[Chasfield]

I have made some progress.  The wiring in the left hand toolbox is complete but needs to be cable-tied and tidied up a bit. The attached picture shows the various assemblies, including ignition switch, blade fuse holder, isolator switch and a kind of Christmas tree style junction box that I made. I will need something similar at the headlamp end to distribute 12 volts where it is required. "How come RE manage without such doohickeys?", I hear you ask. Well, their wiring nodes are hidden in the harness in the form of taped up butt joints...

I have also installed a new combined regulator/rectifier unit under the seat. Got it "buy now" off Ebay for about 25 GBP. All the main wiring runs up to the headlamp are in place. The next job is to merge the separate AC and DC alternator coils and hook up the reg/rec.

Things I have learnt:

1) A home brewed rewire takes ages. I have put in about 15 hours so far. I reckon I will need at least another 10 to complete the job.
2) All those extra little bits and pieces you need are expensive when added up. I have spend around 30 GBP on connectors, wire, shrink-wrap sleeving and other odds and ends.
3) My shed is cold!

[ace.cafe]

Chasfield,
That looks nice and neat, and easy to trace faults, if necessary.
Good looking job!

It does take time, but it can also save alot of time in future tracing of faults, and eliminating faults from occurring, so it can be viewed as "preventive", and time saving "in advance".

[Chasfield]

Thanks, Ace.

My general philosophy for the project:

Zero crimp connectors
Zero bullet connectors
Minimum wire runs

The end result will be workmanlike rather than beautiful.

Twenty odd years ago I did a fast-track electronic engineering course for technicians. Early on we were given a wiring exercise to do in order to brush up on our soldering, wire terminating and cable tying skills. I produced my usual functional but not very elegant interpretation. There was one guy on the course who had spent most of his working life wiring military hardware to exacting standards. His finished board was as beautiful as a Welsh harp! Very humbling.

[Chasfield]

More progress

The under seat area is all rewired. The  one-piece reg/rec looks tidy and, as a bonus, the wiring supplied with it fitted quite nicely with my harness, requiring only termination, with the exception of the 12V O/P line, which needed a spade connector and a bit more red wire. The AC regulator has gone into my spare bits box and the fanatic in me thought about siting the flasher unit up in the bows to minimize the number of under-tank wire runs but I can't see anywhere neat to put it, and I don't want to end up with a crowded headlamp shell because that is where I started out from.

I merged the AC and DC alternator coils successfully. Two analogue multi-meters, set on their 0-2 volts scales, and a few presses of the kick-start quickly showed up the phasing of the two sets of windings. On my stator, red and orange wires are now commoned together to form one AC output and yellow and black form the other. In this configuration the reg/rec showed a healthy DC output following further presses on the kick-start. I wouldn't assume any other Bullets use consistent colours for the 4-wire alternator. I think if you commoned the outputs the wrong way you would either get no output, or the stator would overheat very quickly. Electrical knowledge and appropriate meter tests are essential here.

Only the headlamp is left to do. Into the valley...

 

[geoffbaker]

It's looking good, chasfield!

I look forward to the next updates.

Someday I may run all my electrics through the top tube, it would make things so much neater.

In my toolbox I put in a modern auto fuseblock and four fuses to run accessories and meters; that really cleaned things up by centralizing the fuses.

Electrics are slow and painstaking to do, but very rewarding because in the end you have a much more reliable bike AND you are much more familiar with the system and thus better at troubleshooting...

[Jeri Danger]

My general philosophy for the project:

Zero crimp connectors
Zero bullet connectors
Minimum wire runs

Hi
Oh, my kind of bullet(no bullet connectors)
Jeri

[Chasfield]

Shed extremely cold ... vision blurring. I survive by warming myself with my shrink wrap heat gun.

Am deep into the headlamp. Trying to lay out wiring in a peripheral circular pattern so that all is not just stuffed in behind the headlamp bowl.

Temperature is down to 34 F.

Tomorrow's day time max will be 28 F.

Probably have to eat one of my huskys to survive...

[t120rbullet]

Temperature is down to 34 F.

Tomorrow's day time max will be 28 F.

Sounds like your going to be missing some good riding weather

Which "1 piece" regulator did you end up using?

[Chasfield]

It is a Wassell Power Module and is the single phase 12V 160 Watt version. I will post a picture of the under seat installation soon.

I can't say how well it works just yet though.

[Chasfield]

The end is in sight. I just have to hook up the turn signals and tidy up and tie a back the harness.

I am a bit disappointed with the way the headlamp wiring is turning out. It is still going to be fairly crowded place, though a bit neater than it was before. At least the wiring is new and I know what each one does.

This has been a tougher project than I expected it would be - I have discovered that the wiring harness is the most complex subassembly on the machine.

[Rick Sperko]

Did all the huskys survive? Very cool work you are doing.

I picked up propane heater for my garage and am very grateful for it.

-Rick

[geoffbaker]

. .. and I know what each one does.

That's the big gain... understanding another part of the puzzle!

[Chasfield]

Did all the huskys survive? Very cool work you are doing.

The Huskys made it. I went inside for a biscuit and a cup o' tea instead!

 

[Chasfield]

Finished at last.

I powered the bike from a low current 12V source to make sure everything worked before putting on the battery.

I had a couple of glitches.

1) I thought I had no warning lights working on the speedometer - it turned out I hadn't put the bulbs back in.
2) I wired in some green LEDs for speedometer illumination. At the moment they also come on when the brake light switches are actuated. There must be a poor ground connection in the tail light assembly and the tiny current required for the LEDs is provided by leakage back through the tail light filament. In actual fact this a good diagnostic feature because I know that both tail and brake light filaments are good when the LEDs come on.

I have attached a picture of the headlamp wiring. It hasn't turned out quite as tidy as I wanted but there is a bit less spagetti and more space where the headlamp bowl goes. Important features are:

1) The ground stud at lower left - this also fixed the stripped threads I had suffered where the headlamp rim location screw goes into the casquette.
2) Insulated 12V tree terminal at upper right. This has a feed from the positive side of the ammeter and sends 12V wherever it is needed.
3) One original green multi-plug retained at left. Two other larger multi plugs, intended for car audio installations, were added.
4) I stuck with the stock handlebar switch clusters.
Changing over to generics items would now be relatively straightforward. It was the integrated valve lifting leaver which swung the balance in favour of staying with the stock items,
5) Secondary 10A lighting fuse under the speedometer. A lot of people seem to suffer from shorts in minor circuits that take out the main fuse and leave them stranded. This fixes that problem for a large part of the harness.

I will do some more cable tidying and come back with a couple more pictures.

I have managed a road test and all went well.

[Rick Sperko]

wow, very nice.