83 fuse upgrade and more

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JSBail
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83 fuse upgrade and more

#1

Post by JSBail »

A bit more than a year ago I had over charging issues on my 83 interstate which cooked my battery and left me stranded. The charging sys was actually doing what it was supposed to do but being the black "sense" wire leading into the factory reg/rec was showing 11.8 volts, that told the reg/rec it had to crank things up even though the battery had close to 15 volts at idle and would shoot up to 16+ volts as the revs went up. A later reg/rec from a cbr600 F4i took care of the over charging issue because it doesn't rely on that black sense wire and all was well in regards to charging however it did nothing to resolve why that black sense wire was showing such low voltage. So in order to keep myself busy during this Covid-19 crisis I decided to dig into the bikes wiring harness to see if I could clean things up. I started with taking the base ignition switch apart and cleaning it and it came out well but I ended up buying an NOS OEM switch base but that's another story I won't bore you with. I also took the kill switch on the right hand control apart and cleaned it as well. Everyone has their preferences on cleaners but I used Deoxit. Next was replacing the old fuse box with a more modern blade type fuse box. There are many to choose from but I chose one from Blue Sea. It's wired in the same manner as the old one meaning I still have 3 switched positive leads, one for the "parking" light, the other for ACC and the last one powers the remains 4 fuses. The new fuse box did have jumpers but not enough for what I needed so I had to make my own. I also cleaned every electrical connector I could get my hands on in the harness as well. Once all was done that black sense wire (with the engine at idle) is showing 13.8 volts when battery is showing 14.2 which gives me 1/2 a volt difference and is a huge improvement over 2+ volt difference it had before.

Unrelated to cleaning up wiring harness connections I replaced my spark plug wires and eliminated the spark plug resistor caps. I'm trying to keep this post a short as possible so I wont explain why but i will in a reply if anybody is curious. There seems to be great debate on the purpose of those resistors, are they for electrical noise suppression or is it for slightly longer spark duration? If anyone has insight to that then feel free to comment.

The end result is the bike runs MUCH better and pulls much stronger through the gears. Is that improvement due to better voltage in the wiring harness? Eliminating the resistor caps? A combo of both maybe? Beats me but I'm pleased with how the bike responded.

Fair warnings to those who are considering a fuse box upgrade.
#1 Before committing yourself to where you want to mount the new fuse box, make sure it will have plenty of clearance from the inner bracing of the faux gas tank cover. I didn't and found that inner support just barely touching some of the wires, I ended up having to bend the soldered connections about 30 degrees to give the wires the room they needed.

#2 If you plan on servicing the base switch, make sure you have the key in the ACC position or else you run the risk of breaking a tab off on the cover like I did and making sure the key is still in the ACC position when putting the switch and cover back on. I had read it was supposed to be in the ON position but found out the hard way it was the ACC position instead.
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Last edited by JSBail on Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
Scott
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Track T 2411
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Re: 83 fuse upgrade and more

#2

Post by Track T 2411 »

Looks great! I did a similar replacement of the fuse box on an 81, but haven't assembled it yet. Yours looks much better! Do you have a part number or link to the unit you chose?
Regarding the resistor caps, Mike Nixon had some insight on them in a couple of his posts. IIRC, you're better off without them...
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

"He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail" - Abraham Maslow

"If you can't take the time to do it right the first time, how are you ever going to find the time to do it over?" -Unknown

Current Rides:
'Grumpy' - '81 Standard, now fully dressed.
'Layla' - '81 Standard w/dealer installed fairing and Hondaline bags.
'Scarlett' '76 'Survivor' nekkid as a j-bird!

Under Construction:
The 'Jalopy' '78-'79 Mash-up
'Quikie' '81 gl1100I back on the lift, project with the step-son!

In The Shed:
'81 gl1100I barn find aka "Josie, the farmer's daughter." (almost comatose build)
'77 gl1000, roller parts bike.
'82 gl1100I, 'Old Crusty' titled roller parts bike (free!)
'82 gl1100I, My first 'Wing, and an expensive lesson!
New2U Bike? Read Me.
JSBail
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Re: 83 fuse upgrade and more

#3

Post by JSBail »

