Rewire

So a I have taken out the complete and utter rat's nest that was my wiring harness. Since then all I have done is wire the starting circut (Battery>Solenoid>Starter Motor), and now I want actual ignition. The problem is, I have no idea how the whole ignition system works and the old wiring harness does not help me. I have looked at multiple diagrams, and am still confused. Can someone simplifiy this to the extreme? Thnx

 

Some old notes;



Tested and proved.

 

OK so i have the large connector figured out, but now where do the wires in the small connector go to? the one labeled ignition? (red/white)

 

Power when the ignition and kill switches are turned on.

 

so red/white goes TCI>Both Coils, orange goes TCI>Coil1, grey goes TCI>Coil2, and black goes to the negative battery terminal?

 

Yep.

 

Untangling a rat's nest requires a map. The Clymer manual for my XJ550 has multiple wire maps. Very useful to have, but they did show the wrong way to check for secondary resistance-guess nobody is perfect. Maybe this link (only posting the link cause the jpg is LARGE!) will help although I realize it's not as clear as it could be and is probably more information than you need. If you print this diagram and use a highlighter you can follow just the circuits you need. Somewhere there is a simplified diagram for a bobber build.

http://www.cmelectronica.com.ar/wiring- ... -xj750.jpg

This is 750 specific so it should apply to yours. Seems like the basic circuits are almost all the same on these bikes. I sympathize with your plight my bike has cables and wires running in the wrong places and is still suffering with glass tube fuses (but not for long).

 

OK so i have all that wired up. Before I test it and try strt the bike, should i hook up the ACG? If so, that would be the 3 white wires coming out of what would look like the engine?

 

Apart from the turn signals, you want it all wired in.

 

And alos, where exactly do i attach the ground wires in general?

 

There should be a thin one from the loom to the coil bracket & a big thick black one (no not Obama) that goes from a motor bolt the the neg of the battery.

 

well right now all i have is the igniton wiring. so just the wires from te TCI to tghe coils. so where should a put the ground wire that comes out of the TCI?

 

ground is ground, it's also the - of the battery.
put it under any bolt that's connected to the frame, while your at it run a few spares for a future something that might need a ground.
sand the connection shinny and put some grease on it

 

The main ground bolt is shown below on my XJ. You could run several wires down here but it would be easier to use a medium gauge wire and run it up top where you can splice in all the grounds you'll need. There are 13 or 14 harness grounds for multiple systems, but not all come back to this spot.

 

Hmmm. Mine never had 6 wires going to that ground point. just one wire goin from the engine screw to the negative terminal... so for testing purposes could i hook my ground strait to the negative battery terminal?

 

Only two wires actually going to the bolt, but the little wire is "carrying" multiple grounds that are spliced in to it. Yes you could use the battery (-) if it's grounded. You could also use any frame bolt.

 

so i wired the whole TCI to oils section and tried to start it. no sparks...any simple mistakes i couldvwe made?

 

You mean "coils" right? Did you say you took all the TCI wires to the coils? Go back and look at the diagrams that are posted under this thread and note

Not all the TCI connections go to the coils, but all the TCI's wires on small side do need to be hooked up-EDIT-and of course you must have the pick-ups wired in from the pick-up coil. If you print off the diagram I posted and look bottom right you will see your most critical circuits - you will need all of those wired in.

Because of safety regulations and abundant redundancy in these bikes it's not going to be as simple as + and - in the right spots-unless you eliminate all the original setup and go totally custom (I wouldn't do this as it will be a real PIA).

Instead what you likely need to do is either buy a good used harness or continue on the path your on with re-creating the wiring yourself - and pay special attention to what needs to be powered and what doesn't by using the diagrams and tracing each pathway to it's proper place.

Also a warning-some of these electrical parts are hard to come by and can get expensive in a hurry so be careful applying voltage where it doesn't belong. I wouldn't do any connections with the battery hooked up and double check what you've done before you energize the circuits. Also If you don't already have a manual of some kind you will need one - shows resistances, pathways, etc.

 

Make sure both the engine and frame are grounded to the batt neg.

 

At this point, I'd suggest treating this as a troubleshooting problem. Start here: http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... oting.html