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Electrical Relay Wiring

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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Anonymous

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In restoring my '78 GS1000, I decided to re-do the wiring harness (somewhat) where some contacts had been burned. I added a universal blade-style fuse box in place of the glass fuses, and would also like to add a couple of relays (one for headlights, one to bypass ignition power for everything else). Question is, has anyone done this before? As it appears, the Y & W wires (hi/lo beam) from the headlight switch should run to the acc. switched terminal of the relays, correct? I'm a Jaguar tech so electrical woes are no difficulty to me, but the switch diagram has me confused. I'm also re-doing all of the grounds in a 'star' pattern from the negative post of the battery to everything else. I have a psychological aversion to chassis grounds. :) Thanks!
 
A Jaguar tech!!!! we should be asking you the electrical questions!! if you can handle Lucas, you can handle anything! LOL

here is the ignition switch bypass diagram I made up
wiring%20drawing.bmp


as for the headlight, I asume you are wanting to bypass the switch, using it to control a relay?
using a standard 5 terminal relay, you will only need the yellow high beam wire for control.
you run a hot wire to the relay terminal 30 from the ignition bypass relay, terminal 87A goes to the low beam hot wire, terminal 87 goes to the high beam hot wire.
the yellow original high beam wire goes to terminal 85 for control of the relay, and 86 goes to a good ground.

a aditional relay can be used to over ride the headlight and turn it off when the starter button is pushed, to reduce the electrical load when the starter is used.
you splice the relay in the ground circut for the head light, the ground from the headlight (black with white stripe) conects to the 30 terminal on the relay, the ground to chassis connects to the 87A terminal so the circut is closed while the relay is not inergized.
you then run a control hot wire from the green with white stripe wire coming from the starter button, this conects to the 85 terminal, and you then conect a ground wire from the 86 terminal to ground.
 
I'll have to look into doing this on my 1100 over the next few months. Is there somebody that sells a small fuse block with relay plugs in it or will I have to go to an automotive wrecker? I think my 88 Cavalier had a small enough fuse block to fit under a sidecover if it was cut down a little.

Cheers, Steve
 
Electrical Stuff

Electrical Stuff

focus frenzy: Thanks for the quick response! If you have Jaguar electrical woes let me know...everything else is greek to me. :lol:

srivett: If you look in a Jegs catalog, you'll notice in their electrical section they have a 4-relay IC board that can take integral fuses. I like it, but would require some sort of hobby enclosure to protect it from the elements. I'm using a generic 4-fuse block from AutoZombie, plus relays available from JCWhitney that have integral fuses. I mounted them to a piece of angle iron welded between the frame rails just in front of the rear inner fender. I'm quite happy with it.
 
Wiring can be very intimidating to those who are unfamiliar with electrics. But, once you get the hang of it, it still stinks. I hate electrical problems.
Anyway, here is a link to some great information regarding how relays work and how to wire them:

http://www.electricalconnection.com/resources/links_main.htm

BTW, I installed this company's LED turn signal modification kit on an 81GS650 and it works great.
 
I had a look in a Princess Auto catalogue (Canadian surplus retailer) and they have the five prong relays for 3.99, PN 0720234, and five prong plugs with 1 foot of colour coded wire wired for each plug at 2.49, PN 0720236. They also have a 6 ATC fuse block for 16.99, PN 4201767 but it isn't pre-wired and I'm unsure of what they mean by "Quick connects". The relays would need to be waterproofed or they will rust out and stop operating. I found this out when wiring air horns on my brothers car.

You can use the Normally Closed prong of the relay to automatically turn on Radio Shack blinking LED when the key is off. I drilled a tiny hole in my handlebar clamp to hold the LED. The small black wires are fragile but nearly invisible so it looks very slick.

Steve
 
Be careful buying these automotive type relays. There are a lot of cheap relays that will go bad with a little moisture. I highly recommend the Bosch relay that can be bought at better auto parts stores and speed shops. Harley used to use these. Also, for a little more protection, a little clear silicone on the seams wouldn't hurt.
 
I have run relays to bypass the ignition switch and the light switch/stator to rectifier circuit (along with hi/lo light relays for 20 years. makes for more consistent voltage in the system.
 
with the stator connection mod, the regulator rectifier ground mod, and the ignition switch relay by pass mod, I went from 12.3 volts at the start to 14.6 volts when done.
I have 14 volts at idle with the brake light and all three auxiliary brake lights on(tail light integrator), plus the add on front marker lights!!!!

the relay alone gained me .6 volts to the headlight, and that 6 tenths of a volt showed up quite noticeably in the brightness of the headlight.
 
other mods

other mods

What are the stator connection mod & regulator ground mod?
 
