Hey all,
First off, long time listener, first time caller... I've recently acquired an early 84 xlx that has been stripped of all the non-essential electronics; turn signals, dummy lights, ect. I am more than happy to continue rat-bobbing this thing out and I've got more than enough ideas to keep me busy. But at the moment, I am wanting to clean up my bars of all electronics. So the sheet metal is stripped off, the headlight opened... and damn, there is a mess of unnecessary wires all over the place.
My intent is to wire a high/low beam switch to the eyebrow, and add a remote start button to the old CV enrichener hole. (bike came with an S&S) I have the factory manual and have looked at the wiring diagram, but wiring is definetly not my strong suit. I know what I need wires that I need for my switches, but what do I do with all the now useless ones. It seems like I can just start chopping unnecessary wires, but I'm wondering if it would be easier to just cut it all out and wire it for my needs. If that's the consensus, can anyone point me too a "ironhead wiring for dummies"?
Being an early 84 it still has a generator, but does have the electronic ignition.

 

Sounds to me like best is to strip off all of the wire harness. You can buy a complete wire harness which has the same wire colors, lengths, etc from J&P Cycles and others, or you can just buy colored wire locally and wire up what you need. Some guys like marine wire. Use a fabric wire harness not a split loom type as it is much nicer. It takes only a few hours to install a complete one and they are not expensive.

I have not pulled the thru-headlite connector apart myself but it is not as bad as it looks. It is the same as the larger connector in the bucket. Squeeze the sides in the right spots and it comes apart. Here are some pics ...

 

Get rid of all the unnessary wiring. I did that to mine but there is points in mine and I do have a 84 also want to convert back to electronic ign. later. I did add back blinkers and put leds with the badlands kit modulle to save on the current draw on the generater

 

I would agree strip all of the old out and start over. It will be an old wire that you kept that will cause you a problem. I used all black wire that is labeled with numbers so you really can't see much of it...although my bike doesn't have much wiring to it. I used the basic diagram I got from Mick and just ran 1 wire at a time wasn't to bad at all .

T-Ron

 

I thought it would be easier to start over, but the task seems a little intimidating.. There doesn's seem to be a need for a full harness, so the 1 wire at a time sounds like a good idea. I guess I should just cut the all the wires out? Maybe leave the connectors in case I need a reminder of what goes where.. should I use some sort of connector to make things easy to remove, like the headlight/ tail light, or coil. I know I need the starter relay to wire the starter relay, but what about the four fuse boxes? (sorry about the terminology) mounted to lower front of the rear fender? Do I need to keep them? I'm sorry about the newbie questions. I actually do have an 02 xl that I work on, and I was the same way before tearing into it.. unfortunately, it was only splicing a few wires when I added bars.
IronMick, do you know if I can find any of the cloth covered wire at any of the hardware/home chain stores? and so you have that basic wiring diagram that dirty78ironhead was talking about?

 

I just run one circuit breaker for my whole system. I just got headlight,taillight and starter.

 

I imagine I would need one for the electronic ignition as well... How many amps is the breaker you are running? What gauge wire did you use?

 

Here is my word description of the full wire harness for a 1978 XLH. It would be useful to have the wire diagram and follow this description thru it. The Haynes manual contains a full color version of the factory manual diagram so that one woulf be easiest to use. This is in sequence by current flow, starting with the generator ...

1[a] GREEN from generator F to voltage regulator
1[b] TAN from generator A to voltage regulator
1[c] TAN from generator A to BLACK at generator lamp

2[a] ORANGE from voltage regulator to connector, then ...
2[b] RED from connector thru MAIN cb to battery +ve
2[c] RED from MAIN cb to starter relay
2[d] RED from MAIN cb to ignition switch B terminal

Note: current passes thru MAIN cb in reverse direction along 2[b] to charge battery

3[a] RED from battery +ve to MAIN circuit breaker [same wire as 2[b]
3[b] BLACK from battery +ve to solenoid long stud
3[c] BLACK from solenoid short stud to starter motor

4[a] WHITE from ignition switch IG terminal [1st key stop] to IGN cb and ACC cb
4[b] GREEN from ignition switch L terminal [2nd key stop] to LIGHTS cb

Note: IG and L are connected by a small GREEN [sg]; at 2nd key stop both IG and L are 12 volts, even with sg removed. So, with sg removed anything connected to IGN, ACC or MAIN will come on at first key stop; anything connected to LIGHTS comes on only at second key stop - a simple, useful modification, especially so that the headlite is not on while using the starter motor.

Two BLUE from LIGHTS cb:
5[a] to rear wire harness connector then GREEN to tail light
5[b] to headlite dimmer switch and thru connector RED to speedo and tach lights

Two wires from headlite dimmer switch:
5[c] yellow to low beam
5[d] white to high beam and high beam indicator

Two ORANGE from ACC cb:
6[a] to rear stoplight switch
6[b] to ORANGE wire connector in headlite bucket

Five ORANGE from ORANGE wire connector:
6[c] to diode, thru connector to BLACK to oil lamp & gen lamp, and to a free spot in connector
6[d] to turn signal flasher
6[e] to front stop light switch
6[f] to the horn switch
6[g] loops back into connector itself to service four free spots in connector

6[h] GREEN from oil lamp to oil pressure switch
6[i] GREEN from flasher to a connector, then two GREEN from connector to left and right turn signal buttons, then VIOLET and BROWN to left and right turn signal lamps

RED from rear stop light switch to rear wire harness connector
RED from front stop light switch to rear wire harness connector
RED from rear wire harness connector to stop lamp

7[a] GRAY from IGN cb thru headlite bucket to RUN switch

Two WHITE from RUN switch:
7[b] to ignition coil [12 volts when key and RUN are both on]
7[c] to START button [12 volts when key and RUN are both on]

7[d] BLACK from START button to starter relay [12 volts while START button is pressed] which results in ...
7[e] GREEN from starter relay RED 2[c] to solenoid small terminal
7[f] Solenoid activates, passing 12 volts along two BLACKs [i]from battery to solenoid 3[b] and [ii] from solenoid to starter motor 3[c]

 

Here is a link to more information on wire diagrams ...

IronHead Wire Diagrams Etc

 

The breakers are very important.

The MAIN is 30 amps. It must be between the +ve battery post and the ignition switch. Bikes have burned to the ground because of the absence of this breaker.

There must be a separate IGN breaker so that the bike does not completely shut down because of a short circuit in a lighting system wire - a common occurence especially in the rear where they often get caught between the fender and the strut.

The third breaker is for lights. #4, which a minimal system does not need, is for ACCessories.

If you do not have the first three you have a problem waiting to occur.