I am impressed!

[Steve]

After outlining some charging problems in this thread, I ordered a wiring harness from Eastern Beaver (scroll to bottom of page) on Sunday afternoon.
Got an e-mail Monday morning saying it had been shipped. It arrived today, on Friday. IT CAME FROM JAPAN in just four days.

The product is impressive. I ordered it with the Yazaki connector for the stator. No particular reason, just thought I would go with the black connector.

I am getting ready to change the tires and brake pads on my Wing right now, will attack the wiring harness on her 850 when I get done with that.
Will report results when I am done.

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[BassCliff]

Hi Mr. Steve,

I'm impressed that you've been impressed. That's impressive. Those wiring products look great. Have fun wrenching.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Steve]

Six hours and a few minutes later, the tires and brakes are changed on the Wing.

Now to attack the wiring on her bike.

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[Nessism]

That harness looks killer Steve! I'm seriously jealous. In comparison I took my FET R/R today and used silicone to seal the plug cavity - barbaric compared to that harness. I did find some nice Teflon coated wire to use at least - it's significantly thinner than the PVC coated stuff Suzuki used, plus used a MIL Spec silicone tht is purpose built to seal electrical components. At any rate, please post some photos after you get everything installed.

[Steve]

I am going to have to dig the black silicone out of there from when I installed it last week, but I will get pictures of what I can.

Thanks for the reminder/invitation to do so.

Of course, with the other modifications I have made on that side, you might not be able to see much, so I had better get some pics before it's installed.


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[Steve]

OK, install tutorial ... WITH PICTURES.

Started on the left side of the bike.


Pulled the side cover to reveal a couple of previous mods.
The front (left) relay turns the headlight OFF when the starter button is pressed.
The rear (right) relay provides power to the terminal strip on the other side of the bike.


Pulled the right cover


to reveal the terminal strip.


The top two rows are bridged together and are fed by the relay on the other side. They have power only when the key is ON. The other wires connected to these top two rows provide power to the CB radio, GPS and XM satellite radio. I used to have the sense wire for the Honda r/r connected here, too, but that is no longer needed.

The third, fourth and fifth rows are for other items that needed a good connection, including the LED driving lights and the LED strips on the gas tank. The two switches in the lower right corner are fed by those terminals.

The two lowest rows are also bridged toghether, they are both grounded, which should be obvious by the black wire that loops to the mounting bolt.

[Steve]

The rectifier/regulator (r/r) on this bike is mounted under the battery box. There is not a lot of room between it and the swingarm to get the bolts in and out, so I have found it easier to remove the battery box to change the r/r. It is necessary to remove the two screws between the starter solenoid and the fuse box on the left side to remove the left side panel (it stays with the bike), then remove the turn signal flasher and the self-cancelling control unit from their hangers on the right side to remove the battery box.

After removing the battery, here is what you see:


After removing the battery box itself, this is what you see:


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[Steve]

I had previously mounted the FET r/r last week and filled the terminal cavities with black silicone for waterproofing.
Here is what it looked like when removed:


A close-up of the wires and silicone:


Spent some time digging out the silicone after pulling the wires out.


I am somewhat pleased with the way it finally turned out.


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[Steve]

I had ordered this harness from Eastern Beaver:


It comes with a matching harness for the stator:


I checked to see if the connectors would fit in the cleaned-out areas, found there was no problem.


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[Steve]

Now to get the bike ready for the harness.

Here are the bullet connectors that were installed a year ago when I got a Honda r/r from Duaneage.


I cut them off and installed one of the spade connectors that came with the harness.


Three new spade connectors, crimped, then soldered.


The spade connectors installed into their new housing that mates with the "Part B" harness to the r/r:


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[Steve]

There is a fuse holder in the harness that hold a mini 30-amp fuse. It has a convenient mounting tab in its cover.


I chose to mount it behind the relay mounting tab on the left side, so I needed to make accomodations for an off-center mounting screw:


Here is the housing, mounted behind the relay tab:


Here is the harness, installed into the fuse holder cap:


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[Steve]

I determined how long to leave the wires in the new harness by routing them to the battery terminals. I usually like to minimize the number of connections directly to the battery, but thought I would make an exception in this case. Here are the battery terminals, crimped and soldered:


Threre are a couple pieces of shrink-wrap tubing included with the kit, they are intended to be put on the battery terminals. I was very pleased to find that it was not just ordinary shrink-wrap, it was butyl-lined shrink-wrap, so it seals the connection even better!


