Nasty wiring connector.

[Guest]

Thanks to this great site, I have finally got my rather nice 1979 GS850GT on the road and am now busy re-living my mis-spent youth

I thought it worth mentioning a wiring problem I discovered, which could have caused a lot of damage to the machine - and maybe completely destroyed it.
Just before taking it out for its first run, I carried out a simple temperature check on the lighting system wiring, hoping to find any bad connections.
I noticed that the live wire (red) leading to a nasty plastic 4-pin connector behind the headlight was getting very hot after just a couple of minutes with the ignition on - in fact it got so hot it was starting to melt the plastic connector itself.
Previously, I had noticed the wiring in the headlamp was getting warm, but just assumed it was due to the heat of the headlight. However, with the headlight now resting on the front fender, it was obvious that this was not the cause!
Naturally, the offending item was hastily removed and the wires re-connected using safer single units.

On close examination, this connector really is an awful design. The wires are seperated by just 2 mm of plastic which will short out if so much as a drop of water gets in.

I wonder how many cherished bikes have gone up in smoke as a result of it failing ?

I am sure that all seasoned owners will have removed this horror years ago - but maybe there are a few new GS owners out there who are unaware of the problem.

So, I strongly recommend owners to check theirs thoroughly - or just get rid of the damned thing as it seems to be an accident waiting to happen.

[Anonymous]

McMaster-Carr to the rescue

My second post!

I absolutely despise the cheesy corroded wiring in every pre-90's bike. The old GS850 I have is no exception. In my daily job as an industrial mechanic, I often come up with wiring that is corroded, shorted, or just plain mickey-moused by the guy who wirked on the machine before me. I've taken to the male and female spade-connectors with the heat-shrinkable covers. These things are excellent! They shrink to seal out water and and I've begun to replace all the wiring on my bike with these. These connectors and a shot if good dielectric grease, and you won't have any corrosion for another 30 years.

[Anonymous]

I too have completely rewired the headlight circuit. I added 3 relays back at the regulator. Since one phase of the stator is cut on and off in parallel with the headlight switch, I put that on a relay--so the stator's output no longer goes through the headlight switch. I also put a relay in that turns the headlight on, and a third relay for the high/low beam selection. Of course if your bike doesn't have a headlight on/off switch, the first two relays aren't needed, just run the stator wire directly to the regulator. The power for the headlights comes directly from the battery to a new headlight circuit breaker now, then to the relay, then brand new 14 ga wiring all the way up to a new headlight connector.

It's amazing how much brighter the headlight is now! Also, I took all of the connections that were in the headlight shell, cleaned them, them put them outside the headlight shell, behind it, wrapped in wire loom and covered with tape. So the only connection in the headlight shell is now the plug into the bulb.

I heartily recommend this wiring upgrade. No need for a brighter bulb now--though if I do, I know I've got wiring that can handle it.