botched wiring

[Guest]

i just recently acquired an 82 gs 550 l and the wiring has been butchered. one on the previous owners "broke" the factory starter button and attempted,poorly i may add, to wire in another push button to start the bike, how ever i have a series of about 6-8 wires that have been cut,spliced,and rigged and all of which just lead to nothing. meaning they were merely "extended" using more wire. i know nothing about bikes so i dont want to fool with it until i have some form of guidance from someone else who actually knows what they are doing. i did however notice that there is a series of 3 wires sheathed together that when traced lead into the engine. i was told these run from the magneto to charge the battery. but upon examination i cant seem to find where these wires would connect and i dont just want to start connecting wires randomly because we all know that nothing good can come from that. i will do my best to post some pics of the botched wiring within the next few days to give everyone a better idea of what im getting myself into. i havent done anything with this bike except put the tank and seat back in place to keep them out of my way since my bike is inside my apt and out of the weather. hopefully someone can help me out with this, as this is the most major issue(as of now anyway) i wont even make an attenpt to buy a battery until this is figured out just in case there would be a short somewhere. thanks in advance,bill

[tom203]

I hope you like wiring stuff ! Yes, you got work to do ,best to assume the worst or worser. Here's a link to a similar wiring layout- print it out (big) and you'll start to figure stuff out; click thru to get it

https://sites.google.com/a/dslextreme.com/cbsaunders/images/1981GS650EX.Jpg?attredirects=0

How does rest of bike look ? post a pic

[koolaid_kid]

Worser? Tom, the proper use of the word is Worster. Everybody knows that.
Print it as an 11x17 (legal size) and get several copies and several colors of highlighters. You will need to trace all the wires in your system, since a PO has clearly butchered the harness for you.

[Badooka]

I would get the schematic and run new wires, one at a time, or get a used harness and go that route- trying to figure out and fix what some goober did will take a lot of time and frustration. Once you rip that garbage out and run the proper- you will alleviate any future headaches when a new electrical problems come up- you'll have the piece of mind knowing that you can work off of the schematic and not memory.

[82gs550]

so i figured out where the butchered wires go today. with the help of a friend, we figured out that the harness was fine and in good shape. however the regulator is missing from the bike. my friend pointed this out to me and said that he contacted a shop and they said the from what he described with the wiring it sounded like those were the wires from the regulator and when we started looking at the bike today he said "yup the regulators gone,thats where those wires go" he looked over the rest of the wiring and sad everything else is intact and connected properly so here in the next couple weeks i will be acquiring a new(not a good used) but an actual new regulator for the bike. thank you everyone for your insight. im so glad that i dont need a main harness for this thing.

[tom203]

"....the next couple weeks i will be acquiring a new(not a good used) but an actual new regulator for the bike. ...."

If you get anything other than a Compufire or Shindengen SH-775 R/R, you will be ignoring the advice of this forum.

[posplayr]

"....the next couple weeks i will be acquiring a new(not a good used) but an actual new regulator for the bike. ...."

If you get anything other than a Compufire or Shindengen SH-775 R/R, you will be ignoring the advice of this forum.

Or he can't find it.

82gs550,

See GS Stator link below.

[Steve]

Worser? Tom, the proper use of the word is Worster. Everybody knows that.

And, if it progresses to the superlative, it would be "worstest".

.

[82gs550]

what price should i be expecting to pay roughly for the compufire or shendengen regulators? and where can i find one?? would my local bike shop carry them?? reason i ask is because we have about 4 or 5 bike shops in my area. if i can find one at any bike shop then i will price them from each(as we all know each shop charges a different amout for the same thing) and thanks for the pointer on what kind to get. i dont want a regulator thats will work for say 6 months and then crap out on me miles from my place and no way to get back.

[tom203]

Steve went shopping for the Polaris pn#4012941 (series unit)....

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showpost.php?p=1998089&postcount=104

Or try a local Polaris dealer- they might price match or come down a bit.

Lots of R/R's will work (and the dealers will eagerly sell them), but a series unit will reduce the load on stator, making the stuff about "then crap out on me miles from my place and no way to get back. " much less likely as to charging system problems.

[Badooka]

You roll the dice with durability on any chinese made elctronics. And they are all chinese made. Buy two and carry a spare.
I love the new stickers now to throw folks off- has an American flag, red white and blue and says Made for America- look closely.

[tom203]

My Shindengen SH-775 had no "made in____ " on it or box. Shindengen has been in this R/R business for over 35 years and they have a great reputation- I'm confident that they wouldn't dump a untested item on market. They apparently have bigger models under development