Keyed ignition wiring help.

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pierce
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Keyed ignition wiring help.

#1

Post by pierce »

Can anyone help me out?

I am doing some re-wiring and yes, forgot to take a photo. :IDTS:

Can anyone verify how to wire the keyed ignition? There are 5 wires, and I have figure out that Red goes in the middle (as you look at the keyed ignition), and black to the left bottom. I am left with three other wires, where do they go?

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Thanks so much for all the help!
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pidjones
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Re: Keyed ignition wiring help.

#2

Post by pidjones »

This might help. The 76 and 78 wire differently because the 78 has six wires.
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Sidecar Bob
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Re: Keyed ignition wiring help.

#3

Post by Sidecar Bob »

You can find much larger wiring drawings through the link in my signature.

FWIW, the other wires are all there for the circuit that turns the tail light on when you turn the key to Park (required when parking at night on unlit roads in the UK and some other former Commonwealth countries). In the rest of the world it is just an easy way to kill your battery if you turn the key the wrong way when you shut the bike off so you don't need that part. I believe that if you connect the 2 brown wires with light coloured stripes together and omit the other wire out the everything should work except for the parking light feature (assuming that you have connected the red and black wires correctly).
I did something similar on my '83 and on my CX so that I could use different keyswitches on them but the wires are a bit different on them.
Mr. Honda ('83 GL1100/Dnepr) summer How a motorcycle evolves thread
The Famous Eccles ('84 CX650EI/VeloUral) winter Never Ending Build (CX500forum)
Click: Colour schematics for all GL1000 & GL1100 and GL1200 standard models plus instructions on how to download the full size version
"A guy with two sidecars can't be all bad." - Cookie
Another guy with two sidecars..... Hmmmm... must be something to that....
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pierce
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Re: Keyed ignition wiring help.

#4

Post by pierce »

That is spectacular information!

I am reducing the wiring so most fits under the faux gas tank. My fairing extends the headlight out quite far, so I have all the wires exposed out front. Tucking them away would really clean things up, and yet they would still be easily accessible.

I tried it out and you are correct. Thanks so much.

Are there any other wires I could delete?

Believe it or not, this whole thing started because my solenoid failed closed. Yeah, thats right. Couldn't even hear the starter whirring over the engine. Had to replace the starter, starter solenoid, battery, starter switch etc. - all burned out. The battery was totally drained so I was stranded in a very remote location. It was so remote that it didn't even have cell service!



Sidecar Bob wrote: Sat Apr 17, 2021 3:06 pm You can find much larger wiring drawings through the link in my signature.

FWIW, the other wires are all there for the circuit that turns the tail light on when you turn the key to Park (required when parking at night on unlit roads in the UK and some other former Commonwealth countries). In the rest of the world it is just an easy way to kill your battery if you turn the key the wrong way when you shut the bike off so you don't need that part. I believe that if you connect the 2 brown wires with light coloured stripes together and omit the other wire out the everything should work except for the parking light feature (assuming that you have connected the red and black wires correctly).
I did something similar on my '83 and on my CX so that I could use different keyswitches on them but the wires are a bit different on them.
1976 GL1000
1978 Gl1000
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Sidecar Bob
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Re: Keyed ignition wiring help.

#5

Post by Sidecar Bob »

Compare the '75-7 schematic with the one for '78-9. All of the wires that the early models have that later ones don't are for the Reserve Lighting Unit. As I'm sure you already know the RLU is known to cause more problems than it solves and even Clymer knew to recommend bypassing it at least as far back as the copy of their GL1000/1100 book I bought in '91. That means that you could remove all of those and everything would still work but if it was me I would look for a '78-9 harness to make the job easier.
In the '78-9 harness, just about every wire does something useful (except the parking light circuit and maybe the turn signal buzzer circuit) so you would have to decide what you are willing to do without or do manually for the rest of your time with the bike before you can remove anything.

As an example of the kind of thinking involved, some years back I wanted to replace the handlebar switch assemblies on both of my bikes so I shopped around and decided I liked the look (& price) of the ones sold for Indian Enfield Bullets and could make them do what I needed.
- The first compromise was that the Start button doesn't have the contacts to kill the headlight while starting. But being India/UK spec, they do have multi position headlight switches so I wired them to have Off, Bike headlight only on and Bike + Sidecar headlight on settings (before that I had to reach for a toggle switch in a box on the handlebars to turn the sidecar headlight on). I did have to start turning the headlight off for cold starts but since both bikes have the same switches and I've had bikes like that in the past it wasn't a big deal to get into the habit of switching it off when I park and switching it back on before pulling away.
- Compromise 2: I am a big believer that the marker lights in the front signals make you more noticeable by other road users and that the US DOT & Transport Canada regulation requiring that no other light within 4" of the signal be lit while it is flashing is a good law because it makes it easier to tell it is a turn signal (not to mention that you are legally required to maintain all original lighting functions) but the Enfield switches don't have the contacts to turn the markers off while the signals are flashing.
This wasn't a problem on the 'Wing because I never had original type front signals so it has had separate marker lights that were more than 4" from the signals as long as I've had it. The CX did have the markers in the signals, though so I simply added separate markers (small 1/2W LEDs).
BTW: The wires that came on the Enfield switches weren't long enough so I re-wired them with the ones from the original switches. Since I didn't need the ones for the marker lights I was able to use them for other functions.
- Bonus features: In addition to the headlight switch I mentioned above, the Enfield switches also have a button to flash the headlight when passing, which I wired to operate a garage door remote.
Mr. Honda ('83 GL1100/Dnepr) summer How a motorcycle evolves thread
The Famous Eccles ('84 CX650EI/VeloUral) winter Never Ending Build (CX500forum)
Click: Colour schematics for all GL1000 & GL1100 and GL1200 standard models plus instructions on how to download the full size version
"A guy with two sidecars can't be all bad." - Cookie
Another guy with two sidecars..... Hmmmm... must be something to that....
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