Have a break in wire harness, safe to repair instead of replace ?

[seanarthurmachado]

Hi all

(2nd time posting, first one was lost somehow)

I have a new to me 1979 gs850g that has just had a new battery finally installed. When I turned the key the lights and panel came on, then went back out. after searching I found that if I pushed down on or moved the wiring harness that runs to the left of the battery box, the power would stay on. I lifted up the harness from a "down" position where it had been sitting at the bottom of a channel next to the battery box and it stayed on and I was able to start the bike and run it for a while to run the fuel from the tank (with 1/2 can of seafoam in it) into the motor.

I know I need to fix the wiring, I was wondering if it would be safe to slice off the electrical tape wrapping the bundle of wires and try to isolate and repair the one wire by splicing in a repair or if I need to replace the whole harness (expensive sounding) ?

thanks for any help.

[Guest]

Yes you can repair it but you need to find the actual bad wire first. Sounds like it is probably the power wire(red) wire that feeds the switch. Plus you should go over and clean and inspect all the wiring connectors on the bike

[jsandidge]

connection

Yeah, it's more than likely a bad connection rather than a bad wire.

[tkent02]

The wires themselves generally don't go bad, it will be some connector, or a splice from the factory that has gotten itself loose. Also likely someone has tampered with something and that has wiggled itself lose.
Sometimes a PO will move or reroute a wire bundle and it will rub on something sharp and eventually wear through the insulation. I have seen wierd things done to wiring.
There are good ways of repairing them and not so good ways.

[Gorminrider]

+1 as above...given your "lift harness fixes issue" = possible grounding of a hot wire? usually you can see where the wrapping tape itself is chafed or burned
But there's nothing stopping you from taken a bit of the old stuff off and putting a repair in. That's what I have done on similar problem places.No way I'd redo the entire harness for a single issue if I could help it.
EXCEPT that using a roll of electrical tape to re-wrap is going to be difficult if the harness won't lift up a lot (and it won't.)

So you can look for actual wrapping tape which won't stick to itself while you wrap and make a mess. It makes it easier to redo, too. I even found a roll in the Dollar store the other day! It might be found as a plumbing supply...You can secure loose end of the wrapping with a sticky tape.
Don't buy electrical tape at the dollar store. It's slimy garbage. Buy Name Brand 3M or something.

[tkent02]

There is some heat shrink electrical tape specifically made for harnesses, I haven't tried it yet but I heard it's the ****.