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Home: Bike: Rewire
I have now completely rewired my bike - except for one or two exceptions. This is an article about what I did, why, how, etc.
- Why did I do it?
- Where did I get the materials?
- How did I begin?
- What modifications have been made?
- What tools did I use?
- What materials did I use?
- What did I avoid and why?
- Things to be careful of
- Would I reccomend doing this?
- Does it make the bike go faster/better?
- What next?
- Top Tips
Various reasons - I managed to destroy a lot of the original loom after the some of the wiring around the exhaust got loose, melted on the exhaust, short circuited and turned most of the loom into a kind of bizarre electrical heater. This caused other parts of the loom to melt its insulation, fuse into other wires and incapacitate the bike. I bodged the wiring to make the bike run, but it was messy. Adding extras resulted in lots of strange wiring and fuses littered all over the bike. After reading an article on the Airheads website (http://www.airheads.org/contrib/wireupgrade.html) I thought I'd have a go at putting everything right. The bike also had a cold starting problem that made me suspect some kind of electrical problem. As it would start OK if I managed to get it to fire up straight away - otherwise I would press that starter for ages, but the thing just wouldn't fire.
After making the decision to do it I started looking around for suitable materials. In the article mentioned above, stainless steel terminals are reccomended. I spent hours if not days trying to source these in the UK - mainly trying marine electrical suppliers as well as all the other big names, but I just couldn't get them - so I gave up.
Where did I get the materials?
Vehicle Wiring Products (VHP), 9 Buxton Court, Manners Industrial Estate, Ilkeston, Derbyshire DE7 8EF, tel: 0115 930 5454, email: sales@vehicleproducts.co.uk.
I have to say that these guys are just fantastic - and supplied EVERYTHING I needed. Wire, terminals, heatshrink, sleeving, etc... Get hold of a catalogue and enjoy! The range is excellent, the wire colour schemes are vast and they do a great range of non-insulated terminals (more about this later). They do a postal service too - but I live nearby so popped in to buy stuff.
I started by making a kind of inventory of every wire on the bike, how long it was, and where it went, as well as looking at the wiring diagram. Then I placed my first order. I decided that I wanted all the fuses in one place and all the relays in a bank. I also decided that all those crappy connectors (like the ones behind the headstock) that link one type of loom to another would have to go. All terminals would be crimped and soldered and covered in some kind of insulation. I knew I was serious when I took my hacksaw and angle grinder to the frame to remove some of those fixtures that hold the fuses and connectors (I'll post some pictures later).
I adapted my plans as I went along, as I kept changing what I wanted to do and where things would go. At the same time I had to ensure that all the wiring was going where it was supposed to go and that it would be easy to replace, upgrade etc.
What modifications have been made?
There are now 5 relays in a row, running lengthwise under the tank that are secured my some bits of ally (the immobiliser and FIAMMS both need a relay each). The 7 fuses are located in a waterproof fusebox that I have mounted where the original one was on the left hand side of the battery. I considered mounting this on the bars after seeing a KTM Paris-Dakar bike set-up like this - but decided that they would be better hidden away from curious fingers.
The FIAMM horns and Sola-Larm are mounted on a welded metal bracket located above the battery - but I plan to move these as I since bought a tool tray. I've also installed heated grips, a voltmeter (which is just a brilliant instrument) on the handlebar cross bar - thanks to some natty little 'p' clips.
The basic wiring layout is the same as the original wiring diagram - but the additional items have been added to this. Most of the wire is thinwall cable, multi-strand copper (32 strands), 1mm diameter, rated to 16.5 amps which is good enough to cope with most currents such as lights, etc. VWP have 95 different colour schemes for this kind of wire and all the types needed to copy the original colour scheme. They supply it from as little as 1 metre - I bought quantities of 2 metres for about half of the wiring then larger quantities of brown (for earth), black & green (for the circuits that are energised through the ignition switch) and various others... However Ididn't get it right first time and had to order more bits and pieces on about 4 more occasions - I guess if I really took my time and thought it through I could have got it right first time.
