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 | Monday, April 29, 2024 |
I've already detailed the wiring of a 1972 and a 1974 Commando from scratch. This will be a little different. I've got a rebuilt but unwired MK3 in the shop to be wired for a customer. This bike will be wired similar to the others with the goal of reducing as many connectors as possible and using heavier gauge wire where needed.
All these things will be eliminated:
- Dual Zener diodes
- Bridge Rectifier
- Points
- Condensers
- Ballast Resistor
- Assimulator
These things will be added:
- Tri-Spark Tri-0006 Electronic Ignition.
- Tri-Spark VR-0030 MOSFET Regulator
- Oil Pressure Switch
I'm also considering how to reduce the number of battery connections. This bike has a huge AGM battery so it's not a big deal to have multiple wires on the terminals, but when a small Lithium battery is used it is hard to keep them in place with lots of connections.
The other issue is the handlebar central console - these are a PITA to work on and I want to see if I can make that better.
I've got one bike to finish and get off the table so this one can go on - then I can start working on it in earnest. Right now, I'm just studying a little on it. At my age, no working on bikes on the floor!
April 6, 2024 Found some really nice replacement LED lights for the console. Have a new sticker for the console on order Once that's here, I'll be able to assemble it.
April 9, 2024 All projects ahead of this one are stuck waiting for parts to arrive! So, at least for today and tomorrow, this one is getting attention. First up is mounting the Tri-Spark MOSFET voltage regulator. I have favorite places to do that with the models that came with the "hamcan" air filter. The MK1A, MK2A and MK3 have none of those places available. For MK1A and MK2A, I use the rear fender - a little fiddley but a solid solution. The MK3 can't use that solution because then the toolbox would not fit.
This one is going on the bracket between the frame and rear fender.Others have done that but I do it differently. I braze the 5/16" bolt that connects the bottom of the bracket to the fender to the bracket since it's not accessible once the regulator is installed. Then two holes are drilled to mount the regulator. Of coure, I ran out of oxygen while brazing and I put the new holes too high on the bracket so it couldn't be installed :-(
That's all fixed now and I'll powder coat the bracket tomorrow.
April 10, 2024 Went on a hunt for the stator wires today - couldn't see them anywhere. Finally removed the starter and fished them out. Started running wires. Every time I document a wiring job people later complain that I didn't give enough detail. I'm going to try again to correct that.
Notes:
- I cut wires longer than needed. When running wires, it often turns out that between bundling, fitting around things, and so on that the wires seem to get shorter. There's nothing worse than having to splice on more wire or run a new wire. If you are frugal, you probably can cut wires shorter than I specify, but I certainly wouldn't!
- I buy all my supplies from British Wiring I have no relationship with them, I am simply a customer of theirs. Where I've document a product of theirs, I included their part number.
- Where I say "buy" I mean how many/much to buy.
- If wiring a pre-MK3 Norton, I recommend reading through this and following this: Norton 1974 Wiring Differences in the master switch location, flasher location, and headlight verses center console mean that they are similar but different.
The first task in each wiring job is the five headlight ot taillight wires. These are all 79" long (2m). Edit: 4/28/2024 - I went a bit overboard on the extra length - cut each of the wires below to at least 73".
- 14ga Red, Ground, buy 3m (C128)
- 18ga Brown, Brake, buy 4m (C114)
- 18ga Brown/Green, Lighting, buy 4m (C114)
- 18ga Green/White, Right Side Turn Signals, buy 3m (C114)
- 18ga Green/Red, Left Side Turn Signals, buy 3m (C114)
It's best to bundle these together and route them - figuring the routing of these out will make the rest of the wires clearer.
April 11, 2024 Removed the started and found the stator wires. Need to understand why the 3rd started screw that goes through the cases into the starter was a short screw and screwed into the inner chaincase like the others.
April 12, 2024 Got the console label today. The console looks really good. I would have finished it, but I would like to find a way to not solder the wires in case a LED goes out. The lights drop in from the front and have a nut on the back. If soldered, to replace one will require cutting the wires is soldered. They are LEDs so very unlikely to go out. I found a set of connectors that supposedly would work - they are on their way back to Amazon - didn't work as advertised! I have another set coming tomorrow. If they work I'll use them, otherwise, I'll leave a little extra length and solder the wires.
