I read your article and seen your bike on Thumper Talk, and let me just say I am very impressed on your electronics knowlege and how to apply it. You take something that I always looked at as being very complicated, and explain it in a way that it is actually pretty simple.....Anyway I just bought a 1983 XL600R which is in pretty bad shape. The wiring harness was completely hacked up and nothing, as far as the lighting system worked. I have since pretty much rewired the bike and have everything working except for the blinkers. Actually they do come on but I cant get them to blink. And when I do turn the switch on (doesnt matter right or left) the tail light light goes very dim. I have tried replacing the flasher unit and have double checked my ground routing etc. I am kinda stumped and was wondering if someone with your knowledge could point me in the right direction. I Thank you very much for your time , and any input would be greatly appreciated. Keith.....
My answer:
Keith,
The blinkers not blinking problem is simple. You are not getting enough voltage through the flasher unit to get it to flash. The units require a minimum voltage to start flashing. Try revving the motor with the flashers on to see if it makes the flashers flash. If you have a 12 volt battery, tie that in and see if the extra voltage makes it flash.
Unfortunately, the flasher problem sounds like the symptom of improperly connected wiring or worse, a bad generator. You will first need to check the resistance across the generator coils. . If you have a manual, it should tell you what the normal resistance range across the coil is for your bike. If the resistance is too high then you probably have a broken wire, if it’s too low it’s possibly shorting. If the stator is still good, that’s good news because you just have it wired wrong or a bad connection or a bad battery. I know you checked the wires but obviously something is wrong. If the bike has a battery, make sure the polarity of the current from the generator is correct. If it’s not, it will work right sometimes but it will do weird things other times.
If you do have a battery, then all of the ground wires for lights, horn, etc., should be connected ultimately to the negative terminal of the battery. They should not ground to the frame.
See if the battery is still good. A bad battery will also wreak havoc and cause strange behavior.
The switch may also be the culprit. If it (or any of the connections) is corroded, it will cause a power drain.
Good luck,
Rich
Brett writes:
| Hi Rich, sorry to bother you but im still stuck ill send you a picture of my exact wiring diagram (stock australian) and where i may think there is a problem and where i have spliced. hopefully your bikes wiring will have been the same. when i wire it this way, nothing happens. and it seems to short the battery i think. i have all the parts needed, just stuck at this point. i would like to keep the original harness if possible. can you identify my problem? thanks so much for your time ps. feel free to use this on your sites FAQ if need be http://gallery.oldholden.com/Brettv/wrf-wiring+comments.JPG.html |
Looking at the wiring diagram you sent, I can see why you are having problems. But we can fix it. It looks like the bike is just lacking a battery and that's what you are wanting to add to the bike.
Let's figure out what's going on before we change anything. Take a look at the diagram at the area between the YLB plug and the voltage regulator (where you did the splicing.) The yellow (Y) wire supplies the main power to the wiring harness. It goes up to the switch unit and the switch and switched power is returned through the blue (L) wire. The black (B) wire provides a common ground for the electrics.
You were on the right track but not quite all the way there with your splicing. First, you will not be splicing. You will be cutting. Cut the yellow wire after the point at which it ties in to the voltage regulator (VR). Let's call this "Cut #1". Solder the side of that wire closest to the VR to one of the AC terminals on the rectifier. Cut the black wire between the point at which it comes off of the VR, past the point at which it's grounded to the frame but before it starts to go to the rest of the wiring harness (still in the gray shaded are on the diagram.) Call this "Cut #2". Solder the side of that wire closest to the VR to the other AC terminal on the rectifier. You now have DC current available but it needs to be connected to the battery and back into the wiring harness.
Now solder a wire to the DC (+) terminal of the rectifier and then make a split off of that like on http://www.farplaces.com/wiringharnessfab.htm. One of the wires will join back to the free yellow wire you cut earlier at Cut #1. The other will connect to the (+) terminal of the battery. Solder a split wire to the DC (-) terminal of the rectifier and connect one of the wires back to the free end of the black wire in the wiring harness at Cut #2 and one to the DC(-) terminal of the battery.
(Make sure none of the black wires past the rectifier are still connected to the frame ground. The wiring diagram show the black wire splitting off past the VR and going to the front and back. You may need to make another split off the DC(-) to connect to the front and back wiring harness grounds.)
Don't forget to put in a fuse inline with the DC(+) line somewhere after the battery.
My crude drawing may help:
Joseph writes:
Hello there. Good article on dual sport setup much obliged. Quick
question, what battery did you use and what are its dimensions?
thanks
Joseph
Joseph, It looks like the battery here: http://www.electronicpartsforless.com/storefrontprofiles/processfeed.aspx?sfid=100806&i=51406608&mpid=36&dfid=1 There are all kinds of brand names out there for this type, I use whatever the local battery store carries that's cheapest.
Lucas wrote:I have just purchased a WR400 that is going to be converted into a supermoto bike. I had a question regarding the wiring of the relay in the second diagram.My answer:The relay switches on the current to the wiring harness when the engine is running, so you don't accidentally leave your lights on after shutting off the bike. It breaks the circuit from the battery to the rest of the wiring harness. So if you have a battery for the lighting circuit and you are concerned that might happen, the wiring diagram you are looking at will fix the problem. The "detection" side of the relay is wired in between the rectifier and the battery. So connect one side of the detection circuit to the hot (+) wire in between the battery and rectifier. Then do the same thing for the ground (-) wire between the two. You see the diode? That's to make sure the switch isn't activated by the battery itself and it has to be wired in the proper direction as I indicate in the drawing. The switch side of the relay is wired in anywhere after the fuse on the hot wire. Polarity is unimportant for either side. If the relay has polarity markings however, follow the markings directions.
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