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custom-ish wiring leads to spectacular nothing.

  • Thread starter Thread starter nerdbucket
  • Start date Start date
N

nerdbucket

Guest
I've made some modifications to an '83 GS850 by moving all of the components and the battery from under the seat to behind the seat in a custom fiberglass seat pan. I haven't replaced anything other than wires and a connectors. In all, I changed the location of the Fuse box, Starter relay, Ignitor(CDI), R/R, Turn signal relay, and turn signal control unit. My thought was that at least in theory, if all I did was move these things and extend the wiring from the OEM harness I should be fine. In theory... I didn't get crazy with the wiring, only extending, with like colored wires, the harness to the components. I crimped and shrink wrapped my connections. I used Weatherpack connectors where needed. I have both the shop manual for this bike and a wiring diagram I nabbed from the esteemed BassCliff's website. Both of which I have stared at until cross-eyed. I did tons of reading here and elsewhere before chopping up my perfectly good wiring harness. Here's where things go sideways, sort of. On a fully charged battery (as in, just ran it on the battery tender last night) I get nothing. Nada. Turn the key and zilch. No lights, no click from the starter, nothing. Fuses checked and all good. I used my multimeter on it. Grounds seem good. Chasis and main ground wire showing 12.9 volts. Starter relay positive to switch, 12.9 volts. I opened up the headlight bucket and checked the ground wire there, 12.9 volts. I just don't know. I don't have the experience with this sort of thing to know where else to explore so I am hoping crowd sourcing some advice will net me something useful. I await your questions.
 
nerdbucket said:
I've made some modifications to an '83 GS850 by moving all of the components and the battery from under the seat to behind the seat in a custom fiberglass seat pan. I haven't replaced anything other than wires and a connectors. In all, I changed the location of the Fuse box, Starter relay, Ignitor(CDI), R/R, Turn signal relay, and turn signal control unit. My thought was that at least in theory, if all I did was move these things and extend the wiring from the OEM harness I should be fine. In theory... I didn't get crazy with the wiring, only extending, with like colored wires, the harness to the components. I crimped and shrink wrapped my connections. I used Weatherpack connectors where needed. I have both the shop manual for this bike and a wiring diagram I nabbed from the esteemed BassCliff's website. Both of which I have stared at until cross-eyed. I did tons of reading here and elsewhere before chopping up my perfectly good wiring harness. Here's where things go sideways, sort of. On a fully charged battery (as in, just ran it on the battery tender last night) I get nothing. Nada. Turn the key and zilch. No lights, no click from the starter, nothing. Fuses checked and all good. I used my multimeter on it. Grounds seem good. Chasis and main ground wire showing 12.9 volts. Starter relay positive to switch, 12.9 volts. I opened up the headlight bucket and checked the ground wire there, 12.9 volts. I just don't know. I don't have the experience with this sort of thing to know where else to explore so I am hoping crowd sourcing some advice will net me something useful. I await your questions.
Click to expand...


A fishing expedition?
 
If it an't broke...

Try jumpering the key switch's loom side connectors to see if you get lights. If you do, either you switch was bad or (more likely) you miss wired it. If that isn't it, you're screwed. Either take it off the bike, unwrap it, and start tracing wire by wire from connector pin to connector pin (not just wire color) until you find your mistake, or buy a new wire harness and figure a way to get them all under the seat.

Oh, and it might not even be your fault. While you were hacking and splicing, a wire might have broken somewhere (it is old). In that case, see above.
 
posplayr: I feel it must be done. Just a matter of building up the proper motivation.

Jameswhut?: I like the idea of jumping those connections. Definitely going to try that.

Thanks for the advice, in either case I won't have until Tuesday to really jump into it.