Of course the LEDs are wired for negative ground, but that's no issue as I'll go from them using the correct colors to the harness. Since the turn indicator is an LED, I'll also add the two diodes to make it work.
April 14, 2024 The new connectors had a different write-up but were identical and cannot be used. I studied on it and have a plan for wiring the console that will still be relatively easy to change one of the lights if it is ever needed. More later. I also, messed with routing of the 6ga starter wires. That's all figured out now as well as the routing of the regulator yellow wires. Also, I confirmed that there will be no red wire to the battery and the Brown/Blue will go to the un-switched side of the starter solenoid. The nuts on the starter solenoid have seen better days so I ordered replacements. I still have to verify that the solenoid is good!
The warning lights come with ring nuts and an o-ring. When I first put them in the console, the o-rings slowly buckled the sticker. So, I took them back out, smoothed the sticker, took the o-rings off and put each light in, then its o-ring, then its nut. This keeps the sticker nice and acts to lock the nut in place.
April 18, 2024 Is there anything worse than a brain fart? Started wiring the console today and wanted to knock out the most fiddley part first - the diodes to let the LED turn signal indicator to work I've understood diodes since college in 1966. Why in the hell did I look at the correct symbol on my special schematic and think about it backwards. I put together with a photo at each step for a tutorial and it doesn't work because the diodes or the LED is backwards (two ways they can be wired). Grrrrrrrrr!
April 19, 2024 Actually there is something worse - brain farting on you brain fart! It turns out that the diodes were wired right, the LED was backwards! I got confused because I was thinking that the wire colors are backwards from positive ground and that I would have to splice or mark them all - silly, red is still positive and black will translate to whatever color it needs to be for other circuits. Only when an indicator doesn'tt go directly to ground will I have to do something. In any case, the correct wire colors will connect to the main harness.
Below is a montage of the steps.I had this much more details but lost half the pictures. Still it shows how to do it.
- The end of each diode with the line goes to the control wire which connects the actual indicator wire. Green/White is right side, Green/Red is left side.Then both get heat shrink to cover the connection and diode.
- The other ends of the diodes get connected together and connected to the negative side of the LED (black wire). Then covered with heat shrink.
- Since I had the diode backwards I had to splice the red wire
- The Red wire goes to positive ground as usual for a Norton.
- In the last two pictures you can see that whether the Green/White or Green/Red is connect to power (negative), the LED lights. When the Green/Red and Green/white wires are connect to the main Green/Red and Green/White, the indicator will flash with the turn signals.
Below the pictures is a snippet of the wiring diagram showing the diodes, LED and all wire colors involved.
One side of the flasher has a white wire (-12 volts). The other side has the LightGreen/Brown wire that goes to the handlebar control. If that console is on the left handlebar, then up connects the LightGreen/Brown to the GreenWhite and the right-side turn signals flash. If down then the LightGreen/Brown is connected to the Green/Red and the left turn signals flash. Since the indicator wires are connected to the two sides via diodes, the indicator flashes with the turn signals.
April 22, 2024 I've been trying to finish up a bike but along the way still gathering things for this project. Like a big dummy, I ordered some wire I was out of and no bullets. I was sure I had them. As I was putting the order away, I notice no bullets! So, a second order (with more ridiculous shipping) and I got a bunch more. Of course, when I went to put them in the bin, I stumbled across the unopened package of 100 that I did not put in their proper place - I swear I need a keeper!
Next thing, I wanted Zip Tie mounts for the inside of the console and had none of them. Last time I used them I thought they were 3/4" and that seemed too big for hte inside of the console so I searched long and hard and found 1/2" square mounts - the cute little buggers arrived today. Turns out that what I was used to were 1" square. Assuming these hold, they will be good. They have very sticky 3M foam double stick tape on them so they probably will. The are not strictly required but I like wiring to be compact and to stay into place. This is ready a nasty environment if riding in the rain.
April 23, 2024
Back on the console and it's coming along nicely. But, I almost made a mistake. All Lucas equipped bikes I've ever worked on that had a high-beam indicator used green for that. Not the MK3! It uses blue for high-beam and green for neutral. Fortunately, I caught that before having to order more lights! The LEDs come with very fine black and red wires so I'm splicing them to the correct colors and with 9-strand wires where the right colors were available and 14-strand (18ga) where not. They will use standard bullets in any case. If an indicator ever goes out, it can be removed and replaced without much trouble. Initially I was going to do it with plugs but I never could find plugs compatible with the very fine ware and 9- or 14-strand wire. The splices I'm using are waterproof and so are the LEDs. The little tie downs are working very well. This will actually be very neat when done.
