Topic: Dear Lord, what a mess!

[stearmandriver]

I dove in head first today with my cafe project, I started tearing the bike down for sand blasting and general restomoding.  Started with the handle bars and front half of the bike.  I opened up the head light and found what looks like a bad joke.  I had no idea the entire electrical system junction is in there.  Luckily it is close to stock and should go back together in six months or so. Maybe!

Also, removing the wires from the handle bars was very difficult, I can not imagine getting them back in the new clubmans!  Probably some sort of newbie pledge trick..."watch this punk try to get those wires out!  What a dumb as@#!$@#!" haha

I love working on the thing.  Motorcycles are so compact and easy to work on.  I'm in tinkering heaven! 

Thanks for the great site!

Dave

[hymodyne]

get a hold of a manual with electrical diagrams, a good multi tester or test light and dig in. Once you isolate systems by color, its not actually that bad. I agree that he bikes are fun to work on.

Hym

[750goes]

Looks pretty normal to me, and you even have original connections....

[Bob Wessner]

I opened up the headlight and found what looks like a bad joke.

They all look like that. 

[ProTeal55]

I tore into my CB450's headlight bucket yesterday, and spent some time removing wires I didnt need (for options I am not gonna use). The less wires the better in that bucket !

[stearmandriver]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I'm glad I started on the front end.  It looks like a fairly straight forward tear down from there back.  I have the wiring diagrams and Clymer manual. Should be able to make it look like a motorcycle again with those two items.  Before I get too carried away, I need to organize my parts storage system. I'm running out of room on the table saw!

I'll keep you posted.

Dave

[ProTeal55]

 Before I get too carried away, I need to organize my parts storage system. I'm running out of room on the table saw!

Remove the blade, that should make some more part room 4 ya...

[andy750]

This is normal for wires in the hedlight shell -just use a wiring diagram (manual or download one) and match colour to colour....pretty easy once you get used to it....although Im still chasing why my rear blinker stays on but only when headlight is on! 

cheers
Andy

[csendker]

I replaced my bars last year, have faith, it will go back together again.  I use an electrician's fish-tape to pull the harness back through the new (stock) bars.  And while you're in there and have everything apart, you may want to clean up all of those little terminals to reduce the extra resistance from cruddy connections, your alternator will thank you.

[Bob Wessner]

Good point on cleaning the connectors. I would add, put a dab of dielectric grease on them before shoving them together. All connectors would benefit from this, but particularly those in the headlight since it seems to be more exposed to moisture if you do any rain riding.

[stearmandriver]

great ideas concerning cleaning up and dielectric grease.  I just bought a tube last week for another project.

As far as removing the table saw blade for additional space is concerned, I will do that as soon as I remove the rust on the table.  That should really free up the space.

Thanks for the replies.  What a great community I have found.

Dave

[kettlesd]

That looks EXACTLY like the first wiring job i tackled on a cb550 a few years ago.....

Color to color,,, stripe to stripe and it  goes along a lot easier than you think. Cant stress the cleaning of the terminals enough though. Makes chasing down the odd electric bugaboo a lot easier - fewer variables to consider when all connections are sound.

[paxtonpony]

Just takes time.  Mark all the wires as you go.  BTW, I know what you're going through:

[KCs76Cafe]

I said the same thing when I opened mine up for the new bars. What I didnt know was some PO had swapped out the 76 controls and had 73s on there. Color to color didnt work. 

And once again........Thanks TwoTired! 

[shoemanII]

just recently changed my headlight bucket before moving onto breather/venting, ah, difficulties.  the oem bucket was chromed plastic that fell apart when i took the headlight out for the first time.  OMG!

it doesn't help to be half-azzed colorblind, so i had to label both ends before unplugging each connection.  disasembled and labeled the easy stuff first:   L+R blinkers, wiring bundles for instrument pods, blinker buzzer, etc.  that left the ground pairs, then the big plugs.  worried about it for a few days then just dove in one day.  all back together and everything works!

can't remember who, but they deserve a big thanx for letting me know about sanding the grounds to cure a non-blinker on one side.        

[fourplay]

Glad to see I am not the only one who uses a table saw as a work bench !!!

[TwoTired]

Glad to see I am not the only one who uses a table saw as a work bench !!!

In my house/shop, any flat unpopulated surface is a work bench!  My table saw has a crank on it so I can lower the blade below table height.  But, I had to overhaul it to make it work smoothly and easily.  Saws can be tuned up, too!

Cheers,

[750goes]

What you been doing TT,,, long time no see??

[Rsnip988]

mine was missing the headlight when i bought it and all the wires were just dangling not connected, I didnt know what to do until I got the manual and the elec diagram, there was a diagram of the 73-76 750k on here somewhere surely there can be found a color one for yours...   


I got all the wires sorted out and rewired them from the ground... but I think i need to rewire using waterproof heat shrink junctions to make sure its waterproof... just to be safe




RKS

[stearmandriver]

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement!  I have continued the disassembly.  The only thing left on the frame are the wheels!  Cleaning and sandblasting begin tommorrow.  I am amazed at how little time it has taken to render it a pile of parts.  I'm having a ball,  I only hope it lasts!

Thanks
Dave

[Kevin D]

I always have fun using this: http://oldmanhonda.com/MC/wiring750K1.html

And I always thank my wife when using this for my workbench:

[Rsnip988]

taking it apart is the easy part, its getting all the parts back on in the right order thats the harder part



RKS

[nteek754]

Come on guys thats  what I call jap spagetti normal normal normal  try being color blind and tackle that  I have much more fun putting a cam in but gotta take the bad with the good  have fun seven fifty four ever Craig in Maine