BUT WAIT!!!! There's hope Grimmith!
Hey ol' buddy - I bought a barn find '76 C-model this past February and the wiring was....well, it was like what I found stuck all over the bottom of the bike
(if you catch my drift). It was dead as a door nail - no electrical function, fuel system a TOTAL mess and the chrome was covered in rust-rash (even the shocks were seized solid). Well, I thought, I'm an engineer and I have tools, a decent workshop and an array of multimeters, plus I have been troubleshooting electromechanical equipment equipment for decades. How hard can this be - and besides, its a relatively primitive 1970's motorcycle - not a space shuttle or a 1000 ton injection molding machine.
So, I messed around for a looooongggg time, blowing more than 20 fuses in the process (be sure to switch over to modern blade fuses - far cheaper and easier to source than the cheesy old glass ones). My handlebar switches were both a mess - the LH one was packed solid with something looked like Polyfilla wall repair compound and the RH one simply disintegrated when I tried to clean it. I tried valiantly to sort out the ungodly mess that the P/O had created in attempting to wire-up front and rear running lights using solid copper house wire and Marr connectors (those twist-on doo-hickeys you use to install a new ceiling light fixture for your wife - usually at the same time your favourite war movie is coming on TV, or - you've just kinked your back, or - you've just opened a beer, or - your latest shipment of parts just arrived in the mail, or - your buddies want to go for a ride or....
well you get the picture). Marr twist-on connectors and solid copper wire on vehicles are not a good idea.
Anyhow - after
much angst, I just said f@ck-it and went on-line to search for new, or at least better parts, and here is what I found at XS650 Direct (Canadian equivalent of MikesXS in the States):
- new RH handlebar switch = $57.95 (you could even get the slightly earlier one with the on-off switch for the headlight to make it easier to sneak home late)
- new LH handlebar switch = $57.95 (looks very snazzy with the push-in-to-cancel turn signal function)
- new wiring harness ("loom" - to our British friends) = $60.96 (NOTE: I think you want P/N 64-6574 - the harness for '77-on bikes - BUT check carefully)
BTW - the more senior folks on this forum may slag-off Mike's and XSDirect - and it is true that their stuff isn't always perfect, but perhaps they could suggest an alternate source that would be even better. I found what I needed, order it at around 2:00 PM one afternoon and had it
by 9:30 the next morning (!!). After that, I still had problems with the bike - but the electrical wiring chapter of my journey was closed.
The point is that the parts that I bought DID and DO work and so for around $180 US, you can (for the most part) eliminate your electrical woes with all new parts. Now, I must point out that these parts do not replace ALL of the wiring on the bike but they do replace all of the complex portions - and that will make the task MUCH easier. Essentially, I had it running within a fairly short time after getting those parts. BTW - my original rectifier also looked like yours (YUK!!) and so I replaced it and the dodgy stock voltage regulator with an automotive combo unit which works perfectly. I still have the original alternator with brushes - but its OK and I've put nearly 2000 miles on this old gal since July and loved every one of them. I've even got a little extra room inside of my LH sidecover where the original VR used to live - I use it as a little extra storage spot. ALSO - be sure to check out the little article I wrote on how to check your Starter Safety Relay (SRR) which resides in the RH sidecover right underneath the starter solenoid. If the SSR isn't working, your electric starter will be dead - and yet its an easy
and free 10 minute job to check and fix it.
You've actually got it easier than I did because your bike is a '79 and the LH handlebar switch that is available is for '77-on (earlier LH switches don't seem to be available). My bike (a '76) didn't have any of the self-cancelling turn signal stuff so I had to use the pinouts on the wiring schematic to figure out which terminals to use and which ones to simply tape-off. Anyhow, after a little experimentation, I got it done, everything works reliably and my bike is now solid as a rock electrically -
and all of my neighbours were spared the lesson in
oil-field industry cursing that was brewing when I was trying to fix the pile-o-crap wiring that was originally on the bike.
I guess my point is that
some jobs just are not worth doing yourself (eg. re-wiring a bike by hand when good NOS or replica replacements are available so cheap) - and besides, if you don't get this right, you stand a good chance of coasting to halt beside a lonely road with either a
dead bike
, or a bike
on fire o).
Cheers,
Pete
