Ever build you own wiring harness

I'm considering making a wiring harness to replace the one on my bike, not just a section of it, but the whole thing. Whenever I turn the handlebars to the right, I burn one if not all three of my fuses. My wiring harness looks as though it's been cut into and had sections of wire replaced, and looks like a mess. I don't know if it would be easier to trace down the problem or to just start from scratch. I'm leaning towards making a new harness. That way I won't have to worry if something else is going to start giving me trouble in the near future.
What do you guys think? Has anyone ever done this before? Is it unreasonable to attempt? Should I just trace down the problem?

Oh, it is very do-able, just as long as you have a modicum of an electrical background/training. The harness can be a dizzying wad of spaghetti, once the shrink wrap/tape is removed. The plugs and fasteners/connectors should all be available as aftermarket, as will the correct color-coded wiring. Now, if you are not so inclined, ask Jeff at z1enterprises.com about obtaining an aftermarket harness for your bike or go to americanclassix.com, and look at their stock. You should be able to get a drop-in harness for your bike for about US$300.00...that's the easy way out (and possibly the cheaper, in the long run).

I need to wire my street fighter project. What guage wire do i need for the head lights?

I have a friend in NYC that bought a after market and he was pleased with it. I think he paid about $240.00.

building a wiring harness is not terribly complicated !the stock wiring harnesses have extra wires ,plugins for differant models such as europeon (that dont look right,how do you say euro bike?)get yourself a shop manual for a 79-80 kaw (better electronics)and make a copy of the wiring diagram on a color copier so you can modify it without screwing up your shop manual.personally i allways ditch the turnsignals and handlebar controls so my wiring harnesses only need 6-7 wires usually but it bepends on what you want to keep!if you can get me a yr and model of electronics you want use i can fax you a pretty good idea of what you need than you can lay it to fit your bike!

A wiring harness is doable. With a factory schematic, it's just a matter of hard work and attention to detail. Keep colour coding standard, use labels and number tags. Build a terminal block. Hobbyist stores carry terminal blocks and wiring tags etc. You might even be able to improve on factory. My dragbike has a tiny custom harness, but then all I run is ignition (total loss/no alternator) and oil pressure light. A bike wrecker might have a used one for 50% of OEM price.

It's doable, but it does take very careful planning. You will need a selection of connector blocks, lots of different color wires.

When I got my turbo bike, the previous owner 'customized' the wiring harness significantly. He made several bad mistakes.

1) All the wires he used were blue...
2) He used non-standard connector blocks for some items (like the ignition switch) - so when I needed to change the switch out I couldn't.
3) He didn't put in enough connectors - I had to cut some wires to remove the harness from the bike.
4) He used heavier gauge wire than necessary.

His harness is no more, I ended up ripping it off the bike after spending days trying to figure it out and solve a problem.

Can anyone give me an idea of the guage wires i need to build my wiring harness? Roy

When I did my Z1R I took the harness off a 76 900 and took about half the wires off to really simplify it. 12+ years later and no problems, same fuses even! Really, who needs or wants self-cancelling turn signals on a m/c?

I just bought a bunch of those sweet double crimp factory-type connectors and sleeves from Z1 Ent. but someone mentioned the wire... Where does one get 'factory' color coded/striped wire from? My harness is problem-free at the moment, but it did just turn 30...

Most all the wires will be 18 ga. Roy... The only ones that won't be are the big 'uns from the solenoid to starter and the battery connections. Go to Jeff for help with the connectors. Take a gander at a spare wiring harness and figure out how many multipin connectors you will need. Jeff can get them as well as the pins and perhaps, even a tool, to stick them in the connectors easily. I have used the Radioshack multipin connectors as well but they are not going to be as good as the ones Jeff can get. His supplier has them where they look about like OEM and will stay together. If you do rewire, you might want to use one of the Z1 or KZ junction terminals or make you one out of the connectors Jeff sells. If you didn't the wiring around the battery would be a rat's nest. Go to your local hardware and talk nice to the owner and see if he will whip out his wire catalog and order you up some different color wires. They usually can get more than what they stock. For the battery, ground and solenoid to starter wires, go to an autoparts store and buy some car battery cables. Get you 6 ga. wire and get long enough so you can cut the ground wire (they sell all different length cables) and have some for the starter and ground. They also sell bronze crimp on connectors for the ends... use the ones that are shaped like an O. I bought a box of them where there is about a dozen per box so I can make battery cables.

Look at the existing harness to know what gauge to use. You can roughly eyeball the gauge. 18 is too small for some of the circuits. You'll want some 16 and some 14 in addition to the heavy stuff WG mentioned.

I do this on every bike I own. I also do this on many bikes I work on which have multiple electrical problems. After I replace the wires and look at the old harness, I find many many places where the old harness was failing. When you see a "bump" in the wire, there are often broken conductors under the insulation.

Most notorious place is near the headlight where the harness goes from the frame to the fork assembly.

There is a place around the Dallas Tx. area that will make any size, any color combo a person orders. The trick is that they won't make less than (if memory serves) 500 ft. each wire... I'll try to catch the guy down the road and see if I can get a name of the place.... TFH

if we can get a bunch of people in close proximity to each other the price would be worth paying for the differant colors in 500ft rolls !