Wire Gauge?

[Guest]

Hey guys, I need to replace some of the wiring and I'm having trouble figuring out what gauge the wiring is. Anyone know? Thanks.

[Nessism]

Depends on what wire you are talking about. They are not all the same.

[geol]

The main power wires that connect the red/rec to the battery, main fuse and then to the ignition switch that are fused by the 15A fuse and are red are probably 16 ga. I am guessing the rest are either 18 or 20 ga regardless of color code. 18 ga. is a good safe choice. The only other gauge wire are the battery connections. These are probably 6 or 8 gauge I would guess.

[Grassigrass]

I was just given a bunch of brand new wire all sorts of colors and I'm building a harness.. Only the wire I received is 14 and 16 gauge. I know the battery will need the 6 or whatever the thick one is, but for all the components and other electrics can I get away with using 16 when the old wire is 18? Is it bad to have a little overkill on wires?

[Grimly]

I was just given a bunch of brand new wire all sorts of colors and I'm building a harness.. Only the wire I received is 14 and 16 gauge. I know the battery will need the 6 or whatever the thick one is, but for all the components and other electrics can I get away with using 16 when the old wire is 18? Is it bad to have a little overkill on wires?

Nope, it's not a bad thing at all, unless you come to a spot where the original wiring bundle only just fits and a fatter bundle won't but that's what tools are for. I'm assuming you have a bunch of auto-grade wiring, with plenty of flexibility?
Generally, a slightly thicker wire than the factory supplied will give less volt drop (assuming good connections) and better service. Factory wiring is often a bit skimpy and only just enough to do the job - not as bad on these bikes as later bikes and cars, where the bean-counters really kicked in.

[posplayr]

I'll agree there is no specific harm using larger wires, but I would not want to alarm the OP that the stock wiring is totally inadequate needing all 18 AWG wires to be increased to 16 awg. Dirty connectors cause much more voltage drop than a slightly small wire size.

With regard to the R/R and battery if you see 16 AWG you can stick with 16 or bump it up to 14. Specifically in the grounding those B/W ring lugs of 18 awg wires are too small and should be 16 awg with 14 awg at the r/r(-).

If starting from scratch you could use 14 awg on the head lamp that draws 5 amps continuous unless you go to LED in which case you can leave it 16 awg.

[geol]

It might be difficult to use 14 ga. in the left handlebar switch out to the headlight bulb holder but it would be better to go to thicker wire as these wires carry more voltage than skinny OEM 18 ga should handle (just my opinion). It would also be a dandy idea to run the headlight off a relay. If heavier wire is used, the switch itself would probably be the short pole in the tent, so to speak.