suitability of Furakawa RFW and Sumitomo HM-090 connectors for switchgear

[Guest]

i'm back on rewiring my 83 GS1100ED after some time away from it. i was unhappy with some of the work that i'd already done; too much patching, splicing and soldering of connections, as well as having started out replacing the melted OEM unsealed Sumitomo 110 connectors in the headlight bucket with identical replacements. all this and i still had a harness that depended on an antiquated Controlled Relay Module for Check Panel and headlamp functions......to make a long story short, i'm beginning again with a very nice 17,000 mile harness removed from my 1982 GS750EZ. i combined my tach and speedo from the 1100E with the cluster from the 750EZ which has no check panel. i am using an Eastern Beaver Headlamp Relay Kit and their Horn Relay Kit as well as their R/R Lead Kit for the SH-775 R/R. i'm also doing the Coil Relay Mod and have followed Pos' advice on running only the orange/white wires thru the kill switch. i really want to put as many of the connections on the bike into sealed connectors as i can and avoid soldering most of those, preferring the floating connection at the crimp, and the seal providing strain relief. i have salvaged a bunch of the Furakawas, and ordered what i might need, as well as having ordered a Sumitomo HM-090 connector assortment from CycleTerminal (great folks to deal with). since all of the heavy loads were being taken out of the switchgear and the circuits in question simply providing "trigger" function for the relays, can anyone comment on the ability of an .090 connector to pass the current vs. the original .110 connectors?

[OldVet66]

I used the Furukawa RFW single connectors for the stator leads on my bike over 10,000 miles ago and they look like they did the day I installed them, so I know they will handle the job. I'm not familiar with the other connectors.

[garagepunkfan]

thanks for the reponse OldVet66. the connectors we know and love for the SH-775 type R/R's are also Furakawas in the QLW series but have a hefty .250 wide spade to handle the current.

both the Sumitomo HM i think i read somewhere that a typical .090 is rated at somewhat less than 10 amps each, although i have personally taken apart a late-model Suzuki harness that passed a horn circuit with 14 ga wire thru an unsealed Sumitomo HM style connector. Eastern Beaver and CycleTermial both sell the 14-16 ga seals for the Furakawas but terminals seem to be made for the 16 to 20 gage range only.


a pic of the Sumitomo HM 090's, courtesy of CycleTerminal....



and the terminals for them




they sell a nice starter kit too for about $63..






and the Furakawa RFW 090....




here's the link to their site

http://www.cycleterminal.com/index.html

both have their advantages. the Sumitomos are cheap, comparitively; but only go up to 6 stations. the Furakawas, meanwhile, are a more solidly-built connector with a higher-density plastic shell and are available in more ranges including 8, 9, and 12 station versions with male and female halves; but are pretty spendy. terminals and seals are cheap in either case and make looking at 10 or 12-dollar used late-model bike harnesses worthwhile (found on that auction site)

[JTGS850GL]

I've used the Furakawa terminals under some fairly harsh conditions (-30C to +60C @90% humidity) for years in an industrial application and have never had one fail. I see no reason why they wouldn't work out great.

Sorry, no experience with the Sumitomo connector.

[OldVet66]

I don't think you could tell the difference in the metal connectors, both companies may buy them from the same source. I like the Furukawa connector shells better than the one you showed and to tell the truth I fudged the connectors a bit for the 10 gauge wire for my Compu-Fire R/R (removed some strands for the first crimp and removed the insulation for the second crimp and sealed the end of the barrels with silicon. I opted for the single connectors for the R/R so they wouldn't heat each other. My next quest is to replace all the rest of the plugs on the bike with the Furukawa multiple connectors.

[Grimly]

In the absence of any locally available Furukawa connectors, or anything that remotely resembled them, I ordered some Chinese knock-off single connectors from aliexpress. I'll try them out on the headlight and heated grips circuits first before trusting them elsewhere.

[OldVet66]

It doesn't take much longer to get them from Japan than some US shippers in this country. http://easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec__...FKWH/fkwh.html

[garagepunkfan]

if you guys would not mind i'd like to turn this into a tech thread about my electrical upgrades. i'm making good progress and a thread would help keep me motivated....



here is my 82 GS750EZ harness tagged and laid out







as you can see its not too bad for a 32 year old harness. nothing burnt, cut or melted

[garagepunkfan]

i drew a "dead body outline" on cardboard to ensure that i would remake it to the same "footprint" and labeled the areas of the branching. starting to unwrap

[garagepunkfan]

removing the charge loop from the harness and relocating the orange/red wire to be grouped with the left switchgear wires. it eventually ends up going to the yellow/white wire over on the other side, and the right switchgear does not need it. all that is needed are the 2 orange/white wires

[garagepunkfan]

connector parts organized into trays

[garagepunkfan]

this stuff is small...






luckily, with the seals in place, normally the terminal will hold itself in place while preparing to crimp






the 090 sealed terminals need (in my case) to be crimped in two different pliers. i have an Astro-Pneumatic model 9477 which has the stepped dies for crimping both sets of wings at once. unfortunately, none of the dies are sized appropriately for the 090's. killing 6 terminals in a row on my first crimp convinced me to seek another pliers.....




so i purchased a Rostra ECT47 from Cycle Terminal, which handles the wire crimp well, but seems too small to crimp the seals. so i use an appropriate die to do the seals only with the 9477 pliers

[garagepunkfan]

notice the dark color of the wire strands? that's oxidation and it needs to be cleaned before crimping. the old terminal ends looked ok but this was lurking when i clipped and stripped. keep in mind that this harness came from a 17,000 mile garage-kept bike with known history of always being kept indoors. think about that when you are thinking of running an old harness as-is.....




so a little bath is in order. generic brand CLR.



that's a little better

[garagepunkfan]

just about done with this one...note that this is for the left switchgear, the orange/red wire is now re-routed thru this connector to feed the dimmer switch (yellow/white).



the empty hole gets a cavity plug











the guide block.....





and done!

[garagepunkfan]

BTW, i should note here that the Furakawa connector shown in the last sequence and its future mate were both salvaged from cheapo cut-up late-model bike harnesses. get familiar with the different connector types and go shopping on that auction site. plan what you need and buy trying to maximize the number of useable-to-you connectors. you will even score some useable primary wire and maybe get some ideas how to set up different circuits.....