GS1100g '83 Full Wiring Loom Rebuild

[oohsam]

Ok.
Wiring loom is about 95% finished.

I bought all new connectors from Jaycar (an electrical supply shop here in aussie land).
Got some 4, 3,2 and 6 connectors. the 6 and 4 plugs fit the Ignitor box just fine. The fusebox takes an 8 plug connector, and i can get 8 plug ones anywhere so I'll have to re-use what I got.

On top of this, I've removed all the factory connectors that go to the Ignition barrel (removed redundant wires, ignition barrel is now only a 2 plug connector (Ignition & Battery)

I've added 3 plug for the Stator, female connector hardwired to the bike, and the male connector which plugs in and goes to the R/R.

I've made a new plug for the ignition coils. and I'm reusing the second plug that goes to the AC signal generator as it was in good condition.

I have brand new earth cables, and I have wired an earth along the bike frame so I can pigtail accessories off as they become available (lights, indicators etc etc).

I did a quick trial run after the loom was finished, and the only issue I had was that I confused my Kill switch and start button, was an easy fix, just switched the prongs in the plugs over and Viola.!!

Before firing her up, I tested every point with a multimeter, testing that the relay worked when open, or when part of it was closed. All seemed ok.

WHen i went to fire her up, she didn't fire up. Was scratching my head for about 2 hours testing everything. All looked good. Till i touched the mounting bracket of the Starter relay. Gave me a very strange reading. Didn't look like it was earthed properly. I think there was some corrosion where it bolts into the mount...So i ran a temporary earth directly from the battery to the starter really.
Pushed start...and away she went...

I basically followed PosPlayer's diagram exactly. And it works spot on.

Only issue I have now is that I'm really not happy with my fusebox. Some of the fuses dont go in properly and it looks garbage.
So today i bought a new fuse box, and i will replace it...I'll also run the remaining wires for accessories, for when they arrive to make life easy.

Some pics...

New Goodies...


Finished Loom...95%


New vs Old connectors.


New Plug for the Ignitor.


One question I do have. How do I earth my new fusebox?...The old one had an earth point. This one doesn't seem to have one.

[posplayr]

Ok.
Wiring loom is about 95% finished.

One question I do have. How do I earth my new fusebox?...The old one had an earth point. This one doesn't seem to have one.

Looks good and a lot less wires.

Not sure about your fuse box, but it would seem the only reason it needs a ground is for an Aux power/ground connections. If you dont have a pair of terminal screws for Aux then no need for ground.

[Colin Green]

That looks a lot less of a mess of wires than the loom I have to work with on Baz. Nicely done

[oohsam]

Thanks! Ok i understand about the ground.
I'll hook it up and let u know how It goes. More pics to come!

Yes, the OEM loom has about a squillion wires coming off it and its super complex. They really overcomplicated things back then. I basically have about 6 more wires ontop of this, for headlights, dash/numberplate light, indicators and horn. And they will tap into the earth cable that runs the span of the bike where required.

Geez I've learnt alot on just this little part of the project!

[oohsam]

Ok..
So i got my new fusebox....6 way fusebox. Turns out its the same one as suzuki_don's one in this post.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=162962&highlight=%22brake+upgrade%22

I needed to jump the fuses, so that the return signal from ignition would power the accessories. I didn't like the way Suzuki_don did his. I didn't want anything to be exposed on the outside of the fusebox.

So i flipped it over, and with a bit of handy work with the soldering iron, I melter a channel for soem cable. I took 2 lengths of 16ga cable, and striped the plastic seething off, and saturated with solder.
Placed it in the channel and just touched it with the soldering iron making sure each contact was touching.

Then I tested it with my multimeter to make sure there was signal.


I had to cut out the channels in the backing plate, where the my cable now was, as the back wouldn't close flush.

a few cable ties later, and she's done. Bare bones wiring harness is complete.
Just have to go and strip the battery box of its acid/rush infected skeleton and paint it, and work out a place to mount this bad boy.

I decided not to do any accessory wiring until I purchased the accessories as I dont know how many cables i'll need..its a piece of cake now to add accessories. Thanks to yall for your help.

More pics. Enjoy!

[pete]

Mate this is good stuff!

