XS Gods...help if you can....

[TomRodgers]

Thors twins ('81 H and '80G for parts) have been joined by yet another 80G that has been sitting awhile.. ( at least a year..i fear more..). After draining fluids, refilling....fixing vacuum lines(hooked up wrong) cranking idle screw back (was backed out ALLLLL the way) shooting a bit of juice (starting fluid), the beast fired up. rough. carbs will need to be cleaned and sync'd.. issue i have is electrical.... according to the wiring diagram for the front turn signals on the 80G's, the left turn signal is Dark Green and Blue. The right side is Brown and Blue. when i hooked up the left side DG and BL, the wires got hot enuf to melt the bullet end right off!!! the right side looks like the same color wires ( im slightly color blind, but SWMBO agreed with me...they look the same) but are in the stock wire harness....im guessing that all 4 signals must be hooked up in order to work properly? everything else seems to work okay..headlite hi/low, brake/running. the PO had rattle can painted the rear fender w/out removing it, and proceeded to paint the entire wiring assembly black!!! What a tool!!! any ideas as to the wiring?

[bikerphil]

The blue wire is for running lights on the Standards. There is a dual filament bulb. Use the dark green and ground at the stalk for signals, same with brown for the right side.

[TomRodgers]

Are all signals on XS's single filament? or are the newer models dual? I guess i was "overloading" the wiring then to get the melted wire!!!

[clobe26]

What i did with my wiring was update it. I used "Switch Blade fuses" for certain wires & also used relays. Those should blow 1st before giving you a hot spaghetti effect.

[fredintoon]

- - - issue i have is electrical.... according to the wiring diagram for the front turn signals on the 80G's, the left turn signal is Dark Green and Blue. The right side is Brown and Blue. when i hooked up the left side DG and BL, the wires got hot enuf to melt the bullet end right off!!! the right side looks like the same color wires ( im slightly color blind, but SWMBO agreed with me...they look the same) but are in the stock wire harness....im guessing that all 4 signals must be hooked up in order to work properly? everything else seems to work okay..headlite hi/low, brake/running. the PO had rattle can painted the rear fender w/out removing it, and proceeded to paint the entire wiring assembly black!!! What a tool!!! any ideas as to the wiring?

Hi Tom,
the wires are coded B for Black and L for Blue.
Clymer's wiring diagram shows the XS11H as having front signals with Dg & L wires + ground to the left and Br & L wires + ground to the right.
This tells me that the front signals are both signal and running lights and thus should have twin filament bulbs in them.
The rear signals have Dg or Br wires plus a B each that runs to a remote ground connection.
The signal system on the '80 models is also complifexed by the 4-way hookup.
A swipe with acetone should take the rattlecan paint off the rear wiring.
And yeah, it's dark inside that headlight shell, eh?
Mr Stupid mistook a black wire for a dark brown one in there to demonstrate that a transistorized flasher's pulse rate will not change even when hooked to a dead short.
You get 3 pulses then the fuse blows. Damn fool did it twice to prove it.

[TomRodgers]

The PO had some rinky dink chrome signals bolted to where the regular side reflectors would go on the headlight ears. ill find out wether or not they are single or double filament... it threw me for a loop on the Clymer diagrams...cuz the new lights have two wires coming out of the hollow mounting bolt, (one ground one hot...so i thought) but with the mounting bolt being the ground, that complicates my situation. if they are single filament bulbs, just bypass the "running lites"...if they are dual, then what? thats what i tried and it melted the wires.....

[TomRodgers]

the rears i figured out...two of the wires had grounding bolt terminal ends on them, to be bolted to the frame. the others were the hot.... i hate electrical issues!!!!

[TomRodgers]

another issue....ive never sync'd carbs on my own before....looking into purchasing guages....found a set, but without adapters. what are the adaptors for? different bikes? i thought the hoses slipped onto the brass tubes off the intake boots.....any info would be greatly appreciated!!!!