Wiring Harness Hell.

[ItsSamuelC]

Hi,

I recently bought a 79 XS650 Bobber.
Somebody elses project they couldnt be bothered to finish etc.
The wiring is atrocious and I have started to work my way through.
I have fixed mistakes and repaired everything in their “wiring harness”, so everything is working, but its all still very messy and I want to simplify and make neater. One thing Ive just come up against that im unsure about is that the headlight power cable is spliced and one leg is sent to one side of the ignition coil.
What could be the reason for this?

thanks in advance.

(photo attached for your amusement)

 

[peterg]

Can you post a clearer picture of the headlamp wires and where they attach to the coil?

 

[5twins]

One side of the coil is fed switched power from the ignition switch so they probably just chose that coil connection spot to draw headlight power from.

 

[ItsSamuelC]

One side of the coil is fed switched power from the ignition switch so they probably just chose that coil connection spot to draw headlight power from.

Yeh, after some research and thinking I figured its nothing to do with the light and is just the way they decided to get power to the coil. thanks for the response! Its really appreciated.

 

[Raymond]

Jim recommended looking at some of the simplified wiring diagrams in the Tech section:

http://www.xs650.com/threads/61

I did that and modified one to re-wire my 1978 SE, which has Boyer ignition. Ended up with this:



which you could simplify even more if you don't have turn signals etcetera.