Funnily enough I used to work for Jaycar back in about '93/94 I think it would've been, although up here in Brissie of course.

What are you planning on wrapping the harness in when you're done and where did you score the wire from?

Initially I said I'm gonna do a custom harness on mine, then realised it was gonna take me way too long and I'm getting impatient to get the engine rebuilt and tank etc. done so I can ride for the first time in years.

However, seeing this thread is making me rethink that again because I do need to clean my stock harness up, so perhaps it would be better just to start fresh like this...

[oohsam]

Hey! That's gold! Jaycar is a great shop, but a little overpriced at times. I got my auto cable after much research on auto cable. It was all overpriced till I found a place that sold 30m rolls for 9dollars. So I bought 7 rolls. They had trace colours but I didn't need them as I was changing colours anyway.
The cable is excellent quality. I have heaps left. The place is called the 12v shop here in melb.

Look, I was scared to do the harness but it was **** easy. I reckon I could do it again in half the tome and now I have full confidence in the wiring.

I say go for it. I did remove allot of stiff, like the gear position lights, and the kickstand light etc etc. I don't need all that. I always know what gear I'm in...

Let me know if u need any info at all. Happy to help.

[oohsam]

Oh, I'm going to wrab the harness in black cloth, I dunno what its called but it should look good and protects from heat. Might wrap it in shring wrap tape first though and shrink it

[pete]

Yeah Jaycar's not necessarily the cheapest around, but usually better than tricky Dicky's and Tandy, although tricky Dicky now owns Tandy so they're gone.

The one thing I liked with Jaycar back then was that you had to know something about electronics to work there, whereas tricky Dicky would take anyone at all. At the time I was doing some electronics stuff at TAFE.

Anyways, I'll have to look around up here to find some good wire at a good price if I decide to go down that path.

I still want to keep the original functions, but I'd definitely like to simplify the wiring a bit more than it is now as well as being able to have more than just the one fuse.

I'm glad to hear you found it not too difficult to do, and between the various posts and diagrams around the place I'm sure it won't be too hard to adapt one for the 450.

I'll wait and see how I go with the valves and carbs then decide what to do.

[Billy Ricks]

If I ever get around to a full tear down on my bike I need to do the same. There are probably a dozen wires in my harness that aren't needed.

[oohsam]

If u ever need cables from here let me know ill be more than happy to send u some of my cables or get some for u and post it down, that offer is open to anyone actually.

The quality of the cable is second to none.

[pete]

One thing I neglected to ask...

Did you use the OEM connectors for the instruments and controls on your new harness or did you find other connectors that fitted exactly or did you change them altogether?

I'm facing 10.6 volts at most places on my harness and if a clean up of the ignition and run controls etc. doesn't bring it up enough, I think I'm going to have to make a harness just to get it started for the first time.

[Steve]

I'm facing 10.6 volts at most places on my harness and if a clean up of the ignition and run controls etc. doesn't bring it up enough, I think I'm going to have to make a harness just to get it started for the first time.

Why not just find the problem and fix it?

Start your project with the bike turned OFF, measure (and record) the battery voltage. It would be best to have it connected to a charger or another battery, as you will have the bike turned ON for a while. Turn the bike ON, measure (and record) the voltage at the battery again. Measure it at both sides of the MAIN fuse. Measure it at the common side of the other three fuses. Somewhere along the line, you are likely to find a drop that is bigger than the others. Trace back between that measurement and the previous one to find the culprit.

.

[pete]

Why not just find the problem and fix it?

Start your project with the bike turned OFF, measure (and record) the battery voltage. It would be best to have it connected to a charger or another battery, as you will have the bike turned ON for a while. Turn the bike ON, measure (and record) the voltage at the battery again. Measure it at both sides of the MAIN fuse. Measure it at the common side of the other three fuses. Somewhere along the line, you are likely to find a drop that is bigger than the others. Trace back between that measurement and the previous one to find the culprit.

.

You're definitely right Steve. I didn't elaborate but I intend to isolate the cause first and if it can be fixed it would be much quicker and easier than a new harness. This work was only implied at best by my comment... sorry for the confusion .

My question was more around if the standard cabling was used with the custom harness in case I do need to go down that path...