72 XS2 wiring help please!! Safety switch and starter solenoid

[CalsXS2]

All right guy's. I'm normally pretty good about putting back together what I took apart. Heck, I even took picture's of the wiring. But unfortunately, I lost the pic's off of my computer some how.

This wiring is kickin my butt. And I'm ashamed to admit, I never could read a schematic.

I have a mixture of a new wiring harness, and a set of coils and point's a guy gave me that is supposed to be hooked up like it's supposed to go. I think I either got too many wire's, or not enough,,, lol.

If you guy's could help me get this stuff hooked up, I sure would be grateful.

BTW. This is on my 72 XS2. I'm finally starting to put it back together after being tore apart for 2 year's. I'm starting with the back half of the frame. No triple tree, or forward stuff on there yet.




Let's start with the coil's. Here's the wire's coming out of the coil's. The yellow wire has each coil's brown wire attached to it. The yellow wire has obviously been cut.

1. Where does the yellow wire go.

This is the orange wire's from the coil's. They are attached to about a 12" long orange and gray wire. Those wire's are attached to the condenser, and point's. I believe this might be correct. But that leaves me a lot of extra wire's.

2. Is this correct.

This is what I have coming out of the main harness right at the coil's. Assuming the coil's don't get plugged into any of this, what the heck does.

3. What goes to all of this.

First guess. Again, assuming the coil's are correct, I have the 2 brown wire's coming from the voltage regulator,,the 2 on the right side of this pic,,, connected like this. The remaining orange and gray are both double female connector's. Then there's the single orange male.
4. Is this correct.

I think that's enough to get me started. I find this very frustrating. Heck, I'm having a hard time even trying to relay what I have. So please be patient, and help if you can. Oh ya. Speak sloooooow.

 

[gggGary]

Well let's start here

View attachment 22979

That's how the factory did it.
Someone has obviously added the yellow which goes to the red/white in the main harness.
I think you have a duplicate of the gray and orange wires, one in the harness yet the other is cut loose from some other harness. Unless you have a condenser tester (some VOMs have one) replace those old things, they often die of old age. other than that it looks like you have it, the yellow goes to red/white and it should be good. but get the VOM out and test for good voltage on that red/white it should be near to battery voltage if not you will have to trace down where the problem is.

 

[CalsXS2]

Thanks for the reply Gary!!

Let me say this before I forget. It's highly likely that I'm totally wrong about this, but it seems like when I took this apart 2 years there was something that struck me as totally rigged about the 2 brown coil wire's being together. I got to be honest. I keep thinking they had the yellow wire. But I think my mind is just messing with me. I know I separated them for some reason. But I couldn't tell you what for.




I kinda think like you in that there is an extra set of wire's in there. But here's the thing. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But doesn't the schematic show the orange and gray wire's going straight from the point's to the coil's,,, with no interruption's. Like I said. I can't read a schematic.

If I eliminate that questionable 12" orange and gray wire, I could hook it up like this. But that would mean hooking the point's into an orange and gray wire from the main harness. Then go from a different set of orange and gray wire's from the main harness to the coil's. Would that be correct. It sure would tiddy thing's up. Would it matter which orange or gray wire you used. But again, I thought you had to go straight from the point's to the coil's. I hope I'm wrong.

Oh ya. I can hook the 2 brown coil wire's into the red/white wire like you said. It's doubled to a brown. That sure seems right. Does it look right to you.

 

[CalsXS2]

Where do these safety relay ( or what ever you call the thing on the bottom) wire's go. I thought some of them went to the main harness. But if I hook thing's up like in my las pic,,, that would leave these wire's out.

 

[scobman]

Where do these safety relay ( or what ever you call the thing on the bottom) wire's go. I thought some of them went to the main harness. But if I hook thing's up like in my las pic,,, that would leave these wire's out.

You can leave the safety relay unconnected for now until you figure it out.
you have a multi-meter ? checking the continuity of the wires will help you know how the circuit is running. The condensor isnt grounded, that should be mounted to the inside of the top motor mount. Then another seperate ground wire mounts under one of the condensor mount bolts and goes to one of the top motor mount to motor bolts.

ALSO, Those plug wires simply push into a metal pin that suppose to be touching the metal center wire core of the spark plug wire. You can clip off the end of the plug wire to get a fresh new end that will conduct the current a lot better than a frayed end.

it looks like your wire harness has been spliced into a few times, that yellow wire is suppose to be a red wire.


The bike i was messing with the wire can be seen here in this video, showing the wires are now correct.

 

[scobman]

in the middle of the video, i turn off the bike and start it with the electric starter with the SAFETY RELAY NOT CONNECTED. So nothing really happens, you just have to release the decompression lever starter quickly after you hear the bike running.
so thats no big deal.

 

[CalsXS2]

Scobman. I think you're thinking my bike is farther along than it is. I just started,,,, lol. Everything, like the condenser and point's are just dangling.

I don't believe my new harness is spliced at all. At least I hope not. The yellow wire that is attached to the coil's is from another harness. Not mine.

As far as the safety relay goes, I found this pic. It's really hard to see. But it looks to me that the brown wire's from the safety relay are connected to the starter solenoid. But I can't tell for sure. Does it look like they go under the battery cable's. There's no place to plug them in. I think those are 2 longer, seperate wire's going from the brown wire's to the starter solenoid. Not the one's built into the solenoid. Anyone agree.

OK XS2 guy's. What's your starter solenoid look like. Where the hell do these safety relay wire's go.

