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Where to TRY to find many colors of wires (offline)?

Discussion in 'For Sale, Trade/Swap, Wanted' started by Metal_Bob, Aug 3, 2010.

  1. Metal_Bob

    Metal_Bob Active Member

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    So if you wanted to rewire/extend/update your wiring where would be good places to find more than the common colors you can find in most stores?

    Black, White, Green and Red are what I've found at Menards, Lowes and Farm & Fleet.

    Not that its a major deal, but where would you try to find more wire colors?
    Where would you look offline?

    I guess you could spend lots of money and Kyrlon Fusion paint all your wires LOL.
     
  2. markie

    markie Member

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    I suggest an auto electrician or company offering auto electrical services. I'm sure they would stock cables and connectors.
     
  3. Polock

    Polock Well-Known Member

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    ya get one color wire and some of this
     
  4. RickCoMatic

    RickCoMatic Well-Known Member

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    I used to go to the Bike Junk yard and pick-up a Wiring Harness off a Jap Bike for 8 to 10 Bucks.
    I'd unwrap the Harness and save long length of Color Coded Wire to do Repair Jobs that looked stock.

    Now, they don't sell them.
    They STRIP all the Insulation off the wiring and sell the Copper.
     
  5. Metal_Bob

    Metal_Bob Active Member

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    Bummer about the copper stripping...

    How do you find a Motorcycle Junkyard? Or are you just lucky to actually have one near you?
     
  6. bigfitz52

    bigfitz52 Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    Ya gotta be kidding, right?

    DA INNANET.

    Betcha there's one near you too, and you don't know it. I live out here in BFE Michigan and I have one about 9 miles away, in the seething metropolis of Yale, MI.

    I'll bet if you grabbed a harness from an '82 Honda car or Toyota you might have a lot of raw material too...

    For multiple colored wire you need an Industrial Supply house; or someone that caters to the machine tool/CAD industry. Try your local Grainger's or check out DigiKey or Newark Electronics.
     
  7. Metal_Bob

    Metal_Bob Active Member

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    I googled and got ZERO motorcycle boneyards in ILL.

    I'll check other catalogues when i get a chance
     
  8. chacal

    chacal Moderator Moderator Supporting Vendor Premium Member

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    Bob, we have the correct color-coded, tracer-stripe wire in most of the original colors used on these harnesses (along with connector shells and wire-end terminals).........just drop us a note!

    The wire we offer is actually a much better grade of wire than used originally, and much, much better than typical "chain-store" grade wiring:

    ELECTRICAL HARNESS WIRE:

    But not just any kind of wire! We offer only the highest-quality GXL cross-linked PVC-coated wire in the correct gauge stranded copper core in both SOLID-COLOR and TRACER-STRIPE WIRE. This wire is far superior to common chain-store wire and is available in most of the original tracer-stripe color coding scheme so you can keep your harness original or build a new harness and still trace your circuits properly.

    A brief comparison illustrates the superiority of GXL wire versus standard wire: most "regular" automotive-grade wire is designated as a "GPT" grade of extruded PVC wire, and it is rated for -40 to +80-C temperatures. This type wire, if it gets hot enough, will not only melt, but it will also catch on fire.....a great way to ruin your day, your wire harness, your bike, etc. GPT grade wire is basically what was used originally by Yamaha in your harness, and is normally what you can buy in retail stores. It is created by heating PVC and then quickly extruding it through a die over a particular size of stranded (or solid) wire core.


    GXL grade wire is still a PVC product, but it is formed by extruding PVC through a tube, under intense heat and pressure, in order to 'cross-link' and change the molecular properties of the insulation to a stronger state. This is why GXL wire is rated for use from -51 to +125-C (225-F) temperatures. Additionally, although GXL wire will still melt when its heat rating is exceeded, it is not flammable, and that may be a very important consideration for you should a short ever develop within your electrical system someday..........


    What size is my wire?:

    Unfortunately, factory wiring diagrams indicate almost every other parameter about your wiring harness----wire color, wire connector type, where it goes to and where it comes from and where it's spliced together, etc.-----but does not specify the wire gauge (or size) of the wires used.

    A little bit on wire "gauge" sizes. The gauge of a wire is basically what size the inner wire core is, and that size determines the wire current-carrying capacity. The lower the gauge number, the larger the wire size and thus current-handling capacity. Thus a 14-gauge wire is larger (physically and in current carrying capacity) than a 16-gauge, or an 18-gauge, or a 20-gauge, etc. size wire.


    Yes, we know that's "backwards", but that's the way it is. In fact, wire gauges (often noted as "AWG", which stands for American Wire Gauge Standard----and yes, there are other wire sizing "standards", too!) are really a medieval sort of thing.....for example, you are holding a piece of wire in your hand----perhaps the solid white wire that goes to your alternator stator----and you're wondering "what gauge wire is this?" I mean, you really do want to know that information, since you want to replace it with that gauge wire or larger (meaning a "lower" number wire gauge size), but never a smaller (= a higher wire gauge size) wire, as the original wire is designed to carry a certain amount of electrical energy, and substituting a smaller wire size could cause voltage loss (think: dim headlights, overcharged batteries, overheated wires, melted connectors, a small fire starting somewhere near your gas tank, etc.-------all sorts of devastation, electrically-speaking).