After re-installing the battery box with the r/r attached, you can see the limited working room underneath it.


Although there is not enough room to swing a wrench to remove the mounting bolts, there is plenty of room to push in the battery connector.


Then the stator connector is installed, finishing off a tidy project:


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[Steve]

Now the results. Was it all worth it?

The jury is still out.

Before I started on the harness install today, I verified the stator performance. I did not get the throttle locked at 5,000 rpm, but I did manage 4,500 rpm. Voltage was 72 VAC on all three pairs. Resistance readings from each lead to ground were all good, as were continuity checks of each lead.

However ... the battery voltage still only gets to upper 13s, even after running for a bit to compensate for the drain of starting the bike. At idle, it will run about 13.0. If the brake light is on, it's about 12.4. At 3,000 rpm (40 mph in fifth gear), it runs about 13.4 volts. Increase speed to 3,500 rpm (48 mph), it rises to about 13.7. Only after running over 4,000 rpm (55 mph) for a while, does it get to 13.9 volts, and slowly drops when the speed is reduced without using the brake light. Yes, it's actually charging the battery, but it's not the "rock-solid 14.4 volts" that others have bragged about.

In the course of troubleshooting, I checked the output of the r/r by pulling the fuse to check open-circuit voltage. It's about 15.1. As soon as I plug the fuse back in to connect the r/r to the battery, it's back down to the upper 12s or lower 13s, depending on engine speed. The only thing I could find that increased the voltage was pulling the headlight fuse. When the voltmeter was reading 13.2, I pulled the headlight fuse and saw 14.3 volts, and this was at about 2,000 rpm. This surprised me a bit, as only the headlight and the instrument lights are on that fuse. I have re-wired the tail light and connected it to the terminal strip powered by the relay, as the tail light was flashing a bit when the headlight modulator was in use. Now that it's powered more or less dirrectly off the battery, it does not flicker nearly as much. Also, to eliminate the possibility that the year-old AGM battery is loading down the system too much, I installed a much-newer (3 months) AGM battery from #2 son's bike. Same results.

I am running out of time here, as I need to pack for my next trip, but it's doing well enough for her to ride to work for the next month while I am gone.

Now, was it worth it? Yes. The harness was $40, but included everything you need to install the FET r/r, and it's a nice, tidy installation. It is helpful to have a good set of crimpers for the uninsulated terminals, but you should already have everything else you need for the install. If you only want the two large connectors that plug into the r/r, they are also available from Eastern Beaver for $20. I just decided to go all-out and get the whole harness.

Your mileage may vary.

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[mriddle]

Thanks Steve ..

I have one for my 83 (even though the Ricks is working just great).

[Steve]

I wonder if you are getting an interraction with that headlight modulator? Got an easy way to bypass the modulator for testing? ... I haven't seen a writeup on the modulator, so don't know anything about it.

Not sure that it's necessary to "bypass" the modulator for testing.

When LOW beam is selected, power goes straight to the headlight. When HIGH beam is selected, the modulator circuit goes into effect, but only if sufficient light is hitting the photosensor. This keeps the modulator from working at night. And ... my lower voltage readings were at the fuses, long before it ever got to the modulator.

"Writeup"? You want a "writeup"? OK, here ya go.

Remove headlight from bucket.
Remove connector from back of headlight bulb.
Install modulator on back of headlight bulb.
Connect headlight wiring to back of modulator.
Install photosensor. (hers is mounted near the handlbar mounts, facing UP)
Connect photosensor to modulator.
Put headlight back in bucket.
Verify proper headlight alignment.
Ride, but please use the modulator courteously. (note: before clicking on link, turn down your speakers if you might be offended by what some consider to be 'religious' music. The song is appropriate for a modulator site; it's "I Saw the Light" )

Here is a picture of the photosensor. It's the little brass lens-looking thing right in the middle:


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