Re: Electrical Stuff

Re: Electrical Stuff

bigcatluvr76 said:
focus frenzy: Thanks for the quick response! If you have Jaguar electrical woes let me know...everything else is greek to me. :lol:

srivett: If you look in a Jegs catalog, you'll notice in their electrical section they have a 4-relay IC board that can take integral fuses. I like it, but would require some sort of hobby enclosure to protect it from the elements. I'm using a generic 4-fuse block from AutoZombie, plus relays available from JCWhitney that have integral fuses. I mounted them to a piece of angle iron welded between the frame rails just in front of the rear inner fender. I'm quite happy with it.
Click to expand...

You can use a small project case from the likes of Radio Shack or your local electronics wholesaler to cover that. Get one that is designed for wet locations, it will have the little rubber seal and you can discard the top/bottom (whichever is the flat side) and then drill and tap your mounting plate to mount it over the fuse panel. If you find a clear case it would look nice :)
 
Re: other mods

Re: other mods

bigcatluvr76 said:
What are the stator connection mod & regulator ground mod?
Click to expand...

the stator conection mod, is to remove the conectors.
this can be done by using high quality connectors, (gold plated is best) or by soldering the wires together. (silver solder is best)
the factory conectors do not handle the load very well and once they get a bit old and tarnished they are nothing but trouble.

the regulator ground mod, cures a very commom problem with our bikes, the regulator grounds to the battery box via the regulator mounting bolt, the problem is the battery box is low grade steel and the regulator is cast aluminum, steel and aluminum do not get along together very well and corosion between the two sets in prety quick and you get a poor ground to the regulator.
the regulator needs a good ground to regulate correctly, so you take the ground wire coming out of the regulator (black with white stripe) and extend it to reach and connect at the battery ground terminal.
 
I just replaced my old coils with GSXR 750 (92 model) ones (work much better!) and remembered I also bypassed the kill switch and put a relay in to the coils as well.
 
I just finished putting a pair of radioshack relays in for my hi and low beams. What a difference. Last week while I was testing out my new turn signals I noticed that when the signals were blinking the headlamp would dim slightly at every blink. The relays solved that problem. When cutting into the wires that fed the H4 I noticed that there was alot of junk inside the wire that was exposed when I stripped it. I'm definitely going to change out the old stock H4 connector for a new one. I just ordered a sliverstar headlamp from sylvania so we'll see if that brightens things further.

Thanks, this thread has been really helpful.

Jeff
 
Headlights

Headlights

I did the same, bought an H4 Cibie 7" headlight with city light & use a silverstar bulb. Since my GS is a '78 and I can still turn the headlight OFF I run the small city light in the headlight all the time in lieu of the low-beam. I'm not going to go high-watt like I do in my vehicles since I don't trust the charging system to handle it...55/60 watt should be fine and I don't do much riding at night. If you go to Autozone or similar type place and look in the "fast and furious" section you'll find an headlight plug with an heavy-gauge pigtail, would probably be perfect for this app.
 
I mounted a new 6 plug fuse box on the 400 today and things are looking pretty good although it's hard to know what I did to make the electronics work better.

My bike did not origionally have a fuse panel so I had to relocate the RR to the right hand side of the bike. While doing this I connected a previously unconnected ground to the frame. This is the 3rd wire that comes out at the blinker plug and is shown unconnected in my manual.

After this was all done my horn now works without the key on, keep in mind that it is hooked directly to power but the button still didn't work without power. The bike also started better which I didn't think was possible and the headlight is at full power even at idle. It even fixed a weird problem where my blinkers would blink faster with RPM and eventually stay on above 8k or so. Now they work at a steady rate...something I've been trying to figure out for 2 years. :)

I'm crossing my fingers that my electric vest will also be warm at idle but I don't expect the world. :)

Cheers, Steve
 
Fuses

Fuses

Probably just going to the blade-style fuses helped a bit. In the Jaguar world, one of the first things we do when we overhaul the electrical is to replace the glass canister fuses with blade-types....they make better contact and are less prone to vibration. Easier to change, too.
 
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