Simple wire harness

Hey All,
I'm working on a 1983 XJ550 seca whose wires are a rats nest and all sorts of electrical issues.
I was doing a search through here and found this diagram from a few years ago. It seems like everything i would need to know to do the bike im working on but i thought i would take a poll or just simply ask if anyone has done this to the year ive mentioned or similar. As my usual bike is a kawi and older and different. i just want to make sure im not overlooking anything on this Yamaha.
Anyway, it seems like this one will work but I just wanted to see if anyone has some input for the 550 im working on.
thanks a ton! if i learn anything i will post here, sharing is caring and a care a lot about motorcycles.

 

Hi Jigen,

I am working through some similar issues. I am working on a cafe racer project and wish to cut down my wiring to the bare minimum. This is the same as the diagram I am working to. Have been on it a while, removing the old self cancelling indicators, side stand switch, in gear switch etc from the kill circuit.

I have just bought an antigravity Li ion battery so need to be careful with shorting as don t want to trash the new battery. I think diodes in the circuit could be key.

Will see how it goes.

 

Well so far we are on our way, I have a terminal block set up for all of the peripherals and they are wired. Ran into an issue though, we are keeping the turn signals and because of the "push to cancel" im at a loss for how to get the signal switch to put the circuit through. I cant tell how the push to cancel actually works and why its keeping the switch from diverting the power to the appropriate side. Right now they are hard wired without a flasher so i realize they should just come on and stay on, but they dont come on at all because of the aforementioned. There was no cancellation unit before as it had seemed to be removed, and whoever wired the new turn signals in last time obviously knew somthing i dont about the switchs power.
On my bike i just have a regular toggle mounted next to the grip, i like it because i can look at the toggle and if its off center i know i left a signal on. We may do this on his but I'd rather learn what the heck im missing. Sadly based on the number of replies i can only assume most people dont mess with electrical.... I really dont blame them either lol.

 

Hey Everyone,
I thought i would follow this up.
This worked fine on the previously mentioned Motorcycle, we did a little fiddling but ultimately the exact diagram here worked perfectly.
Please feel free to ask if you have any questions pertaining to electrical, ive gotten to know it pretty well i think and i can at least point you in the right direction.

 

when i got my bike it had already been tweeked on to the point i didn't have a shot at figuring out the original wiring,so I am using the above diagram, but I admit I have been cutting a few corners and getting bad results, whether its related to my slack ass,salvaging and swapping everything I think might work with parts off a kawasaki550.I have been working on it for a while now and so far still cant get it to fire on the 1 and 4 cylinders. So as you can imagine I have tons of questions.
1. First off how important are the lengths of the wires to and from the ignitor box?Also some of the wires seem to be the same guage,with different tendril sizes,could that be screwing me?they do have continuity,havent checked resistance(individually
2.How about the positioning and grounding of the ignition coils? Do the coils need to be directly bolted on to frame mounts or can i wire them to a body ground with a large guage wire to a more convenient location?
3. Does the wattage of headlight affect the 1 and 4 coil,I retro fitted some random spotlight unsure of the wattage, but even without any lights hooked up i get no spark on 1 and 4. also I have not researched the wattage draw for the tail light and used some funky old auto taillight that looks cool,neglecting to wire up the brake function. No lights should help a weak spark correct?could it prevent spark? just like second opinion,aloy says do all that crap later to isolate the issue.
Any input you have other than "go buy a bunch of new parts" would be helpful and appreciated, I have a unique circumstance that i wont get into now, but my inquisitive mind seeks for somekind of variable reduction. Thanks appreciate the time taken,i have been researching independantly to no avail.

