swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
One other thing - headlight fuse has power even with key off; is that normal?
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Part II, No Spark
- Thread starter swagsherman
- Start date
OK... you're gonna have to cut the harness open (or send the damn thing back)... near the fuse block is a factory splice that ties power to the various fuses. You're gonna have to redo that splice.
Not normal. You should lose power there when you turn the key off.
swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
Steve and I just came to same conclusion about that splice in the harness. Not sure which way to go - tear it open or argue with Mikes about returning an electrical part. Hmmmm. Thinking,,,,,
Here's what I would do.....
"Dear Mikes,
Here's your brand new faulty harness. Because of the hours needlessly spent troubleshooting, installing it and removing it... not to mention I have to do it again, I expect a new harness AND a refund on the old one. You can't sell us junk and not expect some sort of penalty for it.
Kind regards, Swagsherman."
There's a Mikes rep. incognito on this forum. Send 'em a link to this thread. He'll read it. I'm guessin' they're not fond of bad press.
swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
Send MikesXS the link to this thread? That makes perfect sense, instead of me trying to explain why I believe the harness is faulty to someone who is predisposed to believe it works just fine and the installer is an idiot. The installer does have moments of idiotness but perhaps not this time.
Once again, awesome advice from you all (come for crab cakes - you too, Tim) and, once again, I'm dead in the water until more time passes. ARGH. I'm such a "do it right now" kind of girl; this pains me.
Once again, awesome advice from you all (come for crab cakes - you too, Tim) and, once again, I'm dead in the water until more time passes. ARGH. I'm such a "do it right now" kind of girl; this pains me.
swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
BTW - nothing to do with XS650s but you all taught us so much, we were able to diagnose and repair the non-functioning brake light switch on my 1950 Indian Arrow. See? Electricity IS understandable. We won't mention how stupid simple that little switch is... shhhh. I am grateful for your assistance.
Wow, If you can go into a switch and make a repair, good for you. lectricity aint the end, it's only the beginning.
swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
Email sent to Mike's XS. Tour apart old harness just in case we can't return the new one, looking for ideas about the best place to tear into the new one. Hopefully, that's just more time wasted.
I think I understand what you have there. I think the right thing to do is make the splices at the fuse box, or the fuse box pigtail, not in the main harness. That wiring diagram only gives you the idea of what is connected to what, reality is often a different horse, with different ways to accomplish the same thing.
swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
Makes sense, easier than cutting the harness. hoping for a simple return and exchange for a new one.
If you tear into the new one, don't forget you also have a live all the time headlight fuse problem to work too. I'd check every system first and find out what else they got wrong.
Sorry to say, I don't think there was much wrong, if anything, with the Mike's harness that you took out.
My buddy got a MikesXS harness for his '80 Special II and it has some issues too. Granted, not as bad as yours, his bike runs, lol. But, his headlight comes on with the key and it shouldn't do that. We didn't check his headlight fuse but he may have that "always hot" issue there just like you do.
swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
I still think there might be something wrong. No jumper wire that I could find. The new harness replaced the fuse box and all "extra" wiring done by the previous owner. All that's on there now for wiring is either stock (when it all worked), the Mike's harness, or the stator I got from Mike's (that works just fine). I guess we'll see about the return request....
...with the harness out, it may look overwhelming, but at each connector check with wiring diagram and see where wire goes and do continuity check. I have no idea how many connectors(6-7?) With each having max 6 wires...all color coded...not that hard , just one wire at a time...whole harness not wrong...
Editted...no reason to "open up" anything, need to know where wire from each connector goes to other connector(s)... It a wire going from one end of harness to another end of harness, maybe has a "t" for wire to go to (2) places on harness.
Editted...no reason to "open up" anything, need to know where wire from each connector goes to other connector(s)... It a wire going from one end of harness to another end of harness, maybe has a "t" for wire to go to (2) places on harness.
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swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
Agree. Not whole harness, but something wrong at that splice point discussed above. I think we can open up the harness and repair everything, but easier to get a new one. And, frankly, even though $61 isn't a ton of money, I still seem to have a defective product. Seems the consumer shouldn't have to try and repair it. If Mike's disagrees, I guess we'll have to move on to more involved options. Thank you all, as always, for your input.
swagsherman
XS650 Enthusiast
End of the story (for now): Mike's XS has agreed to take back the wiring harness once they were satisfied I ordered the correct one. We'll take this one off tomorrow and return it.
PSA:. For those of you that asked on other threads about a phone number for Mike's, I also asked the rep I was emailing. He was asking me to send him my OEM harness but it wasn't clear if it was being returned to me. I thought a conversation would be easier. His response, "sorry. We do not have a phone number."
PSA:. For those of you that asked on other threads about a phone number for Mike's, I also asked the rep I was emailing. He was asking me to send him my OEM harness but it wasn't clear if it was being returned to me. I thought a conversation would be easier. His response, "sorry. We do not have a phone number."
