Easy fix / cool terminal kits

[dbeardslee]

So little brother went for a long ride this afternoon after I put his 80G back on the road. He came back complaining that it was intermittently running okay and then missing really bad. His girlfriend said she could smell gas while riding behind him, and he wanted me to go back into his carbs.

I was pretty sure I had the carbs right, so I pulled the plugs instead. 1 and 4 looked fine, but 2 and 3 were wet and looked like they weren't firing. It's got brand new Dyna DC1-1 coils, so I pulled the plugs on the TCI and checked the resistance to the pickup coils. The resistance looked a little higher than it should, but it was the same on both pickups.

Since the resistance wasn't in spec, I pulled the timing cover off, and found something interesting. There's a little clip where the wires enter under the timing cover, and that clip is supposed to hold the wires. The wires were not in the clip, and one of the pickup coil wires was resting against the timing wheel. I felt around on that wire, turned it over, and sure enough there was a bare spot that had just worn through enough to expose the wire.

I opened the clip up, put the wire where it was supposed to be, and put a little electrical tape over the bare spot. It must have been jiggling around in there and intermittently shorting out on the timing wheel, but with the wires held by the clip they won't be able to get close to the timing wheel again. He took a little ride to test it and said it was running like it should again.

Total time to fix - about ten minutes. The look on his face was priceless. Kind of a "I've been riding around on two cylinders all afternoon, and that's all that was wrong with it?!" type look.

I'm still a little concerned about the higher than spec resistance readings at the tci, though. They were reading about 800 ohms, and they should be 720. I'm thinking that additional resistance may be due to old parasitic electrical connections, and since I just bought a couple terminal kits from Cycleterminal.com, I might just go ahead and replace all the electrical connections.

Those kits are nice. One comes with 100 2.8mm tin plated brass terminals plus a bunch of connectors, and the other one comes with 80 6.3mm brass terminals and connectors. When you start rewiring those 35 year old plastic connectors a lot of times the plastic is kind of crumbly, so I much prefer to put new connectors on. And they even come with a terminal extraction tool.

Anyway, this is what the kits look like -

2.8mm kit


6.3mm kit

[IanDMacDonald]

On my 750, I did this very thing, and found the Molex connectors to be too troublesome. I may have spent upwards of $1200 on "Molex"-branded crimpers, etc. I ended-up using GM "Weatherpak" connectors on my Suzuki GS.

[dbeardslee]

In the past I've gotten my electrical connectors and terminals from Z1 Enterprises, but they sell everything in small quantities, and they get a pretty good nickle for it. I don't care if they're exactly, identically the same kind of connector that came from the factory as long as they'll handle the voltage and remain serviceable. And I like that these kits have both the terminals and a pretty good selection of connectors.

When I replaced all the connectors and terminals on Betsy I kept running voltage checks to see what kind of affect it was having. I'd get a tenth of a volt here, and two tenths of a volt there, and by the time I was done I had "recaptured" quite a bit. It's kind of tedious, but it pays off, and I think it works a lot better than just cleaning the terminals.

I don't have a real fancy crimper - just a decent one I bought from Mikes XS several years ago. But it does a nice double crimp, works with the sizes of terminals I use, and I didn't go broke buying it.

[3Phase]

Doug,

Resistance goes up with temperature. Was the engine hot when you checked the pick-up coils? If so, they're probably fine, just a little warm.

.

[dbeardslee]

Doug,

Resistance goes up with temperature. Was the engine hot when you checked the pick-up coils? If so, they're probably fine, just a little warm.

.

Yeah, it was pretty toasty. I'll check it again in the morning when it's cold. Thanks for the info, Scott.

Sometimes it's a good thing to be dumb. If the readings hadn't been high, or I'd known about resistance and temperature, I probably wouldn't have pulled the timing cover off, and I'd still be out there trying to figure it out. That's a case of divine intervention if I've ever seen one.

[BowlingSS]

So little brother went for a long ride this afternoon after I put his 80G back on the road. He came back complaining that it was intermittently running okay and then missing really bad. His girlfriend said she could smell gas while riding behind him, and he wanted me to go back into his carbs.

I was pretty sure I had the carbs right, so I pulled the plugs instead. 1 and 4 looked fine, but 2 and 3 were wet and looked like they weren't firing. It's got brand new Dyna DC1-1 coils, so I pulled the plugs on the TCI and checked the resistance to the pickup coils. The resistance looked a little higher than it should, but it was the same on both pickups.

Since the resistance wasn't in spec, I pulled the timing cover off, and found something interesting. There's a little clip where the wires enter under the timing cover, and that clip is supposed to hold the wires. The wires were not in the clip, and one of the pickup coil wires was resting against the timing wheel. I felt around on that wire, turned it over, and sure enough there was a bare spot that had just worn through enough to expose the wire.

I opened the clip up, put the wire where it was supposed to be, and put a little electrical tape over the bare spot. It must have been jiggling around in there and intermittently shorting out on the timing wheel, but with the wires held by the clip they won't be able to get close to the timing wheel again. He took a little ride to test it and said it was running like it should again.

Total time to fix - about ten minutes. The look on his face was priceless. Kind of a "I've been riding around on two cylinders all afternoon, and that's all that was wrong with it?!" type look.

I'm still a little concerned about the higher than spec resistance readings at the tci, though. They were reading about 800 ohms, and they should be 720. I'm thinking that additional resistance may be due to old parasitic electrical connections, and since I just bought a couple terminal kits from Cycleterminal.com, I might just go ahead and replace all the electrical connections.