April 24, 2024 It probably seems like I'm making the console my life's work! The indicators are all wired and tested and I'm happy with the results. I still have to wire the master switch but I'm going to bundle those wires separate from the indicators - they will run together to the headlight shell, but in separate covers.
April 25, 2024 Started to do the master switch wiring and then realized that the MK3 switch cover is different than the pre-MK3. I don't have an MK3 switch overs :-(. So, I"m placing an AN order tonight.
I remembered that I didn't talk about wire lengths for the wires to the indicators. There are 8 wires and where I could get the right colors in 9-strand I used that. The rest are 14-strand but they are not a lot thicker. Since I don/t have long lengths of 9-strand, I was conservative with the lengths. 9-strand and 14-strand take different bullets that are identical on the outside so they work fine in the connectors. Wire finer than 9-strand doesn't work well in bullets which is why I had to splice Red to Red in some cases.
I cut each indicator's wire to 2-3" staggering each. Then used splices that solder and waterproof with a heat gun. The final overall length of the wires is about 16". There is not as much slack as I like at this point but they will be plenty long enough. This bike has an oil pressure switch rather than an assimulator so here are the wires:
In the picture above I show all indicator wires bundles and tied down. This leaves little room for the switch with cover so they probably will be split into left and right bundles - haven't decided yet.
As I do with all bikes, the master switch will be wired this way:
Pin 1: 14ga Brown/Blue which ends up at battery negative via the fuse.
Pin 2: Three 18ga White wires. One to the left-hand handlebar console, one to the right-hand console, and the other to the other white wires.
Pin 3: 18ga Brown/Green wire that connects to the other Brown/Green wires and lights the taillight, pilot light and instruments lights.
Pin 4: 18ga Blue/Yellow wire that enables the headlight
These wires are all cut to 15". Two white wires will be terminated by on female standard spade connector. The other white wire and the two other wires each get terminated in a standard spade connector. The other ends will get the appropriate sized bullet once final wiring and cutting to length is done.
April 26, 2024 Now were getting somewhere! I was planned to run the rear brake wires down the front of the two angled frame tube as the back. It took a while ot take the blinders off and switch to the rear tube. The first picture show how hard the switch is to get to and how the wires will get there
The second Picture was supposed to be three pictures but the other two didn't come out. When I splice wires, the first steps is a solid connection between then, then solder, then a piece of heat shrink just long enough to cover the bare wire and finally another piece of heat shrink that extends about 1/4" past each end of the first piece.
The third picture shows all the main wired run. There are three more splices to do. Where you see two zip ties together the wires will break out of the harness. Under the tank, there one 14ga Red wire that will connect to the head steady Allen bolt closest to the timing side. On a MK3 there is a heavy ground wire to the engine - this 14ga Red wire is the ground of rhe rest of the bike. The 18ga Red wire exiting the harness bt that 14ga Red wire goes to the + of the coil on the drive side. Normally, the oil pressure switch connects to the rocker feed from the engine, but the owner modified it to be connected to the top of the rocker feed so the White/Brown wire goes there. The White/Yellow wire from the kill switch exits the harness with the White/Brown and will connect to the Black/Yellow from the Tri-Spark. The Black/White (not yet run) will connect to the - of the timing side coil.
Once the splices are done, I can add sleeves/heat shrink where needed and then wrap the harness. One thing I'm not looking forward to is checking/cleaning the handlebar consoles and figuring out all the wrong colors they have - I can't figure out why the didn't use standard colors!
April 28, 2024 All wires have now been run. The thing that tales the longest time is putting the harness or and taking it off many times. This is needed to ensure that the breakouts happen at good places, that the wires that leave the main trunk are long enough, and that everything routes. All the breakout locaitons are finalized in the front half of the bike and all the wires that connect to things are at least a little long. Each will get a sleeve or heatshrink even though it's overkill. As you can see, there are very few wires under the tank and once terminated, they will be even harder to see.
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Greg Marsh Enterprises
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