the harness much like EVERY other PART available.... But such is my luck. (Electrical wares out too you know!) At least everything else is relatively easy to find. I'd say that Honda still has Suzuki beat on part availability in general, but not by much.

Sorry I forgot my camera, I will try to get better pics, my phone does a crappy job.

Most of the supplies I obtained from Z1 (who else?) They had all of the little blade connectors, terminals, and most of the odd connectors on there to re-wire it. I also got some Japanese manufactured wiring, "Daytona Garage". Came in one size from them but they had just about every single color. I think there were a couple of colors that were not included or had similar colors for, but overall 98% of the wires on the original were available. It was on the pricey side for the wire, probably could have gotten it cheeper, but I was happy with the insulation, quality of the wiring, and the availability of the connectors. Z1 had a little connector end tool that I picked up. It was handy for removing the odd shaped connectors that I could not find and jamming the new ones in. The tool itself was pretty flimsy and is all bent up. One of the connector plugs snapped off. Least it wasn't a useful one. I got heat shrink tubing off of Amazon, and I bought a crimper tool specifically for these types of crimp connectors at Microcenter (a Fry's Like electronics store) along with the worlds cheapest heat gun, which bellowed smoke for the first few days of use, but surprisingly still works and is now "smoke free" at least on the lower setting....
From Microcenter as well.

I will probably add some more fuses to the mix, I don't like one fuse on the entire system... Two modifications that I did make were that I ran the grounds from the battery box and frame directly to the negative terminal, this way the ground were all identical. I went through and wire brushed the fender grounds to the lights, and the frame ground points. I also wire brushed the engine chassis ground to the negative battery terminal. I also ran the R/R units ground to the battery terminal. This way the grounds were all the same and the harness grounds actually went to ground, and didn't "float". Basically I made some recommended changes that this site preaches. I also routed the stator directly to the R/R unit instead of one of the legs going though the harness and back down. New connectors helped out a lot. If there were any loose connectors I re-crimped them. I hope that heat string tubbing on there will help weatherproof the bullet connectors some more. I'd recommend blade connectors more then the bullet connectors, even new some of them were not as "tight" as I'd like with out pinching them a bit but since all of the accessories are "bullets" and it saved me the headache of re crimping all of those as well, I stuck with bullets for the time being. I used blade connectors on the R/R units, and will buy some more blades for the Stator wires as well, which are currently bullets but will be quickly switched over. THe blades are cooler running and are more secure and water proofed a lot better. I also recommend soldering the crimp connectors to help keep them secure, and make a really solid connection.

Thanks guys for your help so far. Here to hopefully not blowing up R/R units on my bike anymore or jiggling connectors to trip the safety switch.

 

[Guest]

Mate this is good news! I had nothing to offer to help you out so hadn't replied to this thread... but I'm stoked to see Scott and Verde were able to get you going again

 

[cowboyup3371]

Glad to help and it's great to hear you have it running well finally. I'll be up for a ride if I can ever get mine back to running. I figured out last night I should replace the rest of the connectors on mine.

 

[mothra]

Glad to help and it's great to hear you have it running well finally. I'll be up for a ride if I can ever get mine back to running. I figured out last night I should replace the rest of the connectors on mine.

Sounds good: I am looking forward to a ride finally!


I was there... I replaced the connectors and it became apparent that the connectors were NOT really the whole problem... Hopefully that is not the case for you.... Your harness should be in significantly better shape than mine, if yours didn't see the end of a machete, melt, and/or fall chewing victim to critters. :lol: HAHA

If you do re-crimp, I recommend that you dab a little solder on the crimp connector there, and slip some shrink tube on the end before crimping it down, that will make a solid connector and help insulate the connector a bit from the weather. That would be my suggestion. Seamed to make the connections better on the bullets anyhow, and make it a little more element proof.

If you want some help crimping or need any crimping tools FEEL FREE. I'd be happy to give you a hand there. I also have a lot of extras. I have a whole box full of bullets connectors, rubber ends, shrink tube, soldering stuff, harness and vinyl tape, extra rolls of wire, eyelet connectors, blade connectors and spare plastic block connectors large and small for just about everything they used on there. LOL I ordered plenty of extra of just about everything. Your welcome to it.

 

[mothra]

Hey hey, I installed a new R/R unit, and its working! WHOO. A 35 minute ride home last night, and a 40 minute ride into class today and its looking pretty good. No blown R/R units and no shorts over bumps. WHOO!