Guage of wire for harness

[Guest]

Probably because I am nuts, I am still considering rewiring parts of my harness. Mostly the lighting and charging sections.

Now that you've stopped laughing, what guage wire do I need for the basic circuits. I have a good bit of 14 AWG & some 16. other than the thickness, is the heavier stuff any problem? It is "free" as it's in the garage now.

I do have a lenght of 14 AWG single strand. Might be good for something in the charging circuit or main line to/from fuse box. Does this transmit current better or worse. than stranded?

Not saying I'm going to do this, but I could play with it without removing the old harness.

I am looking at the solid state box but holding my questions until I understand more.

Thanks,

DH

[81GS850]

I would probably be more concerned about replacing all the connectors with good waterproof ones since this is where most of the voltage drop occurs. I've thought about beefing up my stock harness as well. I wouldn't use single strand. It's less flexible and will probably fatigue and break. 16 awg for the circuits and 14 for the charging system is how I would go about it. I personally have thought about adding a single automotive 40 amp relay in front of the three fuses to the circuits but behind the main fuse. Also have the r/r wire feeding the input to the relay so it still supplies current to the load.

[posplayr]

I would probably be more concerned about replacing all the connectors with good waterproof ones since this is where most of the voltage drop occurs. I've thought about beefing up my stock harness as well. I wouldn't use single strand. It's less flexible and will probably fatigue and break. 16 awg for the circuits and 14 for the charging system is how I would go about it. I personally have thought about adding a single automotive 40 amp relay in front of the three fuses to the circuits but behind the main fuse. Also have the r/r wire feeding the input to the relay so it still supplies current to the load.

Probably a good idea if you mount the relay so it is not subjected to heat and vibration.

[81GS850]

Probably a good idea if you mount the relay so it is not subjected to heat and vibration.

Thanks Everyone always talks about adding a relay to the ignition coil, when in reality most of the voltage drops, at least in my case, come from the wiring coming back to the three fuses. Also a 40amp relay for a circuit that will never see 10amps seems like an overkill.

[posplayr]

Thanks Everyone always talks about adding a relay to the ignition coil, when in reality most of the voltage drops, at least in my case, come from the wiring coming back to the three fuses. Also a 40amp relay for a circuit that will never see 10amps seems like an overkill.

The most sensitive thing is the ignition coils, so that is pretty standard. Adding both coils and ignitor hurts neither. If you back up to before the fuse box the ignition voltage is going to suffer even if it is improved from no relay.

so if I only had one relay it would be on the ignition. If I had two the second would be on the headlamp with some type of cut out for starting.

next I would do LEDs for everything on O/g signal circuit. The SSPB is basically at the battery with 5 solidstatepowerbox channels in parallel. 5 relays is going to take up a lot of room especially with mating connections.

[81GS850]

The most sensitive thing is the ignition coils, so that is pretty standard. Adding both coils and ignitor hurts neither. If you back up to before the fuse box the ignition voltage is going to suffer even if it is improved from no relay.

I didn't mean to thread hijack, but maybe you could explain? I was about to pose the question. If I add a relay after the main fuse going into 30, before it goes to the ignition switch then I put pin 87 going to the orange before the fuses and then use the orange wire coming from ignition switch wire to go to 86 and ground 85 won't I still get the r/r to feed the relay and the relay in turn would feed the three circuits?