80 xs Bare Basic Rewire

[daneglerum]

Hi Guys,

I've been lurking here for the past month or so since I picked up an 1980 XS1100.

I spent the day striping down the bike and and sanding back some of the more corroded parts. During this phase I noticed that the PO has made a bit of a mess of the wiring.

I am planning on eventually running LED lights and getting rid of the sock switches so I was thinking of doing a bare bones rewire eg. Just enough to get the bike running.

What are the key components that need to be wired up for this? Are there any guides floating around for this kind of thing? Am I getting myself in too deep?

Any help would be great.

--
1980 XS1100
Sydney

[mro]

key components

Might need: TCI,. coils, pick-up coils, AC generator, reg/rectifier etc...
Which means that most of the wiring is needed to run the engine on an 80.

About the only things not needed are the turns and head light wiring,
which would include the flasher, self canceling unit, head light relay, reserve lighting unit, light checking unit etc.. (lota wires related to lights)
Some think the tip over switch is extraneous too

mro
BTW, if you don't have one, a wiring diagram would be helpful?
Might find one in the tech tips. If not, after market manual are available.
Some are even in color.

[BigDick]

no such thing as too deep in, there's only learing experiences. I've been most of the way through my wiring harness on my 80 sg, it's not too bad, I would say the costliest part would be all the different colors of wire in the lengths you'll need. I definitely would keep it color coded. If you need a wiring diagram and can't find one on here let me know. I'll get you a copy.

[Clerek]

I just rewired my bike for a totally bare bones minimum to run the bike. I used a mixture of a couple wiring diagrams.


My bike is a 79 Standard, but the basic idea is there...

Have fun! Just wait until you get to the carbs...They are my best friends!

-Rick

[daneglerum]

Thanks for the tips guys! You're the best.

I'll give it a shot today and see how it goes. Stay tuned for more questions

[daneglerum]

Hi everyone,

So I spent most of the day working on the bike. Great fun!

I was able to get it wired up as per the diagrams above. Everything seemed to look pretty good and it was making sense. It came time to connect the battery and ..... nothing.

I then noticed a big black cable that didn't seem to have a home. Judging from the length and position of the cable it appeared to connect to the + terminal of the battery. Sure enough once this is done the starter motor turns. However it just keeps turning. The switches don't make a difference.

I'm thinking that the wiring is all ok except for this final cable.

When I look at the starter motor area I can see three cables. All the diagrams indicate only 2 (one to the solonoid and one to ground) Is anyone able to tell me which cable is which?

I've uploaded an image that I hope helps.

http://skitch.com/daneglerum/nb2iw/mysterycable

[xs11bobber]

Hmmm... your labels are a bit confusing in your picture to me.

In your picture... C is supposed to go to starter solenoid (and the other side of the starter solenoid to your battery +)

I'm not exactly sure what B is pointing to. Almost straight to the left of the letter "B" is your neutral sensor which I'm assuming your bypassing.

I'm thinking A in your picture isn't supposed to go to ground either.

But if you think of it this way it might get you somewhere a bit further. In your right controls, as soon as you hit the start button you're completing the ground circuit for the starter which allows it to engage while being pressed and stop when depressed.

Also, there isn't a ground wire on the starter per say. It's bolted to the engine which is isolated with rubber grommets throughout. This means you've gotta ground the engine to the frame. This should already take place just under the stock battery location and a little left on top of the middle drive, which I can't see in your picture because it's ALL black haha. There's a white glare or something on the right... should be in that area.

I hope this helps. It's early and it's a mind boggle for myself sometimes.

[daneglerum]

yeah you're right. I've made matters more confusing with my picture.

C is not a mystery cable. It is connected to the solenoid.

That leaves A and B as mystery cables.
Both cables are attached to what I assumed was part of the starter engine. It's a large cylinder. They are two black (like everything else) think cables with battery terminal ends.

A was is attached to the frame however I'm lost as to where B should go.