 

Remo, what you are describing in question #3 needs a bit of clarification. If it does the same thing WITHOUT any headlights or lights attached that would mean that you probably have something else causing the lack of spark at 1 and 4. I mean if it only loses spark when the lights are attached then the lights are probably the culprit (short or something) but try removing ALL the lights then checking if the bike has spark on 1 and 4. The way we have rewired bikes that have absolutely no wiring (or really messed up wiring) is without any lights first. Basically the kill switch, starter solenoid, the CDI (or IC ignitor in an XJ), the rectifier, and whatever else is needed to get the engine running (in the diagram above that would just be most of the left side of it). When the engine is running good and the bike actually is able to run then we do the lights and whatever (most of the stuff in the lower right side of the above diagram). So in the end it would be easier to find out what would be causing the loss of spark if you isolate that system from the lighting system. Could also be a bad ignition coil (swap them and see if you lose spark at 2 and 3). If it is good then check the ground (sand the thing to get some metal to metal contact between it and the frame?). Hope that helps.

 

thanks for the reply, i know i should be alot more methodical,about all of it, my other variable of doom is the wiriing could have been switched around on the ignitor harnesses,no one has yet been able to straighten out my confusion on that. 6 holes on one side. four on the other,which is in coming and outgoing(to ig coils)?and what is the proper orientation of the orange,grey,black,white\red.spade connectors? Also the rectifier in the diagram shows a black going to ground,is that representing the black wire,or the actual unit bolting to frame ground? or is there a signifigant difference? thanks again

 

what about the primarys having 0 resistance,should i be positioning the pickup rotor a certain way to perform that test?or putting voltage to the coils? as for coil grounding, i was gonna fabricate a copper or brass stud braised to the frame,or notched into the frame so it could be removed easily during this testing period,and have a definite ground. i have more time than money,plus i have a hard time paying for education. at this point i cant afford to fry new parts. pretty sure its still f'd up wiring or bad connections,took the ignitor apart and sauters looked fine on the board,no black spots or breaks.

 

the coil frame or lamination on these doesn't need to be grounded.
the key comes on and + is put to one of the coil wires, the tci box switches the ground on/off to fire the plug.
check the coil primary with nothing else hooked up.
try swapping the coils, see if the problem goes with the coil.
get sparks first then work on lights.

 

SERIOUSLY? sO THE GROUNDING of the coil units to the frame is obsolete and testing or mounting options are only restricted by the distance of the secondary/spark plug wires? sounds more and more like i need coils and plug caps,gonna borrow a second multi meter and run more tests tomorrow,good looking out polock,thanx. hope you understood I have no key and the bikes bare bones stripped below minimum, would like to get that theory seconded if anyone else is listening

 

Theory is correct, the coil mount point does not need to be grounded.

 

Ooo Yee of little faith

 

sorry no offense just have to press myself to be thorough and efficient, wiz training you know, But you do mean neither point needs to be grounded? obviously one side has a rubber boot that fits in a square hole in the frame, and needs cushioning to,"reduce electrical noise" But if you insist its' futility.. great!no welding 10mm nuts on frame for me any more! :lol:

 

The laminations on these don't have a electrical connection, they just help the magnetic field get from the low side to the high side.
Mount them however you need to

 

cool that helps a ton,thanks

 

you guys still here? I got spark on all four using an IC Ignitor from the GPZ550,now it seems the Timing is off. it flooded and backfired when I put gas to it. Any of you wizards know why this could be other than incorrect wiring,was kind of tricky converting wire colors with no gpz diagram. but I was thinking reluctor size and rotor direction differences may influence the IC Ignitor internal ...dwell? Any opinions or links for specs greatly appreciated.

 

this might help
kz with gm hei

 

thanks Pol.emphasis on the might. Two of them???!! Also my xj coils have relatively no resistance on the primary..hmm got a couple sets of gpz coils that say Tek (011) my favorite # consistent with the xj coil. Other than the reluctor rotor and the engine cooler I see hardly any difference between the bikes.

 

I'm confused here. What was wrong with using stock 550 ignition parts? Based off ebay it looks like you could get the pickups/rotor/Igniter for around 120 bucks total.

 

broke down and ordered a part

well I managed to snag that miscategorized ignitor and it should be here...yesterday!cross fingers and all that we are having an unusually mild winter this year I might get a good ride in afterall