Rewiring help

Bike: 1985 Xj700
Problem:Wanting to rewire bike

Alright, so what I wanna do is rewire my bike (currently not running), so that I can eliminate all the unnecessary wiring. I started to today, by disassembling the wiring harness and then I hit a brick wall after I thought I had it wired up correctly. Still dead. The bike also had no ignition and I've since isolated the electric start and kill switch wires from their box because it was damaged and not making proper contact. So right now everything is as hardwired as you can get it. Has any ever ventured down this road? If so, PLEASE HELP! I just wanna get this beauty on the road where it should be. This bike is liquid cooled, and shaft driven. I'm just looking for someone with expertise to put me on the right track, I wanna simplify this as much as possible. I am NOT an electrician.

 

XJ700-X with no ignition switch/key.
what do you mean by BOX ?
you will want to look at the wiring as the separate systems.
start with the starter system, then the ignition system, charging system and cooling system.

are you looking to remove all the relays and safety devices and go to minimum wiring?

 

What I mean by box is the box the contains the electric start and kill switch. And I'm gonna start slow by trying to power one thing at a time. And yes, I want to eliminate all safety relays and junk and just go to minimal wiring for the bike.

 

thr right controler on handle bars?

what did you do to resolve the ignition key issue ?

 

I never did, still trying to use a jumper wire in the plug.

 

I can guess from your post that you had the bike running before you started to mod the stock wiring? If you did at what point did you lose the ability to start the bike?

Can you reverse what you have done to make the bike run again? If you could then you would be able to work slow and get it done one step at a time. Good luck on this project and you will be a schematic reading soldering tech when you are done.

 

I think it was a bit of a basket case even missing the main harness, so it has never run.

So did you buy a battery?

You can go minimal, but if you already bought a replacement harness it would be just as easy to go stock, then you would have the safety circuit working, which is there for a reason... your safety.

It is very easy to bypass the ignition switch, on the main harness ignition switch connnector just jumper Red to Brown and you get 90% of it, add blue to those to get the running lights and tail light.

Hopefully that doesn't mean you hardwired the starter switch. You are going to need one of those with stock or minimal wiring. Most of the control switches can be cleaned and put back into working order. Or, working replacement parts on ebay can often be found cheap.

And, from the condition you described it sounds like the bike has been sitting a while. You might want to do a few checks on the motor to be sure you have a worthwhile project. First make sure the motor is not seized, and if it has been sitting remove the plugs and add about a tablespoon of oil. Put the bike in 5th gear and rotate the rear wheel and see if the motor will turn over.

 

are you talking about the right control on the handle bars?

 

here are the basic min wiring diagramsfound on this site.

the diagrams do not include the cooling systems

 

You have your hands full, I would make it easy on yourself and get it up and running or at least turning over, spark and then go from there. Don't you want to know it is a good running motor before you go and trick it out? Just trying to talk you into make sure the bike is worth putting all the time into all the mods. Again best of luck and many here to help as issues come along.

 

I know the motor isn't seized because I jumped the starter and got some compression coming out of the exhaust. And did you say by just connecting red to brown I can get the bike to turn over? Because I agree with you guys, I wanna make sure a in can get the damn thing to turn over before sinking anymore money into. So how's this. By just doing the minimal wiring, can someone please tell me how I can just get power to the ignition?

 

I wanna make sure I can get direct power to that part first, then I will worry about hooking up the cooling system and so on and so forth.

 

And yes, I do have a battery for the bike now.

 

look at the min wiring diagram . the red wire from the battery goes to the main fuse then to the ignition key(jumper) the red connects to the brown wire that goes back to the fuses. that is where to start. fuse box hook up
the blue wire goes to the tail lights

 

on the wiring diagram from fsm the solinoid red whire connects to battery cable then the blue/white wire runs to relay then to start button
in the min wiring diagram ignition fuse feeds the kill switch then goes to solinoid then to start button to ground.
if you hook this up first you will get your starter to spin.

just remember the kill switch feeds solinoid tci and coils so you will need to plan for the items
when those are wired your bike will turn over and start.

 

if you still have the original harness jumpers can be used at the relay connectors.
other wise go buy some wire and make a quick harness to start the bike

 

also disconnect the black/white wire running from tci

 

What is the tci again? Is that the regulator or the ignitor?

 

the ignitor.

you will want to use the connector at the tci that run to pickup coils with its harness as it is a stright run from tci to pickups.
the other connector runs to the ignition coils the gray and orange wires and the red/white wire

 

What are the color wires that runs to the coils, I always get turned around to which one is supposed to hook up there

 

orange and gray to both ignition coils and pickups.

it would be easier to put jumpers across the relay locations and connectors that are on your harness to get bike started

 

Thanks man, I intend to try and tackle this over the weekend and hopefully hear her purr for a few seconds.

 

Hey guys, so I went and bought an ignition, kill switch and starter switch. Used the wiring diagram I was given and got it all hooked up. So here is my next issue, I took out the spark plug to ground it to the engine block to make sure I was getting power to my coils when I hit my starter button. But no spark. However if I touch the positive cable to the terminal I see a spark from my plug without hitting the starter button. So do I have something backwards? I feel like I'm right there on the cusp, could someone help please?

 

Also i have another question. I hooked up the kill switch in line to the starter switch and that's it. Should I run the red and white wire which runs to the coils instead of the kill switch? Because right now I just have the red and white wire running straight from the coils to the tci then have a wire that jumps mid way and goes to solenoid (positive cable) should I do something different here?

