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[Steven Simpson]

hey guys.

Started working on my project again and still stumped. Got a kick start only chopper build. I have it started up but without a kill switch or key (just unhooking battery to make sure it will start)

I’m confused on wiring in the key to be able to turn the ignition on and off ( I don’t want a switch at the moment.

I have minimized most of the wiring and I am rebuilding it all from scratch. So I here is pics of the extremely basic setup I have thus far. My question is for the key. The red wire is hot so that’s good but it still doesn’t work and the blue and brown obviously aren’t connected.

Please help!

Thanks

 

[Brassneck]

Not sure what year your bike is, but I think the key has three settings: Off: nothing is connected; On: powers the ignition/coil, lights, etc. via the brown and blue wire,; Park: only powers the lights via blue wire. Your model may be different, but that's the general idea.

In theory, if you want to use your key to just turn on/off the bike, and you're not using all the standard wiring for a stock bike, then you simply need to send power to the key via red wire, and with the on position, have it power everything via the brown wire OR blue wire (or both, as they should both be "live" when the switch is on)... if you turn it off, power is off. Not sure this is what you were looking for?

 

[Steven Simpson]

absolutely, Just I guess wondering where the brown would connect to? the brown from the alternator?

Do I need to add in the fuse box?

 

[Brassneck]

The best and most important thing to do before doing anything else is find the wiring diagram for your bike, so you can verify your wiring specifically.

Generally speaking, the brown wire on these bikes is the positive wire throughout the system...but not exclusively, just depends on which part of the system. I don't think the generator has brown, usually a yellow, a green, 3 white and a black...but again, your bike may be different. There is a brown on the regulator, which then connects to the generator via the green; and the rectifier connects to the whites with a constant from the battery via red...etc. etc..

Fuses are necessary...to do something custom, you're going to want to know what the set up WAS, and then you'll have a better idea on how to deviate from that to meet your needs... as stated, all of this needs to be verified for your bike via a wiring diagram.

 

[Steven Simpson]

it is a 1981. I have looked at a lot of the simplified diagrams and that's how I ended up here. as of now the bike kicks and starts and the key (red wire only) is live but it doesn't switch anything on or off.

So essentially if I run the red from the battery to the key and from the key brown to everything else, it should work?

 

[Brassneck]

it is a 1981. I have looked at a lot of the simplified diagrams and that's how I ended up here. as of now the bike kicks and starts and the key (red wire only) is live but it doesn't switch anything on or off.

So essentially if I run the red from the battery to the key and from the key brown to everything else, it should work?

Not sure...we have no way to know how you wired your bike.

 

[Brassneck]

Thinking on this some more...your bike starts (kick only) but without turning on the key, correct? And for now, you turn it off by pulling the battery terminal, correct? If this is correct, then essentially you have wired it so that there's power going to the coil/ignition at all times...not sure how that was done (which wires you used, etc), but if you take the wire going from the battery to a switch (like the key) and then off the brown from the key switch back to where it was going...then it should (in theory) only work when you turn the key on... and stop when you turn the key off. But again, this is just a guess without really understanding how it's been wired. You should definitely put some fuses in there if they have been removed...

We run total loss electrical systems on our race bikes, it's the most simple way to wire a bike...battery to fuse to on/off switch...from the switch to coil/electronic ignition. That's it, but we aren't worried about lights, charging, etc...so it works great for our needs (we compression-start/kick-start), and off with the switch. Essentially that's what you're doing by adding the key....if I understand your needs correctly.

As to everything else working...not able to really help there without really understanding the wiring you've got. Hope this helps a bit?

 

[Steven Simpson]

Yep you hit it right on the nail . Got the key switch all dialed in and starts nice and easy! thanks for the deep thought and help. Now onto lighting haha

 

[XSLeo]

Run the positive from the battery through a 20 amp fuse. From the fuse to the switch red wire. From the switch brown wire to A fuse box. One fuse runs ignition. One fuse runs the head/tail/dash lights. One fuse runs everything else.
You can do without fuses but if you get an overload you could burn up the harness. That's up to you.
I like this diagram. It shows a basic points ignition set up with the separate reg and rec. In boxes it has the later TCI and combo re/rec. Just swap the boxes to match what you have.
Leo