the-oz-slider
XS650 Addict
- Messages
- 170
- Reaction score
- 68
- Points
- 28
hey all, I recently found a very decent true barn find 1972 XS2 with only 10,204 miles on the clock. It had the usual rattle-can black paint on everything, body filler in the nut-dents in the tank, a rotten seat and frozen brakes but ultimately it will look nice beside our XS1 in mint green and our XS1-B in gold once Ive done a sympathetic resto.
My methodology when I acquire a bike is to try to get the motor running immediately to determine what I have and the potential costs of repair, starting with the motor. If the motor at least runs then I focus on the cycle gear to get the bike on the road. After that I usually strip the bike completely [including engine if needed] and do a full restoration.
In the course of doing stage 1 on the recently acquired XS2, I installed a new wiring harness to replace the butchered original and once connected and with all the switches rebuilt, we had no power anywhere in the system, except that the flasher relay would click when the ignition was turned on.
I searched high and low for errors in how Id connected all the components and even downloaded a couple of different wiring diagrams thinking that maybe I had the wrong diagram??
So while checking all the instrument bulbs to ensure they were all working OK, I happened to accidentally ground one of the bulb holders and everything lit up like a cheap Walmart Chinese made Christmas tree when grandma got a day pass from prison for Christmas...……..
So as a test I used a jumper wire to put a new ground into the harness in the headlight shell and that solved the problem. But did it really or was I masking the real problem? Indeed it did- the ground system through the harness wasn't doing it job.
So to 'fix' the problem I went back to basics and redid every ground by cleaning with a mix of 50/50 Industrial Purple and water, scrubbed all ground points with a brass brush and emery cloth and hooked her all up again.
Shazzam, the system worked perfectly with a nice fancy array of lights, blinkers, high beam and even brake lights as appropriate, demonstrating once again that the lazy shortcut method of operation doesn't succeed.
So, Lesson #243576 is, check all your grounds before becoming discouraged with an apparent electrical fault that may be as simple as a bad ground.
Al
My methodology when I acquire a bike is to try to get the motor running immediately to determine what I have and the potential costs of repair, starting with the motor. If the motor at least runs then I focus on the cycle gear to get the bike on the road. After that I usually strip the bike completely [including engine if needed] and do a full restoration.
In the course of doing stage 1 on the recently acquired XS2, I installed a new wiring harness to replace the butchered original and once connected and with all the switches rebuilt, we had no power anywhere in the system, except that the flasher relay would click when the ignition was turned on.
I searched high and low for errors in how Id connected all the components and even downloaded a couple of different wiring diagrams thinking that maybe I had the wrong diagram??
So while checking all the instrument bulbs to ensure they were all working OK, I happened to accidentally ground one of the bulb holders and everything lit up like a cheap Walmart Chinese made Christmas tree when grandma got a day pass from prison for Christmas...……..
So as a test I used a jumper wire to put a new ground into the harness in the headlight shell and that solved the problem. But did it really or was I masking the real problem? Indeed it did- the ground system through the harness wasn't doing it job.
So to 'fix' the problem I went back to basics and redid every ground by cleaning with a mix of 50/50 Industrial Purple and water, scrubbed all ground points with a brass brush and emery cloth and hooked her all up again.
Shazzam, the system worked perfectly with a nice fancy array of lights, blinkers, high beam and even brake lights as appropriate, demonstrating once again that the lazy shortcut method of operation doesn't succeed.
So, Lesson #243576 is, check all your grounds before becoming discouraged with an apparent electrical fault that may be as simple as a bad ground.
Al
