My first electrical work

[demark]

I dropped my bike ('80 GS1100E) for the first time this weekend. I was a little over-zealous in my application of the brakes when I got surprised by an on-coming left turner. In all fairness, the guy never left his lane and stopped as soon as he saw me. I would have been fine if I wouldn't have hit the brakes so hard. In other words, schmuck = me.

Except for a strained muscle or two from the impact, I walked away fine (thank you padded armor and helmet) and rode the bike home.

The headlight bucket and cluster didn't fair too well. The bucket was busted on the left side and the cluster is scratched at the top with some of the internals getting bounced around. I had been considering replacing the headlight and cluster anyway, so this just forced my hand.

I am picking up a 7" headlight from crc2 and am going to give the Electrosport 2800 series speedo a whirl.

With everything apart on the front, I am thinking about pulling a lead directly from the battery and direct wiring the horn and light using relays.

(1) Junction box

With all the wiring that I am looking to do, I am a little concerned about shoe-horning it into the headlight, so I am looking for a small box that I can mount behind the headlight and under the new speedometer that would give me the space I need. Anyone know where I can get one?

(2) Battery leads

Is it best to pull both + and - directly from the battery into the junction box to ensure a good circuit for the relays?

(3) Idiot light

The cluster had idiot lights for a bunch of different things. My new speedo has lights for oil pressure, turn signals, high beam, and a general warning light. I was thinking about trying to find a way to wire the original warnings in parallel, so if any one is triggered, the new warning light will glow. Possible or wishful thinking?

(4) Part value

Is there any value in the guts of either the cluster or headlight? If there isn't I might just cut the leads from the cluster so I can use the plugs end to wire in the new speedo without having to cut apart the wiring harness plugs on the bike.

Thanks,
- Tony

 

[bwringer]

First off, we're glad you're basically OK. Good gear works!

There's not really any value to smashed gauges, so I don't see any problem with using the connectors as you planned.

As far as the warning lights, I always thought it would be cool to get one of those multi-colored LED modules and set it up so you'd have a single light source that glows/flashes in different colors to indicate what's going on. I'd really hate to have one idiot light for everything. You'd be mixing your status messages (turn signal, high beam) with warning messages (oil pressure, sidestand), and that could get ugly.

As far as the relay wiring, I much prefer to put these under the seat near the battery, so you have fewer wires to run to the front of the bike. This is how I wired the relays for my grip heaters.

You can get all kinds of great wiring products from the hot rod and boat folks, and there are a few people out there selling wiring and relay kits for bikes.

 

[t3rmin]

Sorry to hear about your accident! Glad you're ok!

(2) Battery leads

Is it best to pull both + and - directly from the battery into the junction box to ensure a good circuit for the relays?

Yeah. The old wiring on these bikes is often less than ideal by the time it gets to the bucket. A common trick to address ignition issues is to run wires directly from the battery with a relay tied to an existing key-triggered circuit to get full power to the ignition coils. Same idea.

(3) Idiot light

The cluster had idiot lights for a bunch of different things. My new speedo has lights for oil pressure, turn signals, high beam, and a general warning light. I was thinking about trying to find a way to wire the original warnings in parallel, so if any one is triggered, the new warning light will glow. Possible or wishful thinking?

I was able to wire all the idiot lights to my new aftermarket speedo. If the speedo has left and right turn signal indicators it'll be really easy. If it's just one turn signal light for both, you'll need to use diodes to stop your entire bike from blinking.

(4) Part value

Is there any value in the guts of either the cluster or headlight? If there isn't I might just cut the leads from the cluster so I can use the plugs end to wire in the new speedo without having to cut apart the wiring harness plugs on the bike.

IMHO no value. Cannibalize at will!

 

[demark]

Thanks for the advice.

I'll post pictures an a report when I'm done.