Other Stuff > Tricks & Tips
Wiring loom
bruxby-clive:
Continuing on from the previous post, once you have soldered the cables together you need to protect the joint with heat shrink.
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You need to do this with all of the joints that you do and also there are areas with quite a number of them close together, I try to space them out so not make one part of the loom fatter than the rest and also stiffer as the soldered joint do not really want to bend to much.
Once you have completed all of the joints and installed all of your cables and checked this at least twice, it is time to start tidying up the cables, I start at the back and commence tightly cable tying it all together whilst still leaving the cables over length, but also finally group a cables together that go to specific connectors.
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Back end of the loom
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Middle of the loom
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Front of the loom
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The whole loom laying next to the old one to show the layout.
BigAl (Alan):
It's looking good Clive. The 2 blue wires (normally plugged together) are for the optional Euro models resistor (0.5 ohm/20 watt rating) The OE head light had a 40 watt high & 40 watt low main beams The resistor was inserted to differentiate between the high/low beam brightness for MOT reasons back in the day.
bruxby-clive:
Thanks for the info Alan, good to be able to understand what it was for.
Lobo:
Very nice Clive - glad to see the internals soldered. Just this week I’ll be re-sheathing a CB750 loom, but using self amalgamating tape (as suggested by another forum member) in the hope of an easier end to it all.
Just one observation though - and that is your 20mm soldered joints. Is 20mm not a tad too long given the twists and turns around frame components? Is there any real reason why a joint can’t be <5mm, ie opening up the wire conventionally with a simple cable stripper and then binding the new connection around it once before soldering?
bruxby-clive:
Hi Lobo, no specific reason why I chose an opening of 15mm in the cable to wrap approx. 20mm of cable twisted around the original, other than the soldering iron I use is 75 watt to heat the cable quickly and it has a quite large tip which can melt the outer insulation if it gets to close to it, placing the tip of it in the middle of the joint allows the cable to heat up enough to solder without melting the outer. I try to keep the joints to the behind the headstock so it does not have to endure to much movement. I also use self amalgamating, to wrap the complete loom once completed.
Just a couple of thoughts about cable size to mention at this point, I used modern thin wall cable to replicate my loom. For the majority of the wiring I use 1mm but for the main power cable to the switch (white) the supply from the Alternator to the 20 amp main fuse (White with a red trace), the battery connection (red) and the earth (black with yellow trace), I use 2mm cable. 1mm cable has a capacity of 16.5 amps and 2mm cable a capacity of 25 amps. The reason for the larger earth cable `is to ensure a good earth throughout the bike, some of the branches coming of aree 1mm but the main lead front to back and joining the battery are all 2mm.
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