- Good quality crimpers + cutters
- Good quality wire strippers - I have some professinal ones that make it a doddle
- Heat gun - for heatshrink - much better than a soldering iron
- Soldering iron
- Wire holders - crocodile clips on arms that hold the wires in place
- Extension lead - so you can older where you like
- Hacksaw & angle grinder - to remove exisitng brackets and make new ones
- A multimeter - handy for checking circuits
- Loads of different wire - make sure it's capable of handling the amps for each circuit
- Non-insulated terminals - various types to suit different locations
- New fuse box and fuses - all fuses are now the blad type
- Solder
- Heatshrink - various diameters to suit different applications - basically small, medium and large
- PVC sleeving, spiral and slit (which is fantastic)
- PVC blade insulations - that fit over terminals to protect them
- P clips (for mounting instruments and holding wiring around handlebars (nicer than cable ties)
- Releasable cable ties - to secure main parts of loom to frame
- PVC tape - adhesive and non-adhesive
- Interlocking relay holders - you can link as many as you like together - nice!
- Insulated terminals - harder to solder I think
- Using adhesive PVC tape on wiring - all the wiring gets sticky and it's not nice
- Bullet terminals anywhere - I didn't think they were necessary
- Rushing things
- Make sure you follow the usual health and safety stuff around solder fumes, electricty, hot soldering irons (that melt things like extension leads - whoops)
- If installing FIAMMS make sure that your loom can cope with the current they draw (10 Amps I think) - I had to add extra wiring from the battery to the ignition switch and then to horn's relay to cope with this as otherwise I think it would have blown the fuse.
- Headlamp terminals - the blades on the bulb are around 9mm wide - and I couldn't find any new ones, so I had to recycle my old ones - so don't throw anything away until you've finished
Probably not unless you have plenty of time and are interested in learning more about the wiring. It's much easier to just buy a new loom - it also took me a few months to finish as I have never done this kind of thing before - there's no manual - so I just had to take my time and do a little bit at a time, then change things around, start again - it was very time consuming.
However I now understand all the circuitry and theres satisfaction that I've made every connection so that if anything goes wrong I'll hopefully know how to put it right. It's also much neater and can be improved and added to easily (eg I'm thinking of adding a GPS with its own power supply and perhaps an extra set of driving lights). Wires can be pulled out of the PVC sleeving easily and removed or added to - it's much better than all that insulation tape wrapped around everything.
Does it make the bike go faster/better?
Difficult to say as I've also added a new shock - but everything seems
OK and it starts OK (at the moment)
- Hawker battery - DONE
- GPS
- Light for grips to show they are on
- Relocation of alarm and horns
- Extra driving lights + wiring
- Thunderchild diode board
- Replace wiring from alternator to diode board (haven't been able to source this)
- Replace wiring from trigger unit
- Replace headlamp terminals for new ones (haven't been able to source these)
- New relays - but at the money the old ones work OK
- Use PVC sleeving - spiral and slit are excellent
- Get to know your wiring diagram - it essential to understand what goes where, what it does & what the current is
- Use a heatgun and heatshrink where necessary - it makes wiring really neat
- Use non-insulated terminals and crimp and solder to ensure a good connection
- Remove any extra connectors - I think these are used to speed things up in factory assembly or for ease of replacement - but I reckon they're just another thing that can go wrong and should be removed
- Take your time - it's a big job and shouldn't be rushed - do a little often and enjoy it
- Install a voltmeter - it's so useful
- When joining wire together, strip about 15mm from each wire then twist together and solder and then cover with heatshrink (make sure that you slip the heatshrink on first) - it makes the connection less bulky - this method is good for multiple wire connectors (eg joining 6 wires togther - but remove more insulation as necessary)
- Most terminals that are retained in a plastic holder can be removed by slotting in a small jeweler's screwdiver and pushing back the latch - I even replaced the terminals in the multi wire connector in the instrument panel - but make a note of what goes where first.
- Look for numbers on things like relays and plastic holders like the headlamp holder as these are included on the wiring diagram - if in doubt make a note of what goes where before removing from original loom
- Extra terminals are useful as I damaged a few, and removed some to shorten the wire to make things neater
Paul Randall October 2002