 

[scobman]

ok i see.
your orange/grey wire came out of the harness.
the orange and grey wires have a double connector on one end, and then those wires are folded over so the opposite end comes out of the harness too. So they are folded in half like a "U" the ends hang out of the harness and the folded area is taped up under the harness covering.

MIKESXS has new wire harnesses for $70 i think.
If your building that bike, its better to have new wiring cuz .... after you accidentally burn up the headlight switch and find out a new switch costs $200 and all the used switches dont work, your forced to buy one. But I know cash isnt ez these days to find.

 

[CalsXS2]

This should make it easier.

This is what I HAD hooked straight to the coil's. I then had a bunch of left over wire's. I believe Gary is correct, and this is an extra set of wire's.

Can I get an Amen that this is wrong..... Or is it,,, lol.

I have now eliminated these orange and gray wire's. I have the coil/condenser wire's plugged into the double connector's that are part of the harness. Then there is a single orange and gray wire coming from the harness to the coil's. Is this correct.

 

[CalsXS2]

ok i see.
your orange/grey wire came out of the harness.
the orange and grey wires have a double connector on one end, and then those wires are folded over so the opposite end comes out of the harness too. So they are folded in half like a "U" the ends hang out of the harness and the folded area is taped up under the harness covering.

MIKESXS has new wire harnesses for $70 i think.
If your building that bike, its better to have new wiring cuz .... after you accidentally burn up the headlight switch and find out a new switch costs $200 and all the used switches dont work, your forced to buy one. But I know cash isnt ez these days to find.

I think we have a winner!!

I knew I could get it out of ya if I kept trying.

So as long as you're sure that those wire's are doubled over, and taped,,, that's the answer.

And that confirms like I said in the beginning. I think I have too many wire's.

Thanks for going out with a flashlight and looking.


Oh ya. What do you have against my harness. I thought it looked pretty good. I bought it as a replacement for my hacked up original. You seeing something I'm not. Or are you just saying because it's 40 year's old.

 

[scobman]

This should make it easier.

This is what I HAD hooked straight to the coil's. I then had a bunch of left over wire's. I believe Gary is correct, and this is an extra set of wire's.

Can I get an Amen that this is wrong..... Or is it,,, lol.

I have now eliminated the orange and gray wire's. I have the coil/condenser wire's plugged into the double connector's that are part of the harness. Is this correct.

yes that is correct how you have it in the picture.
the other end of the orange wire and grey wire connect to the coils. the wires are folded over like a "U" and the bottom of the "U" is taped up in the harness.

So it is the orange/grey wires from the coil that connect into the ends of the orange/grey wires in your picture.
i dont see whats extra ?

 

[scobman]

Cool glad you were able to understand my jibberish about it.
Im 100% positive on that.

 

[scobman]

I believe the reason those wires are folded over and taped up in the harness is so they arent hanging down getting in the way of other stuff.

 

[CalsXS2]

yes that is correct how you have it in the picture.
the other end of the orange wire and grey wire connect to the coils. the wires are folded over like a "U" and the bottom of the "U" is taped up in the harness.

So it is the orange/grey wires from the coil that connect into the ends of the orange/grey wires in your picture.
i dont see whats extra ?

The o/g wire's in the above picture are not part of my harness. I believe I have those same wire's all ready taped to my harness like you say.

My point's are plugged into the main harness. Correct??

 

[CalsXS2]

All right. We're both typing at the same time. I think I got it now.

 

[Jerm]

I can provide images of the safety relay to starter solenoid connections when you need thm. I dealt with this a few months ago rewiring a 72 with a new harness from mikes.

 

[CalsXS2]

I can provide images of the safety relay to starter solenoid connections when you need thm. I dealt with this a few months ago rewiring a 72 with a new harness from mikes.

Ummm. I'm ready for your pic's now please.

Well. Here's what I've got now. It looks so simple, a cave man could do it,,, lol.

But there sure seems to be a lot of guy's running into this safety relay issue.

You sure would think the wire's coming off of the starter solenoid connect to the same colored wiring in the harness right there. But that leaves these same safety relay wire's. They're the 2 brown wire's on the bottom, as I'm sure you know.

Is this correct. Where does the brown wire's go.

BTW. I thought that mikesxs harness omitted the safety relay. Did you add it back in.

 

[Jerm]

From my safety relay I have (2) Browns, (1) Yellow, and (1) Black.

The yellow attaches to the yellow form the alternator right behind the rear tank mount. The black attaches to the ground in the same area.

The two browns go over to the the LH side cover area. One brown, the one with the female connector attaches to the brown wire on the starter solenoid. The second brown wire with the male connector attaches to a Red w/ White tracer that emerges from the MAIN harness. The wire is Red/white on the mikesxs harness, but I believe it is Brown on the OEM harness. Pictures coming.....

 

[Jerm]

Here are images I took of an upstanding forum members Stock 73 w/ all stock wiring components. Allegedly, the 72 is the same. Both his 73 and my 72 start and run kick or electric.

I can also provide images of my 72, but they may be more confusing because of the wire harness color variations and the fact I used an aftermarket starter relay with different colored wires.

 

[CalsXS2]

All right!! I think I finally have it.

So what I said about hooking up the wire's like in my last pic was indeed wrong. This is where guy's are taking their wiring apart, like me, and just matching up the color's, then realizing they have some left over safety relay wire's to deal with.

But now,, I THINK we finally have the correct way to do it. Thanks Jerm!! You da Man.



Please tell me this is correct. Then I can move on to the headlight bucket.