Rebuild '82 Standard Wire Harness and Fuse Box

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

I am in the process of restoring the self cancelling turn signal system to my '82 Standard and it is quite the project. A large part of the project includes rebuilding/restoring the original wire harness. The current harness on the bike is actually from the '81 donor bike and is quite a bit different from the '82 harness. I decided to start a new thread specific to the wire harness as I believe the information specific to the harness will be helpful in the future. More to follow! :read:

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

First up.......I need to restore my '82 wire harness and check for any bad wires or connectors. I removed the harness from the bike back in '07 since it was pretty darn weather beatin and the fuse box connections were frozen and rusty. I pulled it out of storage and started by pulling all of the old tape off.

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

Boy is that stuff sticky!! :shock:

Glad I did it though! Found a few bad wires and connectors. Plus, the fuse block has not got any better with time. :hihihi:

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

With the whole harness out, I think it is a good time to upgrade the fuse block. Plus I can add new wires now to run to the radio, trailer wiring and horn directly from new fuses without all of the excess wires running around the bike now. I'm think a small fuse panel with blade fuses and adding a relay to set up another small fuse panel for everything that runs off the accessory side such as the horn, radio and trailer lights.

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

Been chasing through the wire harness, checking multiple wiring diagrams (mostly because there are differences in the color schematics for the '80-'82 and the '83). The '82 wiring is a real mixture of the '80-'81 and '83 standard wiring; none of the schematics are correct for the '82 standard. BUT, since I pulled all of the electrical tape off, it has been a fairly easy process to follow the wires from connector to connector. Some of these have been real interesting.

For one thing, whenever Honda needed to extend and split off, say a ground circuit, they ran a 14 gauge wire, would cut out some casing and crimped in two 18 gauge wires to run off whichever way was needed and then ran blue electrical tape over the splice which is then covered by the black tape wrap around the harness. There are quite of few of these "crimped" circuits. I am surprised these bikes do not have more electrical problems than they do.

Another surprising find (at least to me), there are only two grounds in the entire wiring system. The main ground from the battery to the frame and then ONLY ONE 16 gauge green wire with an eyelet that attaches at the frame by the coils. That is it! :shock:

All negative pathways lead to the one ground wire connected at the coils. And that wire is spliced about 4 times through out the wire harness. I was pretty shocked! :heat:

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

Here is a pic of that SINGLE grounding point for the entire ground system within the harness:

The insulation took a beating! Good thing that is a ground wire and not a hot wire! :shock: :cheeky:

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

Again, I was shocked (no pun intended :hihihi: ) to see how branch circuits were spliced right into sections of the wires. The splices are crimped into a wire midway through any wire. A little bit of research into this and I found out this is pretty much the way everyone (including car manufacturer's) did their circuits up until the '90's. That black wire is the main positive feed wire coming from the key switch to the fuse box and is branched off to other hot leads for RR, and other system devices.

The splices are covered in blue electrical tape and then wrapped in the black harness wrap (also a form of electrical tape). I am really surprised these connections hold up after all of these years.

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

The coils are not cracked, but the wires leading to them are in really bad shape. I can easily replace the wires EXCEPT for the wires coming out of the ballast resister. They are kinked in a few places and the covering is different. (More like a cotton cover than the vinyl insulation on the rest of the wires.) I do not know if that wire should be replaced or just try to get a new resistor?

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

The stator plug is cracked from sun damage, but the wires, terminals and connectors are actually not melted (yet). :hihihi:

I though this would be a good time to inspect the stator connector on the bike since I replaced it 2014. Still looking new!! :yahoo:

But, I have to note in this picture the road dirt (and potential oil leak?) on the top of the plug and the wires behind the connector. All of those wires were wiped and clean when I installed this plug. It just shows how much road dirt, water or oil kicks up under the side covers!

I am convinced that good clean terminals and dielectric grease and these connectors will hold up without melting. :yes:

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

Taking all of this apart is really helping me to understand the positives and pitfalls of our electrical system.

dan filipi · Jul 22, 2016

On the ballast resistor I just taped the wires.

mcgovern61 · Jul 22, 2016

So.....what would the electrical guys do with these splices and connections? The crimps seem to be tight. I have read that it is a bad idea to also solder them mid wire because the solder will become solid and the heat may cause the strands to crack and fray right at the joint. So how do we approach this? Clean up the wire with white vinegar, add liquid electrical tape and then just close them up in the harness again? :headscratch:

backlander · Jul 22, 2016

I have a harness from an 85 that I did the same thing to and found that the "blue" splices made by Honda are well made and there are a bunch of them, they have lasted 30 + years and continue to work so I saw no need to r & r them. Stator plug and starter relay plug replaced always as well as dogbone fuse replaced by weatherproof inline 30 amp blade fuse and a standard GM two wire Alternator plug will plug directly into the other two poles on the starter relay to connect back to the other wiring. As long as those factory crimps are tight and clean, I would dialectic grease them, sparingly, and tape and let it fly. On wires that were frayed or needed to be replaced, solder and heatshrink and tape. imo

backlander · Jul 22, 2016

This is not my design and I can't remember which site I got it from but he is a very popular builder of Goldwings and stated that this is the first thing he does to all his bikes. It gives you great versatility to add accessories at any time from front to rear of bike and I guess you could scale it up or down to your projected needs. Anyway, I like it and bought everything to build it, just haven't gotten around to doing it yet, take a look.

joedrum · Jul 22, 2016

hmmmmm neat

rocks · Jul 22, 2016

Have you considered the Motogadget M-Unit?
I implemented that on my CB750, and I love it.
I am currently restoring a 1977 GL1000. The engine is split in halves, and I am changing main bearings and piston rings right now. If everything turns out fine, M-Unit is my way.

slabghost · Jul 22, 2016

Sounds like a good plan. I'd skip the vinegar. If you don't get it all off and completely dry it will cause corrosion.

dan filipi · Jul 22, 2016

I've never had any problem with soldering splices like you said Gerry. I'd solder then tape and wrap it up.

Ansimp · Jul 22, 2016

[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=177421#p177421:2xfsmto0 said:
backlander » Sat Jul 23, 2016 2:59 am[/url]":2xfsmto0]
I have a harness from an 85 that I did the same thing to and found that the "blue" splices made by Honda are well made and there are a bunch of them, they have lasted 30 + years and continue to work so I saw no need to r & r them. Stator plug and starter relay plug replaced always as well as dogbone fuse replaced by weatherproof inline 30 amp blade fuse and a standard GM two wire Alternator plug will plug directly into the other two poles on the starter relay to connect back to the other wiring. As long as those factory crimps are tight and clean, I would dialectic grease them, sparingly, and tape and let it fly. On wires that were frayed or needed to be replaced, solder and heatshrink and tape. imo

+1 :good:

Ansimp · Jul 22, 2016

Why not add another earth wire that joins to the battery frame cable point Gerry while you have the harness apart :yes:

Rebuild '82 Standard Wire Harness and Fuse Box

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