Harness wiring from Scratch?

[Shaughn]

Hi All-

As my new-to-me '78 750E has about the simplest
wiring diagram of anything outside of an outboard that
I've ever worked on, I'm tempted to rewire the whole harness,
as she's got 4 years on me, and my wiring is already starting to go!

Has anyone undertaken the endeavor? I know that chopper guys
run custom wiring all the time, but I want to retain all the current
components I have, this bike should look stock(ish) when I'm done with her.

Any tips or words or warning? Or good sources of many colors of primary wire?

I already have to rewire the stator/R&R/ground circuits, so I'm pretty set on going forward.

Thank in advance,
Shaughn

[Suzuki mad]

There's a guy in the UK would rebuilds wiring looms and is very good at it.

You can get connectors that are similar to the original Suzuki types and the block connectors can be re-used if you take your time to carefully remove them.

I'd suggest that you follow the original colours (most are avaliable) as it will save you a load of headaches later fitting it to the bike.

Suzuki mad

[TheCafeKid]

Hi All-

As my new-to-me '78 750E has about the simplest
wiring diagram of anything outside of an outboard that
I've ever worked on, I'm tempted to rewire the whole harness,
as she's got 4 years on me, and my wiring is already starting to go!

Has anyone undertaken the endeavor? I know that chopper guys
run custom wiring all the time, but I want to retain all the current
components I have, this bike should look stock(ish) when I'm done with her.

Any tips or words or warning? Or good sources of many colors of primary wire?

I already have to rewire the stator/R&R/ground circuits, so I'm pretty set on going forward.

Thank in advance,
Shaughn

I had, with the help of someone a bit more wiring able than myself, to rewire pretty much my entire cafe project. The PO had cut just about everything non-essential (and by that i mean he left what the bike needed to run ONLY) out of the loom. If you follow the diagram, and especially on THAT bike, its cake. One suggestion, lose all the bullets in favor of spades, and lose the glass main in favor of a blade type with a holder. That stupid main connector gave us fits like you wouldnt believe!

[Agemax]

i made my own wiring loom, its so easy. just buy the cable, as near as the origonal colour as you can get, a few metres of each will do. lay your old loom out on the floor and make the new one to suit. get it close as you can but make all cables a few inches longer. tape/shrink wrap up the main shape then fit it to your bike. get all the relevant spade/bullet connectors and cut each cable to the right length when fitted to the bike. just make sure you draw up your own modified wiring diagram if you alter any colours slightly,or any subtle modifications

[portdave]

I ordered a new one. Should be here this week. Mine was all cut into. I just got my bike a few weeks ago.

[doctorgonzo]

When available (as mine was, I know some aren't) new OEM is the way to go. At 150.00 could barely build it for that.

[Shaughn]

Thanks!

When available (as mine was, I know some aren't) new OEM is the way to go. At 150.00 could barely build it for that.

Couldn't build one out for $150? I guess you have a different bike, so, who knows. Heh, What's your labor rate? LOL
Granted, if I can't buy it by the foot, with the connectors and et. al, it will add up, but I think I can keep it under well 100. We'll see.
I'll post the BOM once I figure it out. (Not likely this weekend)

On the OEM, was it New Old Stock (NOS) or was it actually modern manufactured?
Copper and vinyl ages on the shelf, just not as fast as on the road. How pliable was it? Was it wrapped?

One suggestion, lose all the bullets in favor of spades, and lose the glass main in favor of a blade type with a holder. That stupid main connector gave us fits like you wouldn't believe!

Yeah, weather tight (heat shrinking splice) spades all around, with plenty of dielectric. I've yet to decide what to use for the multi-tap connectors at the head. Considering the bike doesn't even have a fuse box (just that sob tubed connector glass one) I'll be looking to put in a 6 place miniATM fuse box. I should've clarified that while I want it to look stock(ish) from the outside I mean to avoiding what your PO did, but I do want safe modern (read: reliable, I hope) wiring.

It's a shame you're out in the flatlands, TCK, I'd have liked to split some wrench sessions bringing either of our projects to life.
Granted yours are more ambitious, but give me time, this is only my first GS.

Thanks all,
Shaughn

[doctorgonzo]

Not sure if it was NOS or modern manufactured. I'm going to guess NOS. The wires were all pliable, no fading or anything, wrapped exactly and color coded exactly like the one on the bike (that had burned to a crisp). You're right, probably wouldn't cost 150 bucks to build one, but probably 70 or 80 minimum by the time you tracked down all those colors of wire, bought all the connectors, etc... I use a rule of thumb of 10 bucks an hour for my time. So if I spent 70 bucks on parts and it took me 8 hours to build it, I'd rather pay 150.00 and just buy the replacement. Personal preference thing, time is pretty valuable to me. Same reason I took my tires for mounting and balance. Been YEARS since I did one, so I figured probably take me 3 or 4 hours to mount and balance the tires myself (hopefully that quick), so 50 bucks to just have it done (in 30 minutes by somebody with the right tools) is worth it. Now real mechanic work, I do myself because I don't trust them and they cost 75 bucks an hour.

[Shaughn]

True, True

I use a rule of thumb of 10 bucks an hour for my time. So if I spent 70 bucks on parts and it took me 8 hours to build it, I'd rather pay 150.00 and just buy the replacement.

Yeah, that's very valid. I guess I'm still riding the "new bike wrenching buzz" where all time spent is value-add. I measure my hourly-rate even higher than that if its something I don't relish doing, and its a good, realistic measure of things. Doing manufacturing time-studies has ground into me that every moment costs something, but hey, if you enjoy it, it's cheaper than some other forms of entertainment, heh.

Thanks for the reference on the NOS bit, too. I will do due diligence and
check my local zook shop for price & avail on a OEM harness, as this project will be rapidly exceeding the start price.

(and no, I'm not an I.E., my company just loves to misapply resources)

[Rat44]

I rewired my 70 Jeep from the ground up. It's not a job for the faint of heart. In my case Jeep forgot to put fuses and fuse panels in. Just a hint,boat parts work great on Jeeps and bikes.

[TheCafeKid]

Well there is something to be said for making your own loom. It gives you the chance to get rid of the stupidity in the stocker. There are some things in some of the GS wiring designs that make absolutely NO sense, like chasing power all over the damn bike. There are a couple things that could be eliminated for not only simplicities sake, but for voltage drop issues as well. And theres certainly NO harm in using some larger gauge wire for the main power feed either. Why they used such small gauge wire for these things confounds me about as much as the Japanese need to put a chrome front fender on a bike. (Anyone go blind from theirs yet? LOL) There are the coil mods and headlight cutout mods and what not, but if you're building your own from scratch, you can build that INTO the system from the start, making for a cleaner loom. I have the desire to rewire the cafe from complete scratch instead of splicing into the cut to hell loom that came with it someday, but *MY* goal is to HIDE all of the electrics from site however i can.

[hampshirehog]

I've lost count of the number of times I've done this. At first I used to think it was beyond me and that the job was a real PITA. Now I quite enjoy doing it - it's one of those chess substitutes and I have to think 2 or 3 steps ahead all the time.

It's miles easier if you can do it on the bike as you can check everything fits. I've never bothered getting wiring matching to the original eg say you can't get orange / white, just replace it with purple or whatever you've got and remember the colour swap.

As a styling attempt I once rewired a 550 using only yellow wiring - no other colour (the whole bike was yellow). I found that easy enough to do and it just took a bit longer as I had to keep testing wires to find out where the they went.

Oh - a tip. Photocopy the wiring diagram from the manual and blow it up double - you won't need a magnifying glass to read it then.