Gents, Please help! Im new to the forum and to the GSXR but not to bikes. I picked up a speed machine reciently with all kinds of mods ; carbs, ignition, air shifter and other stuff. The motor is being rebuilt so I took the time to clean up the wiring. Three and a half hrs later and something grounded somewhere as I was threading the headlight wires back through the frame. The wire that wire that melted is the black wire with the white stripe, and it melted bad meaning smoke etc. So heres the questions:
1) Can this wire be replaced without replacing the wireing harness(its the general negative right)?
2) What else could have been effected by this wire melting - anything else I should be looking for?
you'll have to get out your service manual and figure out exactly what wire you burned, peel the tape back and trace it to check for further damage. once you are confident you've cut out the damaged wire you can solder in a new piece then heatshrink over it and retape, should look decent. please dont use butt connectors or any crimp type devices to splice the new piece in.
Ummm.. Ground wires don't do the melting. There is no power going through ground wires. No power No sparkey...
This is incorrect , of course there is power (current) going through ground wires . Double check your engine earth lead . The large dia black wire going from the engine cases to the battery.
If this is loose , the when you flick the starter - the huge current going through your starter motor and then back to the -ve side of the battery will be trying to find its way back to earth. With the main earth wire not connected , it will find its way via one of the small (black/white) wires and the large current will soon destroy it.
your problem sounds like a bad earth connection to me.
Lee
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Motorcycle: 1986 GSX-R750R, 1986 GSX-R1100, 1989 GSX-R750RR, 1997 GSX-R750, 2001 GSX-R1000, 2001 Bandit 1200S, plus a few others.
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Re: Wire melt down = bad day
Remove the battery from the bike. Put it on a bench, out of the way, on a trickle charger. Check the water level while you're at it.
Remove the portion of the wiring harness in question, so that you can get a good look at it. Wires don't short to ground unless they are damaged. If one was damaged, it's likely that another is also damaged.
Open the harness up, identify all of the damaged wires and look at a wiring diagram to figure out what they are. Then, consider whether the component they fed was damaged also. Once you identify the damaged wires, replace them. I'm not a fan of replacing just a portion of a wire but that's up to you. I wouldn't solder them, I'd use a crimp connector like Suzuki did. Just don't use the crappy ones from an auto parts store.
Once the wires are fixed, re-wrap the harness and route it so it doesn't get damaged again. There's a very good routing diagram in the factory service manual.
This is just my opinion and you know the old saying, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. I have had good luck in the past working on car, trucks, bikes etc, just replacing the single wire or if only a small portion is burnt cutting it and crimping on a new piece. I do not know the proper name but they sell butt connectors w/ a plastic coating that you melt w/ a small micro torch. If you don't want to buy a small torch and you are careful you can melt the plastic w/ a lighter. They sell them in all gauge sizes. It is most likely 16 gauge or 14 gauge by the description of the wire. Just cut, strip, crimp, melt. The plastic gets hard as a rock when cooled and is water tight. Like Java said check all wires and trace back to all components and check for damage. Cheers, Bobby
. So heres the questions:
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