Need some help with stock factory harness

[Pat D]

Well, the build is moving along on my '74 restoration, but now the real fun starts. When I got the bike, the main harness had been cut back past the main junction, and all kinds of mess spliced in. Same deal in the headlight bucket- there were clamp-on tie ins, wires simply twisted together, many splices with both tape and wire nuts. Gauge harness had been cut up as well. Well, fug that. I got an uncut harness from a '75 from Ebay, assuming they would be pretty close, close enough for me to find and deal with any changes. I also got an uncut '74 gauge harness.

Well, I'm losing my mind trying to reconcile colors with the diagrams I've been able to find on the forum. It's possible the harnesses I got are not the years they were represented to be, or the diagrams are not quite accurate, or both. What I have done so far is go through the gauge harness and verify which wires go to which bulbs both with continuity checks and confirming by jumpering to light the bulbs. I've done the same to identify the wires coming from each handle bar switch(continuity checks only on the bar switches.) I've taken photos of each harness, and marked them up to show connector type, color, and best guess as to purpose.

I had hoped with uncut harnesses, it would be a basic matter of following the diagram and matching up leads based on color and connector, but it's not working out. I'd like to see if anyone can help me start with identifying the leads coming from the main harness, then verify if I got the switches properly identified, then maybe provide some guidance as to how the whole mess fits together. maybe this might end up in the tech section after I get the marked up pics properly ID'd. Thanks!

 

[650Skull]

Need to identify the correct colors and their codes then the wiring diagrams become clearer.

Harness Junction
#1; Gy. Gray Female double connector. Condenser in and points out
#2; O, Orange female double connector Condenser in and points out
#10; Gy, Grey male to coil O
#3; O, Orange male to coil O
#9; P, Pink to horn
#4; Br, Brown. .........Not light brown
#6; Correct
#7; correct
#8; correct
#5; Unused connector. If it has 4 wires it is for the safety relay. Red, R. - Red/White, R/W. - Black, B - Yellow, Y.

Main Harness branch 1.
Yellow-Y; Correct
Brown-Br; Not light brown. Correct
Brown Triple female Is, Ch- Chocolate; for the left indicator/turn-signal and Ch from the gauge indicator/turn-signal light.
B, Black; Quad female bullet for earth, Indicator lights.
Light brown should be, Br, Brown; female bullet should connect into Br live circuit from Neutral indicator gauge light/front brake light-switch/ignition switch/engine stop circuit.
L/B, Blue/Black; main-harness 1 will connect to one of the L/B from either headlight or dimmer switch from handlebar, depending which has male or female connector
unused connector should plug into the gauge connector. Wires and their colors would be a help.

Main harness 2
#1; Br/W from flasher relay to Br/W from Turn signal switch.
#2; R/W Should go to kill switch. On my diagram it joins to a Y, Yellow. Look for a R/W coming from the stop/kill switch.
#3; Triple green is Dg, dark Green to right Indicator/turn-signal light and right Indicator/turn-signal light from gauge.
#4; P, Pink female bullet to horn button.
#5; L, Blue male bullet to female from meter-lights from the Gauges.
#6; R,Red female is main power to ignition switch/Key.
#7; L/W, Blue white is to the starter button from right hand switch.
#8; L/B, Blue black will connect to one of the L/B from either headlight or dimmer switch from handlebar, depending which has male or female connector

Needed to do as an exercise for my bike. Thanks.

 

[Pat D]

Oh, man- that's a big help. OK- I believe I have found the first issue- both of my coils have a brown male bullet(goes to the twin female red/white power lead from harness), and they both have a single orange female lead. I'm guessing one of the coils should have a grey female lead? No sweat, I'll just pretend one of 'em is grey!

Now, if I'm reading the diagram correctly, the handle bar kill switch stops power to the red/white lead that the brown wires from the coil plug into, depriving the ignition system of juice, and killing the circuit.

So- I'm guessing that the orange male bullet from the points/condensor harness plugs into one coil at the orange female bullet, and the grey male bullet from the points/ condensor harness plugs into the other female orange coil wire(that should be grey). Then connect #1 to #10, and #2 to #3?

Attached is a pic of the points/condensor harness- I have not had it apart, and the bike ran before the teardown, so I assume it is correct.
Baby steps ...

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

There's a `74 schematic in this thread: http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28775

 

[650Skull]

74 semantic shows the coils with brown wires joining into the R/W. 75/76 Semantic showes the R/W coming off the coils.

Tech menu-Electrical-Some wiring diagrams. Scroll down to my post and you will find a full set of Colored diagrams for the XS650.

Jayels Album as well

twomany there is a colored 74 semantic in the same vane as the other later type.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

650Skull, yeah, I thought I'd throw that in here then run far away...

 

[650Skull]

lol. don't run away just yet. I'm just a read what I've got guy. You have probably forgotten more than I've learn't about the XS

 

[650Skull]

So- I'm guessing that the orange male bullet from the points/condensor harness plugs into one coil at the orange female bullet, and the grey male bullet from the points/ condensor harness plugs into the other female orange coil wire(that should be grey). Then connect #1 to #10, and #2 to #3?

Attached is a pic of the points/condensor harness- I have not had it apart, and the bike ran before the teardown, so I assume it is correct.
Baby steps ...