    So how to you determine what size wire is in your hand? Well, this is kind of confusing, but here goes:

    - for stranded-core wire (which is what is used on most vehicular applications, including these bikes), you should do the following:

    * Make a small cut about 1/2" long and remove the insulation from the wire.
    * Then you will need to count the individual strands of copper....how many individual strands are there?
    * Next, use a micrometer and measure the thickness of any one single strand.
    * Then, look at the following information to determine the gauge of your automotive wire:

    # of strands / diameter of each wire strand

    7 strands of wire x .028" diameter of each strand = 20g
    (this example means that a 20-gauge wire has 7 individual wire strands, each one measuring .028" in diameter)

    16 x .030" =18g
    19 x .029" =16g
    19 x .027" =14g
    19 x .025" =12g
    19 x .023" =10g
    19 x .021" = 8g
    37 x .021" = 6g


    Wow, that's a lot of work, isn't it?

    Here's the shortcut method that applies to your harness wires.........you measure the outside diameter of the wire in your hand (meaning, the O.D. of the insulation) and that measurement tells you what the AWG of the wire core is. NOTE: make sure that you measure the wire on a straight portion of the wire, and it's useful to take 2 or 3 different measurements to make sure you are not measuring a distorted, "egg-shaped" area of the insulation:

    If the wire OD is 2.03mm - 2.19mm (.0799 to .0862"), then it's 20-gauge (20g) wire.
    NOTE: 20g wire is rated for a maximum load of 11 amps of current at 12VDC.

    If the wire OD is 2.26mm - 2.42mm (.0890 to .0953"), then it's 18-gauge (18g) wire.
    NOTE: 18g wire is rated for a maximum load of 16 amps of current at 12VDC.

    If the wire OD is 2.48mm - 2.64mm (.0976 to .1039"), then it's 16-gauge (16g) wire.
    NOTE: 16g wire is rated for a maximum load of 22 amps of current at 12VDC.

    If the wire OD is 2.89mm - 3.05mm (.1138 to .1201"), then it's 14-gauge (14g) wire.
    NOTE: 14g wire is rated for a maximum load of 32 amps of current at 12VDC.
    NOTE: 14g wire is the largest size wire normally found in the wiring harnesses on these bikes. Battery cables and the solenoid-to-starter motor cable are larger, of course, but of all the main harness and accessory wiring, 14-gauge is the largest that you'll find.

    If the wire OD is 3.49mm - 3.65mm (.1374 to .1437"), then it's 12-gauge (12g) wire.
    NOTE: 12g wire is rated for a maximum load of 41 amps of current at 12VDC.

    If the wire OD is 4.32mm - 4.48mm (.1701 to .1764"), then it's 10-gauge (10g) wire.
    NOTE: 10g wire is rated for a maximum load of 55 amps of current at 12VDC.


    So, for example, if you measure your white alternator stator lead wires, you'll find them to be about .1015" in outer diameter, and referring to the chart above, you determine that they are thus 16-gauge wire. And therefore you should always replace them, if needed, with 16-gauge or larger wire (meaning 16-gauge, 14-gauge, 12-gauge, etc.).

    If you measure your solid red harness lead wire that comes off your solenoid or regulator unit----which is the main power supply for your harness-----you might find it measures about .1185" in diameter. Again referring to the chart above, it is therefore a 14-gauge wire.


    REMEMBER: always use the same-size (gauge) wire as original or a larger size (a numerically smaller gauge size) or otherwise you are setting yourself up for major problems and the risk of fire!



    What color is my wire?:

    There are two different formats of wire insulation colors in your harness:

    * solid colored wire, which is pretty self-explanatory, and.....
    * tracer wire, which is a solid color wire imprinted with a permanent, straight, contrasting-color stripe along its entire length. This "tracer stripe" makes it easy to identify any particular wire and what circuit it belongs to.

    For the sake of both clarity, future troubleshooting, and safety, we always strongly urge people to replace wires with the same color and format (solid color vs. tracer-stripe) wire as was originally used, or, if you're building your own custom harness, to follow the same color-coding standards as what was originally used by Yamaha (for example: the main power feed wire for the harness is a solid red wire; solid black wires are ground circuit wires; a solid yellow wire is the rear brake light wire; a horn wire is a solid pink wire; the coils are fed by a solid orange wire, a solid grey wire, and a red wire with a white tracer stripe, etc.).

    This attention to detail make for a professional harness build or repair, and greatly simplifies your life in the future!


    In your factory wire diagram, solid color wires are identified by their solid color abbreviation, which are:

    B = Black
    Br = Light Brown
    Ch = Chocolate Brown, which is a very dark brown, almost black.
    Dg = Dark green, which is a very dark green, almost black.
    Gr = Green, which could be a light or medium green color.
    Gy = Grey, which is a light grey color
    L = Blue, which could be a medium or a navy blue or even a very dark blue, almost black.
    P = Pink
    O = Orange, which is a bright orange
    R = Red
    Sb = Light Blue or "Sky" Blue, a very light, baby-blue color.
    W = White
    Y = Yellow, which is a bright yellow

    So a solid Black wire would be coded as "B", while a solid Light Brown wire appears as "Br", while a Dark "Chocolate" Brown wire is abbreviated as "Ch".


    Tracer wires are identified first by their primary wire color abbreviation (from the chart above), and then a slash mark (/), followed by the tracer stripe color abbreviation.

    So for instance, a Black (B) wire that has a thin Yellow (Y) tracer stripe will appear on the diagrams as B/Y or
    B/y (the lower case letter makes the identify of the "tracer" color more obvious).

    A Red (R) wire with a white tracer stripe would be labeled as R/W (or R/w), while a Red wire with a black tracer stripe would be R/B (or R/b).

    Be aware that some tracer stripe colors are very difficult to tell apart from each other (particularly white vs. yellow tracer stripes), while other tracer stripe colors are just hard to see because of the lack of color contrast (for instance, a dark blue wire with a black tracer stripe).
     

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