Odd Wiring

[Anonymous]

AS most of you know by now, I am in the process of rebuilding a 1982 GS 850L and the main problem is the wiring. I have managed to separate the fried wires and found that they are not broken, but merely frayed with the exception of one particular wire.

There is one wire, solid blue, that according to the wiring harness I have been able to look at, goes from the gear position switch to the neutral indicator light. The problem is, there is also a section of blue wire that is connected to one of the screws that mounts the starter relay to the battery box, which would mean as far as I can tell, that it is a grounded wire. There is only one blue wire listed in the diagram I have found, and I don't understand why this wire would coneect from this point to a switch and light. Please help. For reference, please look at my website:

http://home.earthlink.net/~sst5817/

and look at the picture that says "Notice there is only one fuse here..."
at the item in the small circle. Is that wire supposed to be there, and what does should it go to?

[gremlin]

wow you got a rats nest.

the yellow connector, the one showing on the 5th photo, with three wires coming out does not bolt to any thing. its a three way connector. thay are killers get rid of it fast.

what is the lower circled object? it looks like its the R/R. cant be positve about that but I am betting thats the criter.

with all that fryed wireing i am betting you will need a R/R and stator.

man i wish I lived close to you. got the tools and the know how to rewire the bike. that and I love a good wireing problem. when i am not laying in the mud and rain. did that the other day on a truck at work.

[Anonymous]

got the tools and the know how to rewire the bike. that and I love a good wireing problem..

I couldn't agree more. Gremlin figured out my charging problem. And I was fit to be tied trying to figure it out. Turned out the Stator was shorted, even though it was still putting out 80v per leg.
Good diagnosis Gremlin.
I am forever gratefull yur help!

Thanks,
Charlie

[Redman]

From looking at schematic I have, it shows a blue wire from gear switch to the netural indicator light (like you described) which makes sence, that is what lights the netural light when the gear switch is in the netiral position.

The other blue wire you described, (I assume is a seperate wire, not connected to the other blue wire) sounds like it is ment to be making sure the battery box is grounded. My 82 GS650G had a ground wire from the wiring harness connected to the bottom of the batterybox inside under the battery, which caused me some problems of not charging very well: once when installing battery that ground wire got broke off, and once when it's connection got corroded. And I think the regulator-rectifyer is mounted on the bottom (or back side) of the battery box and gets its ground from its mounting to the battery box. The grounding of the R/R is important, so maybe someone has added that blue wire to improve the grounding of the battery box and the R-R. You will often see recommdations from others here on GSR to add a ground wire directly to the R-R, perhaps someone added that wire to the battery box becuase that was more accessable than the R-R itself. I dont think that blue wire is a problem.

[Redman]

Just looked at pics.
Oh, man.
OH, man.

Yes, there is suppose to be more fuses. Like, ah, um... all of them. Well, Except the bottom one (that was extra one for owner added accessorys).

That cluster of three connectors looks like what someone has added. You say bolted to negative battery cable. Those would be more ground wires someone added. Extra ground wires are not a problem, assuming they are only grounding out what should be grounded. You might ask why they thought they needed more ground wire, but, hey, you got more immeadiate problems than that. Ah, that, was connected to negitive was it?

If it was connected to the positive YIKES, maybe to distribute power to various places rather than thru the missing fuses YIKES - unfused power YIKES, why, that has potential to really burn up stuff, ah, er, um, kinda like the pictures I saw. If that bike was running without those fuses and with positve unfused power jumpered around to three different places, that must have been done to overcome some other problem (like problem at fuse block). And then some other problem came up and caused this meltdown you now see (rather than just blowing a fuse).

You say intend to splice in wires to repair the damaged portion of the wiring harness. Okay, you intending to use butt spices? If so be sure to cut back wires far enough beyound the overheated-damaged area, for two reasons:1) insulation is also damaged- brittle and will break further. 2)overheated wire strands get brittle and buttspilce-crimp connectors dont work as well if the wire strands are not ductile-flexable, will loosen up after awhile (my epxerience with stator wires). So either make sure to cut back wires far enough from the damaged area to where the wire strands are flexable, or maybe use wirenuts (small grey ones) in stead of butsplice-crimp connectors. But then again, the more I think of it, you are more intersted in just getting it running at all, butt spices are easier, just may not be as relaible over time.

I think you are one of the guys I have sent a schematic. If not, I can, have one scanned for 82 GS850L (and the schematic is particular to the year 82 and to the 850L).

Say, get that thing running, then look for the Fall Texas Hill Country ride down there; great guys, great roads, great ride. (ok, ok, maybe I dont know how far Palistine TX is from the Hill Country har har har)