Random question: Does the orientation of the starter relay matter? Originally the posts were horizontal but are now vertical. Does this matter?
 
nerdbucket said:
I've made some modifications to an '83 GS850 by moving all of the components and the battery from under the seat to behind the seat in a custom fiberglass seat pan. I haven't replaced anything other than wires and a connectors. In all, I changed the location of the Fuse box, Starter relay, Ignitor(CDI), R/R, Turn signal relay, and turn signal control unit. My thought was that at least in theory, if all I did was move these things and extend the wiring from the OEM harness I should be fine. In theory... I didn't get crazy with the wiring, only extending, with like colored wires, the harness to the components. I crimped and shrink wrapped my connections. I used Weatherpack connectors where needed. I have both the shop manual for this bike and a wiring diagram I nabbed from the esteemed BassCliff's website. Both of which I have stared at until cross-eyed. I did tons of reading here and elsewhere before chopping up my perfectly good wiring harness. Here's where things go sideways, sort of. On a fully charged battery (as in, just ran it on the battery tender last night) I get nothing. Nada. Turn the key and zilch. No lights, no click from the starter, nothing. Fuses checked and all good. I used my multimeter on it. Grounds seem good. Chasis and main ground wire showing 12.9 volts. Starter relay positive to switch, 12.9 volts. I opened up the headlight bucket and checked the ground wire there, 12.9 volts. I just don't know. I don't have the experience with this sort of thing to know where else to explore so I am hoping crowd sourcing some advice will net me something useful. I await your questions.
Click to expand...

Why would you be getting voltage on ground wires?
 
nerdbucket said:
Random question: Does the orientation of the starter relay matter? Originally the posts were horizontal but are now vertical. Does this matter?
Click to expand...

Orientation is not important unless you are talking about red and black orientation. Don't connect the starter solenoid to ground; it has been done before :)
 
jsandidge said:
Why would you be getting voltage on ground wires?
Click to expand...

Running the red probe of the multimeter from the positive lead on the battery to grounded wires/points on the chassis with the black probe.
 
nerdbucket said:
Running the red probe of the multimeter from the positive lead on the battery to grounded wires/points on the chassis with the black probe.
Click to expand...

That is like saying "the world is upside" without disclosing you are standing on your head :(
 
nerdbucket said:
Running the red probe of the multimeter from the positive lead on the battery to grounded wires/points on the chassis with the black probe.
Click to expand...

That only shows that you have voltage at the battery and your ground wire is grounded.
 
It certainly sounds like you are missing your switched power from the ignition switch to the fuse box. That should be easy enough to trace using the diagrams you have if they match your bike's harness color code. One question, what brand of crimp tool did you use? The proper tool is everything in this type of work.
 
Last edited:
I dunno, your opening statement was hard to read because you have no paragraph breaks, just a run on block of sentences.
Plus a lot of implied details that we have to guess about. :confused:
You did say you crimped all your connectors, I would have soldered them.
I would have used colored wires as close to matching the OEM.
I would have gone over and checked the OEM harness before moding anything.
Now you're gonna have to go through all of it, after the fact, one wire at a time.
 
Buffalo Bill said:
I dunno, your opening statement was hard to read because you have no paragraph breaks, just a run on block of sentences. Plus a lot of implied details that we have to guess about. :confused: You did say you crimped all your connectors, I would have soldered them. I would have used colored wires as close to matching the OEM. I would have gone over and checked the OEM harness before moding anything. Now you're gonna have to go through all of it, after the fact, one wire at a time.
Click to expand...
Sorry for the giant block of text. I had it typed out all nice and pretty but then when it posted all formatting was gone. Must be a setting for that somewhere. Anyhow, I actually bought an OEM harness off of a member here. It does help to have like colored wires. But I'm replying to post an update. I used the wiring diagram to hone in on the problem areas using what I knew didn't work. I just treated it like a logic question and with that was able to find one of the gremlins. It was a section of red wire just out of the fuse box. Confused the heck out of me when I first isolated it because the two connectors to either end of that segment were solid. I replaced that sections and now I have lights. The starter switch doesn't work and the flashers won't flash but it's progress.
 
nerdbucket said:
Sorry for the giant block of text. I had it typed out all nice and pretty but then when it posted all formatting was gone. Must be a setting for that somewhere. Anyhow, I actually bought an OEM harness off of a member here. It does help to have like colored wires. But I'm replying to post an update. I used the wiring diagram to hone in on the problem areas using what I knew didn't work. I just treated it like a logic question and with that was able to find one of the gremlins. It was a section of red wire just out of the fuse box. Confused the heck out of me when I first isolated it because the two connectors to either end of that segment were solid. I replaced that sections and now I have lights. The starter switch doesn't work and the flashers won't flash but it's progress.
Click to expand...

Very good, "the forum helps those that help themselves......................."
 
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