Handlebar switch tail routing 850

[Brendan W]

Anyone know the correct routing for the handlebar switch tails, the gear pos display etc. The manual seems to show the LH switch on the RH of the stem and the gear display on the right with no clamp. Whichever way I run the handlebar switches the plugs are much too far back for the plugs in the main harness.

[ShadowFocus603]

My 850 has an over-abundance of wire as well for the switches. I run them down through the cluster then along the frame all the way back as far as they go then loop them to bring them back to where they are needed. I just use zip-ties to hold the excess to the frame to keep wires off hot motor etc.

[JTGS850GL]

Just make sure that there is enough slack at full turn left and right and make sure that nothing is getting pinched. You don't want the wires bending lengthwise when you turn the forks. If there is bending then you want it to be more of a twisting motion then bending. Think of how you break off a piece of coat hanger. You bend it back and fourth until it snaps. That's how wire bundles act. Move them back and fourth at a 90 degree angle and the wires will snap inside.

[Grimly]

I suspect your PO may have fitted 'bars an inch or two higher than it came with. I simply re-routed the cable bundles to the inside of the headstock on each side, instead of them going around the outside of the bend, as they were from the factory. Not a single instance of loom trouble in years and miles thereafter - on that bike. The only wiring loom trouble at that spot was on the other bike which had always had lower bars on it.
Ideally, the switches and wiring tails from the 'L' model would be the ones to get hold of, I suppose.

[Brendan W]

The bars have a 2" rise. PO fitted a switch on the left side by hacking into the tail at the bar and fitting a load of bullet connectors. For some reason he also had the main harness zig zagging from left to right along the spine. He's also done the same hack job bullet connector trick with a replacement gear pos switch tail at the back of the shift lever.
The plugs in the main harness sit near the front of the coils and are facing forward. The replacement left hand switch came from an L and the tail could run back to the top of the airbox. It's a long way to double back.
For better or worse the main harness now comes up through the top of the A beneath the stem, through the bottom fork clamp. The left and right bar switches go down between the clocks and bar. They then go left and right of the stem below the tank rubbers On the right of the stem there are two metal clamps but nothing on the left. Manual is a bit vague here.
On the plus side I found a damaged wire buried in the main harness, hanging on by a thread. The male connector for the LH switch was deformed and hardened from heat. Gave me an excuse to get all the pins out and clean them up and use that spare male connector that would come in useful one day.