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"Chopper" harness

  • Thread starter Thread starter 650cafe
  • Start date Start date
6

650cafe

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It's me again. You guys sick of me yet? I've been spewing my goofy crap all over the forum today.
More goofy crap. I've built a couple wiring harnesses before from scratch, totally "chopper-ized" my 77 Shovelhead's harness, completely rewired my 68 Camaro with an American Autowire kit. So I've done a little of this stuff. Like anyone who works on their own stuff, I've had to do my share of electrical troubleshooting with reasonable success.
That being said, I've never dealt with anything like the wiring harness on my GS. My inexperience with a complex unit like this, coupled with the fact that I am customizing the bike into a cafe, I dont ever want to deal with another harness like the one on my GS.
My aim is to build essentially a "chopper" harness for the bike. A completely stripped down version of what it is now. Just a bare, bare necessities wiring system for the bike, plus maybe a horn and signals. In fact the only systems/circuits I want to keep are:

Ignition
headlight/taillight
brakelight
turn signals
horn

The stock GS harness comes with lots of neato doo-dads and safety features. I see it has a switch wired to the centerstand, presumabley to tell the ignition circuit whether or not the stand is in the up or down positon. It also has a gear postion indicator, and I'm sure several other doohickies I dont want to keep.

First question: Is this the appropriate forum in which to seek advice on modifying the electrical system? Most owners here seem content to modify their bikes for better performance or for touring purposes, etc., but it seems most prefer to keep the basic systems of the bike stock. Which is cool...thats fine. I have vowed to leave my 2005 FXDL bone stock, so I get it. My 83 Suzuki however will not.

Second question (assuming the answer to question #1 is 'yes'): To save myself extra work and headaches, I dont want to just start snipping wires and building from scratch. My preferred method is always to leave the stock equipment that I intend to keep alone, and strip away the excess stuff that I dont. Problem is, with this electrical system I'm not really sure whats tied into what and so-on. Yes I've downloaded a schematic and looked it over, but I still like to have someone articulate things into words. For example, if I elect to remove the entire guage cluster (which I will want to do), can I simply unplug the connector and expect it to run? Or will I have to do a bunch of rerouting of wires to complete those circuits? Can I just uplug that silly centerstand switch and will the ignition know the difference? Or do I need to just cut the switch out and join the wires going to it together?
If I need to build from scratch I will, but as I said I'd prefer not to. I'd rather just strip away the wiring for the systems I dont want and leave it at that. Thanks for anyone brave enough to reply to my nonsense.
 
First of all, you will need to learn what all those "doo-dads" do.

The centerstand switch does not talk to the ingnition. The ONLY thing it does is turn on a light in the gauge panel that tells you the side stand is down.

The gear position indicator is handy, but millions of riders live without one. You can unplug it without harming anything.

Given the fact that you want to keep the signals and horn, it seems the only things you will be unplugging are the side stand switch and the gear indicator. Hardly worth the effort, in my book.

The gauges can be unplugged without harming the bike's operation, as long as you don't also unplug the wires from the ignition key (they are a separate connector). Keep in mine, though, that most states require some sort of gauge to be able to tell how fast you are going.

You think your 650 has a "complex" harness? :-k
My GoldWing's service manual has 25 pages of wiring and electrical stuff in the main section, then another 150 pages in the "Electrical Troubleshooting" section.
Let's go a step farther. My Toyota Sienna's manual has an electrical section that has 410 pages. :eek:
Yes, I have printed them out, in color. :-\\\

.
 
A lot of the complication comes from the fact that the ignition switch and starter circuit and kill switch circuit are routed from the fuse box area to the ignition switch area and back to the fuse box area, The turn signals do similar, then there is the one leg of the stator circuit that is routed to the left handlebar switch pod and back. Centralizing the ignition and light switch to the battery location would get rid of a lot of wire. I would suggest that you study your wiring diagram and figure out what you want to keep. I would also strongly suggest that you get it running right before you get out the hacksaw and wire clippers. Get a baseline. Don't get rid of the airbox and mufflers before you know that that means you must buy and install a Dynojet kit to correct the fuel mixture. Don't cut the wiring before you understand how it works. I've built minimal wiring harnesses in the past. Its not hard. These bikes have a lot of wire. Some of it makes no sense, but it is all doing something. It may be smart to figure it out before you change it. You will want head and tail lights, but maybe not parking lights. Maybe you don't need the headlights and brake lights routed through the ignition switch. Stuff like that can get rid of a lot of wire.
 
