Loom Repair - Any tips?

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swarrans
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by swarrans »

Lovely work!
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Waterbuffalo
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by Waterbuffalo »

Some more photos of rebuilt or upgraded electrical components. A lot of this work is merely time consuming, I save it for weekends so I can sit and methodically do it.
Stator brush holder and wire 2.JPG
New brushes and larger gauge green wire section.
Stator restored 1.JPG
Restored rotor and alternator unit awaiting the three new yellow phase wires and sheathing etc.
GT750 gear switch harness in restoration 1.JPG
Gear switch unit under restoration.
GT750 gear switch harness restored.JPG
Completed gear switch unit.
GT750 temp gauge harness restored 1.JPG
Temp gauge wiring now restored.
IMG_2304.JPG
Instrument light harnesses under restoration.
IMG_2310 (2).JPG
Gear indicator units after being restored.
IMG_0585.JPG
Typical front harness condition before I take it all apart.
Two strokes, its just that simple.
RichardsMorphy
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by RichardsMorphy »

That looks better 8-) 'Must admit, I'd much rather strip them down and replace myself but if it's going to cost three times as much, than a repro loom, maybe not :? It's not just buying the connector blocks and a few metres of each colour wire but I don't have a decent crimping tool and there's a few other tools I'd probably need too.
Waterbuffalo, what tool do you find best for the small terminals in the connector blocks? The ones that look like tweezers? And can you please point me in the right direction for an adequate and not too pricey crimping tool?

Thanks, Drew.
Drew. '75 GT750M
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Waterbuffalo
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by Waterbuffalo »

Luckily most of the small low load circuit wires in the harness are decent, its the higher consumption wires such as the orange, yellow, white and black ones you need to change out as all of the stock ones in the harness are JUNK.

You are in the UK so are you willing to buy from a US supplier and pay shipping and duty etc?
The reason i say that is because I have a great contact whos in the eastern USA that supplies all anyone could ever need for terminals, sockets, pin removal tools, crimpers etc.

I've restored a load of GT 750 harnesses already and I can tell you buying what you need from scratch to do just one harness or two is not cost effective. Why not pay someone who has the correct equipment already to restore your harness for you. It will be done for less than a new one and be just as good, if not better since its a bespoke unit.

Don't ever buy cheap electrical supplies; pin removal tools and crimpers need to be of high quality, if not they will break or be so poorly made you will regret it later.

I have two crimpers; one I paid nearly $80.00 for it, the other I use for initial alignment of the smaller fiddly crimps. I've had that second one forever but I dont use it to finalize the crimps just align them as its not designed for crimping the pvc and the terminal at the same time.
Two strokes, its just that simple.
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Waterbuffalo
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by Waterbuffalo »

There are quite a few things wrong with the design of the GT750 wiring harness. This is the one of the biggest issues built into it
IMG_0591.JPG
Everything that powers the bike, runs through this poorly designed overloaded circuit.
Two strokes, its just that simple.
RichardsMorphy
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by RichardsMorphy »

I'm back...sorry for the late reply WB, after Xmas was out of the way, I've been waiting for the crimp tool to arrive from the States before going any further and it just got here today. After much deliberation, I've opted for this one, it's the only crimp tool that I could find that specifically stated it was for the same terminals as on the GT loom and that it worked well. I can't see why some crimp tools are around the £300 mark, I guess the dies are made from harder steel to last longer but, apart from the dies, I can't see much difference between a £300 one and the $35 I've ended up with from here :-

http://vintageconnections.com/Tools.htm



I also opted for a set of cheapo "extractor" tools to help remove the terminals from the blocks, most were a bit bent when they arrived but, although cheap as chips, they work fine.
P1014582.JPG
If I decide to do this more often, It'd be worth looking at some tools that are a bit better quality.

Next stage is to work out which connector blocks I want to replace along with any terminals that look a bit tired and which cabling needs to be removed and replaced.
Attachments
P1014563.JPG
Drew. '75 GT750M
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Waterbuffalo
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by Waterbuffalo »

Its good to see you got a decent crimper now. I know you mentioned buying a new harness, but to be honest thats not solving anything simply because its got the same lousy design as the old ones. I've found its better and cheaper to rebuild an old one and fix the issues.
Two strokes, its just that simple.
teazer
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by teazer »

Alan is right that a stock new OEM harness is not as good as a redesigned one, but it's better than an old crusty OEM loom.

One alternative is to add relays and a couple of new cables to the new loom to use the stock connectors an gain the benefits of more power where it's needed.

As Alan pointed out, power is distributed though a relatively small diameter orange cable. If you leave that to run the switches etc, and add relays and a new power lead to drive headlamps and ignition, you can significantly upgrade the harness.
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Waterbuffalo
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by Waterbuffalo »

The old harness would have to be really bad for the wires to be crusty Teazer, besides the ones you are changing out need doing anyways for an upgrade so those power distribution wires will be replaced with the upgrade. I've bought quite a few old harnesses off of Ebay and I must admit, once the wires to be retained were separated and cleaned/checked they looked perfectly fine. Take this lot in the first photo for example, these are what I clean and reuse in the front harness portion of the harness, the rest is replaced for larger gauge wires.
IMG_2702.JPG
The old front harness wiring after cleaning/checking, these are whats left to be reused in the upgrade.
IMG_1094.JPG
New ignition coil power wire sets for four rebuilt front harnesses.Once they are added to the harness the ends will be trimmed and the connectors added.
Two strokes, its just that simple.
teazer
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Re: Loom Repair - Any tips?

Post by teazer »

Of the harnesses, I have rebuilt, most have some, or many, corroded connectors and several had breaks in the outer sheath and were a little brittle inside. But admittedly, I have only had to rebuild 3 so far and one is basically a new custom loom built partly out of a stock loom but modified to suit the changed positions of many components and used a PC8 fuse box under the tank and so on. The other two were restorations.

Fortunately connectors are not too expensive and replacement wires are available but not always in the correct color and gauge. I need to look again to see what''s available now since I did the last one.

I also strip out the fan thermo-switch and fan power leads since I never use them. I seem to recall there are late model and early model looms. BTW, any idea why the yellow leads are so long behind that electrical panel? It looks like a pile of short spaghetti, so I tend to shorten them and fit a new connectors.

There are also at least two different sub harness to the points. One has 4 leads and the other has three, but on the same 4 pin connector. If I fit a Dyna I use three module leads plus a power lead and if you need three power leads plus one ground, that's all doable too with a new cable and connectors and new sleeve. For an ignitech it only needs 2 leads to the pickup and a whole different set up from the ECU to coils etc. But for a resto, I like your approach to re-using what's there.

You do nice work Alan. Thanks for sharing.
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