I recently started a project on a CB550 from 1977. I took the bike apart and removed the wiring harness. I found out that the previous owner already did some work on the wiring. However, I am not fully satisfied with the work that was done. The wiring was done with small lengths of wire, with many connections in between. I would like to replace these wires with wiring of the appropriate length, and only use connectors at the end points of the wires, or when wires must be split.
When taking apart the bike, I noticed that most of the ground wiring was done in green. However, some of this wiring was done in black. Do these black wires have a different function than the green ones? Or can I just create 1 ground cable for the complete bike, with different splits along the way?
When connecting different parts of wiring, is it best to use cable shoes? I know there are different types, some of them are round, others are flat (cable-lugs I think). Is it best to use these round connectors, or the flat ones? I was even thinking of using plug connectors, with multiple entries/exits (4,6,9,…) but maybe it is better to connect wires individually, without using these plug connectors?
I recently bought and LED light to replace the taillight and blinkers. The cables connected to this LED light are very thin (I suppose 0.5mm²). Is there a standard thickness that should be used for the wiring? The cables on the current harness are much bigger than this. If so, can I connect small wires (e.g. 0.5mm² to wiring with a bigger diameter (the current wiring)?
As a last question, where would you put the electrical components apart from the battery itself? Would you put these below the tank? There is some space at the front to put the rectifier etc.
I apologize if these questions have already been answered in previous threads, but I couldn’t find it when searching for it.
Ciao!
