• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

Odds of a 34-year old wiring harness being OK

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ledyard
  • Start date Start date
L

Ledyard

Guest
I've just started rebuilding/restoring a 1978 GS750. I'm trying to get it to stock, rather than do any modifications, but am planning to replace the petcock, all the gaskets, o-rings, and basically anything rubber.

What are the odds of the wiring harness being sound? Should I plan to replace the entire thing so I am dealing with healthy wiring from the start?

Thanks!
 
Most of us clean/replace the connectors and the harness is fine. Depends on whether it has been hacked up or not.
 
Both mine were good, only had to rebuild the tail section on my GS1000 because PO had some bags or something not original on it.
 
If I were starting my bikes restoration anew, I'd restore the harness by removing the brass terminals out of the plastic connector shell and clean each one to remove corrosion. HCl acid works well to remove corrosion from the darkened brass. Then I'd pinch down the female sockets and reassemble the terminals back into the shell.

Did this for the charging system legs and saw a significant reduction of harness resistance.

Doing this kind of work is a bit tedious but not difficult once you get the hang of extracting the pins.

Good luck
 
Thanks all -- my electrical incompetence is rivaled only by my mechanical incompetence, so the wiring makes me a little nervous. A completely new harness is close to $200 though, so I may try to clean up and save the existing one. It does not appear to have been messed with, but there is a good deal of corrosion and just general old-ness.
 
Led- where did you even find a new harness? I tried searching for one for my 79 GS 1000 with no luck. I would gladly pay 200 for a NOS one if it is out there...
 
One word of advise ! If you remove it make sure to take pictures of wire routing and lable everything
 
Other than dealing with the connectors, inspect the entire harness for chafed insulation or brittle wires. I've had to replace long stretches of wire that were far enough gone that the bike would die if you moved the harness.
 
open1mind said:
Led- where did you even find a new harness? I tried searching for one for my 79 GS 1000 with no luck. I would gladly pay 200 for a NOS one if it is out there...
Click to expand...

BikeBandit has them listed as available... I haven't checked to see if they actually have them.
 
There is no need to replace the harness unless, as they've said, it has been hacked up. Look for cracked insulation or exposed wire of course but, as Ed says, spend time on cleaning the connectors. Most electrical issues can be blamed on corroded connectors. Corrosion causes resistance in circuits and that means voltage drops from point A to point B.

One of the worst circuits to be so affected is often the ignition and if you test, you may find a drop of 1.5 to over 2 volts from the battery to the coils. Obviously, low voltage here can cause all kinds of starting and performance issues.

As mentioned, it is not hard work but can be tedious so a little bit at a time and you'll get the job done.

Good luck with it.
Cheers,
Spyug
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top