I have amended my description. I put you wrong.

1. Gy double connector Condenser in points out
2, O double connector, condenser in points out
3, O to coil O.
10, Gy to coil O

74 semantic is right.
The 75/76 is wrong. Shows the gray wire Double connector joining up to the points and to a ground instead of the condenser

 

[Pat D]

OK, a few more questions. I hope I'm not coming off as a total idiot, I've been restoring cars for years, but have always had a factory manual with factory generated wiring diagrams available as a trusted reference. Plus I've never had to deal with starting from scratch, well, except for my boat, which I completely re-wired by building my own switch panel and harness. But that was simple stuff, power-switch-load-ground. In this case, I had no good reference to start from. I couldn't document the original wiring as it was totally fouled up. 80% of the harness I started with from the main junction out was simply "brown".

As far as the safety relay- I don't think I have one anymore-there is certainly no relay within reach of that molded plug at the front of the bike. All the molded plugs are back around the battery area for rectifier, regulator, etc. What does the safety relay do? Interrupt start circuit if clutch is not pulled, or if trans is not in neutral? Looking at the diagram, the safety relay connects to the starter button, the kill switch, the starter solenoid, ground, and the alternator. That molded plug referred to as #5 in my first pic has 5 wires, brown, black, green/red, white/red, and orange, the diagram I'm using shows the safety relay as having 4 wires, black, yellow, red, red/white. Not really close to what I'm seeing.

My "new" gauge light harness also has a molded plug in it with 3 wires, it does, in fact, plug into the molded plug shown in main harness branch 1, the light blue(neutral), blue/red, and green/white wires match up. My mistake was assuming that since the connector on the bulb side of the harness only had 3 wires to it, I was looking for a main harness connector with only 3 wires. The main harness connector has 6 wires, but apparently the extra 3 are not used in this configuration.

And finally, for the moment, regarding the color codes, when we refer to "Ch"(chocolate) and "Br"(brown), I assume that Ch is a darker brown than Br?

Again, thanks for bearing with me, the help is very much appreciated. At a certain point I will have stablished enough known "good" data points that I'll be able to proceed without constant hand holding. In the mean time, I will do my best to provide good, confirmed data in my questions, with photo documentation where possible.

 

[nj1639]

Good times for sure!
You are correct on the ch and br.

 

[I am Carbon]

ch stands for dark brown not chocolate left turn signals

 

[5twins]

For your points, go back to the source, the points themselves, to make sure the wires are connected correctly. This will save confusion down the line and during tuning (timing). The gray wire should connect to the upper set of points which will fire the right cylinder/coil. The orange wire goes to the bottom points set which fire your left cylinder/coil.

Every stock coil I've ever seen has a brown and an orange wire, no gray instead of orange or R/W instead of brown. I think that's the only way they were made and it's just the wiring diagrams that are incorrect. Here's my original right coil, R/W to brown and gray to orange .....

Here's the left one, R/W to brown, orange to orange .....

 

[Pat D]

Every stock coil I've ever seen has a brown and an orange wire, no gray instead of orange or R/W instead of brown. I think that's the only way they were made and it's just the wiring diagrams that are incorrect. Here's my original right coil, R/W to brown and gray to orange .....

Now that there is some damn good info- just the sort of thing I'm looking for. Once I find a source to be suspect, I have a hard time trusting any other info I get, until I can verify the reason for the inconsistancy. With the help of this thread, I'm well on my way to getting the harness buttoned back up. Many thanks for the sound baseline starting point.

 

[650Skull]

ch stands for dark brown not chocolate left turn signals

One in every crowd..............Fixed.................

 

[I am Carbon]

One in every crowd..............Fixed.................

sorry I couldn't help myself. I just had to help in someway.

 

[nj1639]

Alright, chocolate does come in various shades of brown.....milk chocolate, chocolate and dark chocolate....mch, ch, dch......... I concede.

 

[CDNTX650]

Congrats on taking on a restore. To bad 74 is the ugliest year for factory color. I seem to get stuck with those some how. My Kz is the ugly maroon red too.

 

[Pat D]

Oh dear ...I may have mis-spoke when I described my project as a "restoration". While I'm not cutting anything, I'm not going 100% concourse level restoration, either. Perhaps "mild custom" is a better descriptor. I'll be going basic black on paint, and doing a fair amount of polishing. A few components will be eliminated, such as the brake lining warning switch, and I'll be running a smaller headlight(still Yamaha, and same year, off a RD). Other than the polishing, it will still be able to be fully restored to factory trim someday.

 

[5twins]

We call those "resto-mods" and it is a nice way to bring one of these into the 21st century. Let's face it, some aspects of these bikes, like the brakes and suspension, can use some upgrading. Just don't Sawzall that stuff off like some of these guys do, lol.

 

[Pat D]

We call those "resto-mods" and it is a nice way to bring one of these into the 21st century. Let's face it, some aspects of these bikes, like the brakes and suspension, can use some upgrading. Just don't Sawzall that stuff off like some of these guys do, lol.

Aye, I've been using the bike pictured below as inspiration, it's a bit of a custom, given the amount of polishing, upgraded M/C, mirror and turn signal treatment, and I think non-stock carbs. I'm too impatient to ride to match the level of that one, maybe next time.