This is where they are attached to - http://skitch.com/daneglerum/nb27h/x...640x480-pixels


I'll have another look and see if I've mucked something up in the starter circuit but I've retraced my steps quite a few times and it all looks like it should.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Dane,

I, too, can't make much of your photo, but from your description, the large black cable that you connected directly to the battery and the starter started turning without turning OFF, that wire should be connected to the Starter Solenoid post. The OTHER end/post of the solenoid is the one that should be connected directly to the (+) of the battery. Sounds like you're bypassing the solenoid and that's why the starter is turning WITHOUT you hitting the starter button. The little IIRC blue/white wire on the solenoid is the ground for the solenoid to activate it, it's grounded when the starter button is pushed.

HTH!?
T.C.

[daneglerum]

I've had another look at it and I just can't quite seem to get it.
I'm going to have a break before I do something silly.

I'll try to get some more photos that show a bit more than just BLACK!

Thanks for the help

[Larrym]

Networking

If you are trying to undo to PO's wiring snafu then the best way to be sure that all the wires go to where they should go is to look at another fully functional bike. (take pictures of course...don't trust your memory.)

The site here has folks who may/may not be near you. If you add your location info to your public profile this might help matters.

The reason I say this is because IMHO you got lucky when you connected the wire to the battery and the starter began to turn. Lot's of other things could have happened with each event possibly being a major setback where a part was fried or even a fire hazard. All the wires have a purpose. Each end has one and only one place where it should go according to the way the bike was designed. Guesswork....even the best guesswork has a 50/50 chance of being wrong and when it goes wrong.....$$$??

Bonus is that there's people out there that just might want a reason to go for a ride....any reason including just to let someone take a look at the way their starter cable is connected. There's no need to reinvent the wiring harness on your bike and if the PO had looked at another bike he may/may not have made the mistakes which put you in your current situation.

[xs11bobber]

More photos would deffinitely help. Maybe a few different angles? Try a trouble light

There should only be battery size(6ga.-ish) cables: starter to solenoid, solenoid to battery (+), battery (-) to frame ground, Engine ground to frame ground. Chances are that if you have more you've been cursed by the PO.

As larrym stated, trial and error can equal $$$. I was lucky and fried a plastic start button... oops

[daneglerum]

Sorry for disappearing for a while, things at work got really hectic and I haven't had a chance to jump back on the forums.

Thanks for all the advice. I've managed to get the starter all wired up and can see a nice blue spark from the plugs. Excellent!

I thought I would have a go at starting the bike, however after connecting the fuel tank again I wasn't able to get it to turn over. There was a bit of a spark/backfire coming out of the air intakes in the carbies so I figured it was wise to stop and have a look on here for some answers.

So any tips as to what could be causing this?

[b.walker5]

I thought I would have a go at starting the bike, however after connecting the fuel tank again I wasn't able to get it to turn over. There was a bit of a spark/backfire coming out of the air intakes in the carbies so I figured it was wise to stop and have a look on here for some answers.

So any tips as to what could be causing this?

This is a little confusing. Are you saying that you cant get it to turn over yet you have backfiring from the carbs?, or are you saying that it wont start and has backfire? If it's the latter, given that you've rewired I would check the coil polarity, making sure that the feed for coil 1 + 4 (orange wire) is going to the correct coil, and ditto for 2 + 3 (grey wire). They only have two pickups and they have to be connected to the correct coils for them to fire. If theyre the right way round then check the small wires from the pickups behind the left crankcase cover, they're notoroius for breaking down and you'll find a tech tip under repairs which covers it better than I can describe. If both of those things check out then you may be looking at things like incorrect ignition timing, incorrect valve timing or burnt valves. A compression test should highlight the last two and a timing light will sort the first one.

On the other hand it may be carb related, do a search on tripple clean.

If its as you've said and wont turn over then you need to thoroughly check all your connections. Get a good meter, some dilectric grease and some time.

[daneglerum]

Thanks walker. I was unable to get the engine to fire. With the starter running the carbs would emit a large pop and some smoke would come out.

I haven't checked the polarity of the coils however I can confirm that I am getting a large spark from all 4 plugs - would this confirm that all is wired properly?

On a related note, from what I can tell the OP has removed the octopus so I'm not sure if the fuel lines are actually correct.

In the end I decided to remove the carbs from the bike and give them a bit of a clean. After this I'll have a good think about what I am going to do with the fuel lines (I know that one of the petcocks is leaking) and then give it another try.

I