Wiring Question Standard verse Special

[Winterhawk]

I'm building a bike for me. I have a leftover connector under the tank. A few extra wires in the headlight housing. It has a round headlight. Do you think that it could have a special front end with the handle bar controls. The right side control plugged in under the tank and the starter works. Does the left side control go under the tank. My left side has individual wires. Does a standard have a 4 wire plug in that may go under the tank?

Thanks, here is a pic of my plug left over under the tank.

[crazy steve]

That plug should be the supply wires to the turn signals and headlight after leaving the handlebar switch.

And it's not a standard vs special, but an early vs late wiring. The 78-79 bikes used differently-arranged plugs for the controls where they plugged into the main harness compared to the later bikes. The later bikes also had hazard flashers, which changed the wire count. Luckily the color codes are the same so if you're mixing parts, by matching colors you can connect them. Looking at the wiring diagrams in the factory manual in the electrical section of the manual (not the 'main' diagram as found in the back or the Clymer book) for the various years should explain it.

The 'extra' wires in the headlight bucket should be a red (12V power for an accessory) and a blue (running lights, for extra lights).

[Winterhawk]

I think that I need to get the correct left side control after looking at it. tube plugins and some go to the plastic connector and vise versa. What a nightmare. Anyone have a spare 1978 left side? The pink horn wire is not in the right spot in the connector either. Not sure what year or model the put on there but I want the right one.

Thanks

[crazy steve]

I'll clarify this a bit more....

Yamaha used a flat blade type connector/plug assembly up to '79, then switched to a round pin/socket type in '80, I'm pretty sure this was across the full bike line. The '80-up XS11 had hazard flashers, with an additional switch in the left housing and one extra wire (brown/yellow) for hazard power. But other models didn't get the flashers right away, so the only difference is the changed plug layout. Even if you have the hazard switch, you can simply leave the power wire unconnected and as long as the hazard switch is left 'off', the rest will connect and function the same as the '78-79 switches by matching color to color. You just need a male/female plug connector that matches for both sides, and you can get those from Tony (geezer here) at Oregon Motorcycle parts.