Yes, its all that back and forth with systems that I'm talking about. This is routed through that and if you unplug this then that and that and that wont work.....ugh
I'm sure the factories do that stuff for a reason, because of voltage load or drop on a circuit, or because of sequencing with electrical equipment, or because an electrical engineer needs to justify his job.
The more I think about it I may rewire from scratch. I found some great harness diagrams at dotheton. I usually hate to do that, but in this case I think it might be the way to go.
My plan from the onset was to move the ignition switch to the battery area Combat, and as for the headlights, they'd be wired to the ignition on "high beam" at all times, elminating the need for a switch. Thats how I've always done my Harleys with great success. Turn signals will likely be wired to 1 switch housing, with the rocker acting for left going 1 direction, right going the other. Signals are new to me...I usually remove them instead of add them.
As for the airbox/jetting/etc, I'm already aware of those things, and prepared for them. The 4-1 exhaust I'm looking at prefers stock jetting from what I've read, not saying adjustments wont still be necessary, but if you look at my thread in the carbueration section you'll see what I'm in for there. So the wheels are in motion on all fronts.

Steve, I will most likely keep some form of lighting for a speedo. I'm going to put one on it, just not the stock unit. So it will need backlit, but for this purpose I can tap into the headlight power supply. On most bikes I eliminate it, but this one will have one.
As for the Gold Wing and Toyota, I'm not at all surprised at the complexity of their wiring systems. Precise reasons why I do not and never will own either of those vehicles or anything like them. Although I am now in a spot where I'm outdating myself. We just bought a new/used 2003 Chevy 3/4 ton truck, and it's wonderfully complex, and even my wifes 97 Chevy Lumina is more complex than I want to deal with. Heck even that 05 Low Rider is more than I want to deal with. I'm a carbeurator and circuit breaker kind of guy. This new stuff just isnt my thing. Thanks for the help guys, but thinking of using something more like this:
 
Basscliff has a simplified wiring diagram first posted here by Posplyer. http://members.dslextreme.com/users/storagecliff/images/electrical_odd-n-ends.html#A19

As for what to do, I suggest stripping off all the tape from your existing harness and simply removing the circuits you don't need/want. It's remarkably simple really. I converted a shaft drive 1000 harness to work with a chain drive bike that used different hand controls and IP cluster. As long as you work one circuit at a time and physically trace the wires it's pretty simple work.

Good luck.
 
Thanks Ed, that was exactly what I was looking for. The method you describe is basically how I've done it in the past, and it works great. I've just never done it on a system this complex. On all my Harleys things were alot simpler, more centralized, and not such a rats nest stock. This thing seems to have extra wires just for the sake of it.
I've already found an enormous wealth of great info on Basscliff's site...his diagram is perfect. Thank you!!
 
All of those wires and gizmo's you speak of...it's called engineering. The special ingredient missing from Harley for over 50 years.

If I remember correctly, HD couldn't even develop a working supercharger for the Buell XB12 like 6 years ago...they quickly handed it back to Buell or Porsche.
 
Not sure how this thread became a Harley bash. And that 'engineering" you speak of seems to be one of the GS's weak points. It's a mess and sophisticated just for the sake of it. Harley was building bikes when Suzuki's founder was in diapers.
My point in my previous post was that the Suzuki's electrical system is a mess, while things on all my Harley's is simpler and more orderly. And all my Harleys, for your information, have come with all the same "engineering" as you call it as the Suzuki has. Its just thought out better.
And as for the supercharger thing you spoke of, I've never heard that story ande don't believe it to be true. Even if it was, do you think Suzuki engineers designed every bit of their bikes? Do you think that when Kawasaki fitted turbos to the Z1s that they did the engineering on it? Companies have outside engineering done all the time. Stay with the damn program here.
 
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