Tools of the Trade

Last month I briefly discussed the trials and tribulations that came with my wiring project. Along with the process, I thought it might be helpful to go over some of the tools I used to get the job done.

Ratcheting Crimper

Purchased from Vintage Connections along with the appropriate dies, I highly recommend a ratcheting crimper instead of playing the guessing game with pliers or a non ratcheting tool. It won’t release until you have crimped the correlating wire size enough for a solid connection. Vintage Connections also has everything you need to wire up a motorcycle from scratch.

Wire

Purchased from Best Boat Wire and Amazon, I used marine grade tinned copper wire. Touted for being extremely durable and water resistant. Was this overkill? Maybe. Maybe Not. Either way this stuff is not cheap and its insulation is most likely thicker than what is on your bike, making it a little harder to tell sizes apart.

Heat Gun

Purchased from Amazon, I chose the easy route for this part of the project. I found the highest rated mini heat gun and clicked, "Buy now."

Heat Shrink Butt Connectors

Purchased from Amazon, or more specifically "Connector Supply" on Amazon. This vendor has quality 3M connectors that have worked just fine for me thus far. I originally ordered a kit from this vendor only to run out of the red 18-22 gauge size. I ordered my second round of connectors on eBay from a different vendor and they were terrible. I had a very hard time getting them to crimp correctly. This poor purchase made me order more connectors and this time from a trusted source, Connector Supply.

Wire stripper

I used two different kinds of wire strippers; A self adjusting style which I already had and a multi-function crimp/strip that was an impulse purchase from a local Home Depot a while ago. I personally like using the self-adjusting style but the other tool was very helpful in determining gauge size.

Digital Multimeter

Purchased from Amazon. I originally had an old one my dad had given me to use but decided to upgrade. I decided again to make my life less difficult and went off online reviews. I haven't had the chance to use it much as my diagnostics were fortunately limited to one area of my harness.

AWG Gauge Tool

Purchased from Amazon, this item ended up being wash. I was nervous about picking the right size wire but it was somewhat hard to accurately measure the stranded copper wire. I found a wire stripper a better tool to figure out wire sizes.

*Note: I am not receiving any promotional compensation for the items and vendors listed in this article. These are products I personally chose after doing research on what I thought would best fit my needs and they have worked well for me so far.

Wiring Woes

Like a lot motorcycle aficionados in the custom scene, I spend a good amount of my time surfing the vast digital landscape of the internet for the latest bespoke and one-off two wheeled machine. While engaging in this seemingly perpetual activity, a thought that frequently pops into my head is, “I could totally do that.” It was that kind of thinking that led me my current personal project: a lean and mean Kawasaki. More specifically, the wiring of a lean and mean Kawasaki.

I have a good amount of experience with tinkering on motorcycles given that I grew up around the scene. Wiring though, is not my forte; and I think it’s safe to say a lot of shade tree mechanics consider themselves in the same boat.

My goal for this portion of the bike was to extend the wiring harness, allowing me to fit up all necessary pieces in a discreet tray that would be nested under the seat of my bike.

The actual process of extending the harness was pretty straightforward. Cut and crimp. That is basically it. Despite being simple in theory, there are some things I think that are extremely beneficial to take into consideration.

Take your time. Patience is key, and for me, this is a problem. Impulse is what gets me into trouble and for this project, I had to restrain myself from just going to town on the harness without due diligence and readily available tools. This saved me a lot of headache.

Label EVERYTHING, and I mean everything. Unless you are an elephant savant, you will forget things. Especially if this is the first time you’ve rewired a system such as one on a motorcycle.

Tearing down a bike can happen extremely fast. It’s fun and easy to do; much easier than building it back up. When your hands start pulling connectors apart and ripping wires faster than you can keep track, we go back to the point about patience. Slow down and take some notes.

Mock it all up. Despite having a limited workspace that isn’t within walking distance of my home, I was fortunate enough to have a removable electronics tray. This allowed me to do most of my work away from the bike. It is a pain, but putting everything together and taking it back apart multiple times will lead to a happier future self. Measure twice, cut once. Again, in my personal experience, patience is huge.

To be honest, I had been planning this article for a while, but didn’t think it would be right to do a write up on how I did some rewiring on a motorcycle until I knew it worked.

After much anticipation, everything was roughly back on the bike. When I say roughly, I mean half the bike was zip ties. I didn’t make it all neat and clean because if issues did arise, I needed to get to the wires. I turned the key and hit the button. Crickets. Not even a click. What a sinking feeling. At this point though the adrenaline was coursing and I persevered.

My troubleshooting led me to the starter relay area, which I shorted out and the bike turned over. Something was not right either coming in or going out. There was one wire I had not spliced back up, I thought it was to the taillight and unnecessary for starting. This was dead wrong. It was 100 percent necessary. Five minutes and four crimps later, there was life.

Don’t panic. Problems will arise, and when they do, it’s better to just take a step back and try to think of what has been left out. In this case, I was lucky, it was a simple oversight and a simple fix. Although I was no stranger to working on motorcycles, I had never tackled the wiring on one. Although this article does not encapsulate all the anxiety and small setbacks that came with this project, it all went fairly smoothly. So when looking at something you think you could do, there is a good chance that you can.