Those kits are nice. One comes with 100 2.8mm tin plated brass terminals plus a bunch of connectors, and the other one comes with 80 6.3mm brass terminals and connectors. When you start rewiring those 35 year old plastic connectors a lot of times the plastic is kind of crumbly, so I much prefer to put new connectors on. And they even come with a terminal extraction tool.

Anyway, this is what the kits look like -

2.8mm kit


6.3mm kit

I like those kits. So, our bikes need both sizes?

Bill

[dbeardslee]

I like those kits. So, our bikes need both sizes?

Bill

It's been a while since I redid Betsy's wires, and I remember using some of both. But they're not exactly the same size as what's in the kits - close but not identical. I'm going to pull the fuse block mounting plate off my brother's bike later today, and then I'll be able to get a better look at the connectors, and I'll let you know what's in there.

With both kits I've got more connectors than I need for one bike, but I wind up diddling with other people's stuff quite a bit, so I wanted to have them on hand.

[dbeardslee]

I took the plate off little brother's bike, and it's mostly larger connectors behind it - although there's some smaller one's too.

And boy am I glad I took that cover off. The first thing I found was a melted connector with bare metal showing through.

And like I said - these kits have more connectors and terminals than you need for a single bike. But I like having a selection at my finger tips when I'm working on other people's stuff.

[dbeardslee]

Remember what I said about these terminals not being exactly the same size as the one's from the factory? Forget I said that - I can't tell the difference (size wise) between the terminals I'm removing and the ones I'm installing. So either someone has already redone this bike sometime in the past and changed the terminals, or the big ones are 6.3mm and the small ones are 2.8mm. The connectors look pretty much the same, too.

And MAAAAAN! Was that ever a pain getting that melted connector apart. It had fused itself together and I wound up having to use a VERY sharp 1/2" wood chisel on it to shave the plastic off. Got it apart and still have all my fingers and toes, so it's all good.

And one other thing - I like the little disassembly tool, although the small one is a little on the delicate side. A small jeweler's screwdriver might work better, but it gets the job done as long as you're gentle with it. The tool for the bigger connectors is much beefier, but it's too big for the small connectors. Probably why you get the small one with the 2.8 kit, and the big one with the 6.3 kit.

[dbeardslee]

As I've been working through these connections one thing has become apparent - this bike has in fact been reconnectored before. I could tell by the non-factory crimps on the terminals. Whoever did it, did a lousy job - which probably had something to do with the melted connector. But in fairness, I've seen that same connector melted before in other bikes with factory connectors.

I also found a six wire connector with 6.3mm terminals, and I could tell by the wire gauge that the terminals were too big for the wires. I'm guessing whoever did it only had the big terminals and just used them on the smaller gauge wires. But in terms of what's needed, I'm finding a pretty even mix of 6.3 and 2.8mm terminals and connectors. You definitely need both sizes.

[Gmac]

This is just what I need for all my bikes

Those kits are ideal for rebuilding harnesses with damaged and corroded connectors rather than the pick them apart method I was going to use.

All I can say is "Outstanding!"

I had emailed Tony but he doesn't have kits like the one's pictured as that was what I inquired about. I really don't want to find myself on the side of the road trying to jury rig a wiring fix and the kits are the ideal fix.

Add one more task to my to do list.

[LoHo]

That's funny...because of all my pick-up wire drama a year ago, if my tires are low, or there's an oil spot, the first thing I check are the pick-ups....

[dbeardslee]

Those kits are ideal for rebuilding harnesses with damaged and corroded connectors rather than the pick them apart method I was going to use.

All I can say is "Outstanding!"

I had emailed Tony but he doesn't have kits like the one's pictured as that was what I inquired about. I really don't want to find myself on the side of the road trying to jury rig a wiring fix and the kits are the ideal fix.

Add one more task to my to do list.

I remembered reading a thread last week about terminals, but I couldn't remember who started it. Now I do - glad you found this thread helpful.

I was going kind of nuts yesterday taking connectors apart, and then I thought to myself, "what in the wide world of sports are you DOING!" That's when I started clipping the wires off at the back of the old connectors. Cost me 1/8" of wire, but you have to clip 'em back some anyway to get past the corrosion that creeps up into the wires. I picked up speed rapidly after that change of gears. But some of the connectors that were still in pretty good shape I went ahead and salvaged. You can never have too many connectors.

That's funny...because of all my pick-up wire drama a year ago, if my tires are low, or there's an oil spot, the first thing I check are the pick-ups....

Murphy just loves to hang out under that timing cover. The funny thing is, I had that cover off a couple weeks ago, and everything looked fine - with the exception of the vacuum advance tube that had come off the dashpot. In looking at it I think what happened is that old clip was sized for the original wires - not wires that had the pickup coil wire fix done. They were just too big around for the clip, and I think it bounced loose while he was riding. So I took the clip off, straightened it out, and rebent it to accommodate the fatter wire bundle, and it ain't coming off again. And since the wires themselves were in good shape, and the worn spot was just barely down to where it exposed the copper, I just fixed that area with some self fusing tape.

Resistance goes up with temperature. Was the engine hot when you checked the pick-up coils? If so, they're probably fine, just a little warm.

You were right, Scott. I checked the resistance again with the motor cold, and they were 720 ohms - right on the numbers.