 

Someone will be along shortly to help.

 

standard wiring is fuse to kill switch then the red/white wire branches out to the tci , ignition coils and solinoid .

one side of solinoid goes to the starter button then when pressed to ground

min wiring diagram will help you understand.

 

run/kil switch is to supply power to ignition system and starter system .
it sounds like you just used it to kill the starter

 

I think that's what I may have done, because I know for one after reading this I ran the starter button off its own wire. So I'm thinking what I should have done is ran it in-line with the red and white wire instead?

 

you can have a seperate red/white wire for coils and tci but you will not be able to shut bike down with run/kill switch.
are you using standard wiring harness?

 

I'm using the existing junk harness in had when i got the bike. So should I run a wire from the starter to the kill switch, to the starter button then to coils and the tci?

 

So wait, are you saying that I need to put the kill switch running to the coils? Should I hook up the starter directly in line with that too? Because like I said before, I can make the hike turn over NY engaging the starter button, but I'm getting no power delivered to the coils.

 

from ignition key switch ( or other power source like the battery just to test) to ignition fuse, then to kill switch. from output of kill switch tee off to solenoid , coils and tci.

run/kill switch runs the ignition system you will have to bypass the starter safety relay with a jumper, but if you got it turning over you have solved that problem.

just like in the drawing

 

See I guess that's the part that has been messing with me because the drawing indicates hooking the kill switch in line with rec/reg.

 

Ya I don't know what the hell. I feel like I'm missing something very minute....waking up early tomorrow aND starting over, may look at another wiring diagram..this project has turned into a flipping headache!

 

if you are talking about the drawing above no it doesn't

 

Ya that's what's screwed me up. I'm just going to run a positive wire straight from the starter solenoid then back to the starter motor and just go from there....

 

These wires are blue and the other is black with a red stripe. They belong to a 4 prong plug that hooks into the tci/ignitor unit. Does anyone know what they do?

 

those 2 wires don't go to the tci . blue is for neutral switch, black/red is for oil level switch
stu

 

So should I have the neutral switch hooked up then to make the circuit work??

 

at least ground it that will make the neutral light come on

 

Could that be why I still can't get power to my damn coils?

 

Because all I can do is make the starter run still. And like the diagram says the red/white power coming from my coils should be hooked up to solenoid right? Also, I've tested things with my meter. But was wondering should my solenoid be making a clicking noise? Would that have something to do with the ignition not being grounded?

 

does your starter spin? solinoids do click when the contacts to starter motor close sending power to starter from battery
the redwhite wire connects to all ignition parts , tci coils solenoid but to the smaller wires on the solinoid from a fused power source.
if you are using the stock harness the relay would shut down the starter if not in neutral .

if you do not get 12 volts at the coils then you have a bad connection unplug the coils and see if you have 12 volts at connector

 

The starter spins. I don't hear a click from the solenoid though when I hook it up to a battery. I have the starter running directly to the push button directly from the solenoid. Im wondering that since my neutral wire is not grounded if that isn't part of my problem...

 

solenoid clicks once when you press the starter button closing the contacts spinning the starter.

what push button do you have hooked to starter?

neutral not grounded could be your problem. will prevent side stand relay from opening which is killing your spark.

a solinoid works like this should be 2 small gauge wires at bottom one wire goes to hot, redwhite wire. (positive on battery) the other wire goes to starter button which when pressed makes contact to ground energizing solinoid, which closes the contacts inside the solenoid . those contacts are connected to the large nuts on the outside of the solenoid . one nut has a wire from positive battery terminal the other nut has wire from starter. negitive of battery MUST be connected to motor.

(there is a second style solenoid in use which has a jumper from battery connection to the coil in the solenoid and just 1 wire which runs to starter button.)

before you go any further pull out all relays and fuses
so run a wire to the small gauge wire in the solinoid connector. from battery terminal positive to solenoid wire . run another wire from other wire in connector to negitive of battery use a clip lead or push button switch . when you make contact (turn on switch) starter should spin. this tells you solenoid is good..

are you using the red/white wire on the existing harness?

next step get a fuse holder run a wire from positive on battery through fuse holder 10 amp go to coil red white wire. strip back some insulation from the red white wire. with both coils disconnected and tci disconnecter ( the connector with red/white wire)connect the wire from fuse to the coil wire you striped insulation off of .
see if you have 12 volts at the 2 coil connectors red white wire Measure from battery negitive to red/white wire. got 12 volts both locations ? next check red white wire at tci connector got 12 volts? if yes. disconnect wire from fuse (pull fuse) plug in coils plug in tci replace fuse . hit starter button .at this point you shoild have a spinning starter and voltage to the coils and tci . bike should fire.

so at this point if your carbs are supplying fuel to motor bike should start or at least fire. if not
a little squirt of starter fluid bike should fire.

 

I gotcha man. Thanks so much for volunteering your time. I feel up until now everything is working. Just don't have the blue neutral wire grounded. I can make the starter spin by pushing the button I installed. And have metered everything and get the 12 volts you are talking about. I strongly believe it's the neutral causing me this huge headache. I will try to get to it tomorrow (I have work tomorrow night) but I will let you know something. Thanks again. -Tim

 

another thing with your neutral wire disconnected your bike thinks it is in gear if you pull in the clutch it should fire and start. what happens is your sidestand relay stays closed when bike is in gear or thinks it is in gear holding tci to ground no spark .
grounding the neutral wire or pulling in clutch should solve this problem. also you can just remove the side stand relay bike should start