Rerouting Wire Harness

[1st Shirt Maxer]

Wanted to ask if anyone has tried routing the wire harness through the frame? I'll be tearing my vmax down this winter to have Sean PC the frame and wanted to see if anyone has done this. I recently replaced my wire harness due to corrosion and had several ideas about routing the wires a different way. Just wanted to get someone's ideas on experiencing any difficulties they ran into.

 

[one2dmax]

That will require a huge hole in the frame for entry and exit. Not sure how strong this will leave it?

 

[Fire-medic]

Leave it outside and save the structural integrity, as Sean opined. Take plenty of pics to guide you, though the manual does have routing.

 

[88vmx12]

We'll wait a min guys.... There is two ways to do this one with a huge hole so all the connectors can make it through. Or like I did my handle bars took the connectors off then ran the wires then put the connectors back on. Now 1st Shirt on a frame application it can be done but there are several bad things when doing something like this. Or can I say HUGE bad things. First you do have the holes and to limit the size of the hole truly yo would need to go one wire at a time, which can be done! ( the rest of this is from experience ) Now you can use the original harness, but 9 times out of 10 your wires end up being too short on the other end. So now you either go to adding onto the original harness creating new places to short out. Besides using the original harness if you did. The insulation is way too thin to be without some loom around the wires and removing the loom is why we first took off to get the wires through the frame and to keep the hole size in the frame down. Now the SXL wire ( close to ) they use for the harnesses insulation is too thin to prevent rub through or shorts in your wires over time that are now inside the frame ugh! So to prevent this now you go to a GXL or TXL wire to help with the rub through issue. Ok now we are at the point where we are building a harness from scratch with in the frame ( way cool right! ) In the end you have holes a bit bigger in the frame than u truly want. Plus those holes love water and now you have a place for the water to collect ( I don't care how good you think you are with caulking or a sealant it will get water in there ) now the water is in there rusting my babies guts out from the inside and truly never knowing the life span of the frame because of the rust issue. Also once that water is in there if you so happen to live in an environment that is freezes. Once there is enough water in the frame it will split it just like a frozen water pipe. You could drill some 3/16 - 1/4" weeps holes at the lowest point the water would collect. This would help with the water collecting, but how many more holes do you want in your frame? So IMHO the Vmax has way too many wires to be running in the frame to doing this. Just an opinion. Hope my rambling is clear lol

G

 

[one2dmax]

Exactly what I was alluding too. If you use all the original wire count (and even thin wire) then you will have huge or multiple holes in the frame. If you eliminated a lot of wires (and safety or accessories) then you can get the wire count reduced down.

 

[88vmx12]

Exactly what I was alluding too. If you use all the original wire count (and even thin wire) then you will have huge or multiple holes in the frame. If you eliminated a lot of wires (and safety or accessories) then you can get the wire count reduced down.

So in short best for a custom chopper from OCC :rofl_200:

G

 

[Miles Long]

Don't do it.
There are enough problems with the v max wiring as is....you don't want to complicate things by making it inaccessible.
Just my humble opinion.......
Cheers!

 

[davesax36]

Skip the powdercoating, secure the wiring harness to the frame like normal, then wrap the whole thing in fiberglass. Then you can smooth it all out, prime it, and have it painted. It will look AMAZING.... then you go to install the motor and stuff, chip it all apart, oh nevermind. Just don't do it.

You could probably do the bars, though.

 

[Blurr]

I did the bars with a "M-button" set up from Motogadget. Left me needing to run one small wire from the handlebar to the frame. After the handle bars, I shudder to think about how difficult the entire wire loom would be!

 

[1st Shirt Maxer]

After reading all the insight I'm thinking I was dreaming. I think maybe I'll look at just splitting the harness to run down both sides so it is easier to conceal. Things like the fuse block and fuel pump wires could run down the left side and run the rest down the right. Might even split the coil wires to have one on one side and one on the other. The entire bike will be in pieces so I will have the room and time to do it right. Whatever I do I will more than likely need more advice and help from all of you. Thanks for the insight and words of wisdom.:worthy:

 

[88vmx12]

After reading all the insight I'm thinking I was dreaming. I think maybe I'll look at just splitting the harness to run down both sides so it is easier to conceal. Things like the fuse block and fuel pump wires could run down the left side and run the rest down the right. Might even split the coil wires to have one on one side and one on the other. The entire bike will be in pieces so I will have the room and time to do it right. Whatever I do I will more than likely need more advice and help from all of you. Thanks for the insight and words of wisdom.:worthy:

By the sounds of it you don't have a seat and want to cover the wires :ummm:

G

 

[one2dmax]

You could go to the COP and a small lithum ion battery. This will let you move some wiring back up front and less to route backwards.

 

[Hooligans]

I would have to agree with Miles on this one, if your current harness does not have issues - leave it wrapped.

If you are forced to unwrap it you may see things like this -


The corrosion on the electrical tape (not heat shrink) covering these crimped connections was something like dried cottage cheese.


There were around 35 of these connections, sometimes mating up to 7 wires together, all with varying levels of corrosion - I replaced/upgraded all of them just to be sure. With the number of connections and the way many wires are interconnected from different individual circuits within the overall circuit, it would really be a lot of work for the intended goal of hiding the harness.

I was able to run the harness in a different configuration where I feel it is less obtrusive than stock, frees up room and minimizes unnecessary bends. I am sure you could accomplish the same without modification.

Good Luck.