This one. Of all the fuse blocks to choose from it is one of the more expensive ones but it is good quality. It does come with jumpers but not enough to do 4 circuits as the original fuse box is. The jumper wire I made was more than I needed, with the jumpers supplied I only needed to jump once but didn't realize it until after I already made it up. I could clean it up even more by eliminating that jumper wire because you can order more jumpers if needed, it's just that Blue Sea wants $6 for them which I thought was a bit much for a handful of stamped steel jumpers. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006VELERM/?t ... ingdocs-20
Scott
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Track T 2411
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Posts: 8482
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 9:37 pm
My Album: http://www.ngwclub.com/gallery/v/wingmans/Track+T+2411/
Location: Prairie du Sac Wisconsin

Re: 83 fuse upgrade and more

#4

Post by Track T 2411 »

Thanks for the link!
"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein

"He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail" - Abraham Maslow

"If you can't take the time to do it right the first time, how are you ever going to find the time to do it over?" -Unknown

Current Rides:
'Grumpy' - '81 Standard, now fully dressed.
'Layla' - '81 Standard w/dealer installed fairing and Hondaline bags.
'Scarlett' '76 'Survivor' nekkid as a j-bird!

Under Construction:
The 'Jalopy' '78-'79 Mash-up
'Quikie' '81 gl1100I back on the lift, project with the step-son!

In The Shed:
'81 gl1100I barn find aka "Josie, the farmer's daughter." (almost comatose build)
'77 gl1000, roller parts bike.
'82 gl1100I, 'Old Crusty' titled roller parts bike (free!)
'82 gl1100I, My first 'Wing, and an expensive lesson!
New2U Bike? Read Me.
Shadowknws29
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Joined: Mon Oct 24, 2022 12:20 pm
Location: Delaware

Re: 83 fuse upgrade and more

#5

Post by Shadowknws29 »

JSBail wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 8:37 am A bit more than a year ago I had over charging issues on my 83 interstate which cooked my battery and left me stranded. The charging sys was actually doing what it was supposed to do but being the black "sense" wire leading into the factory reg/rec was showing 11.8 volts, that told the reg/rec it had to crank things up even though the battery had close to 15 volts at idle and would shoot up to 16+ volts as the revs went up. A later reg/rec from a cbr600 F4i took care of the over charging issue because it doesn't rely on that black sense wire and all was well in regards to charging however it did nothing to resolve why that black sense wire was showing such low voltage. So in order to keep myself busy during this Covid-19 crisis I decided to dig into the bikes wiring harness to see if I could clean things up. I started with taking the base ignition switch apart and cleaning it and it came out well but I ended up buying an NOS OEM switch base but that's another story I won't bore you with. I also took the kill switch on the right hand control apart and cleaned it as well. Everyone has their preferences on cleaners but I used Deoxit. Next was replacing the old fuse box with a more modern blade type fuse box. There are many to choose from but I chose one from Blue Sea. It's wired in the same manner as the old one meaning I still have 3 switched positive leads, one for the "parking" light, the other for ACC and the last one powers the remains 4 fuses. The new fuse box did have jumpers but not enough for what I needed so I had to make my own. I also cleaned every electrical connector I could get my hands on in the harness as well. Once all was done that black sense wire (with the engine at idle) is showing 13.8 volts when battery is showing 14.2 which gives me 1/2 a volt difference and is a huge improvement over 2+ volt difference it had before.

Unrelated to cleaning up wiring harness connections I replaced my spark plug wires and eliminated the spark plug resistor caps. I'm trying to keep this post a short as possible so I wont explain why but i will in a reply if anybody is curious. There seems to be great debate on the purpose of those resistors, are they for electrical noise suppression or is it for slightly longer spark duration? If anyone has insight to that then feel free to comment.

The end result is the bike runs MUCH better and pulls much stronger through the gears. Is that improvement due to better voltage in the wiring harness? Eliminating the resistor caps? A combo of both maybe? Beats me but I'm pleased with how the bike responded.

Fair warnings to those who are considering a fuse box upgrade.
#1 Before committing yourself to where you want to mount the new fuse box, make sure it will have plenty of clearance from the inner bracing of the faux gas tank cover. I didn't and found that inner support just barely touching some of the wires, I ended up having to bend the soldered connections about 30 degrees to give the wires the room they needed.

#2 If you plan on servicing the base switch, make sure you have the key in the ACC position or else you run the risk of breaking a tab off on the cover like I did and making sure the key is still in the ACC position when putting the switch and cover back on. I had read it was supposed to be in the ON position but found out the hard way it was the ACC position instead.
Do you have any other photos of the fuse box wiring. I did a similar upgrade but i may have screwed the wiring up lol.
JSBail
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Posts: 796
Joined: Sun Jul 27, 2014 5:08 pm
Location: Indiana

Re: 83 fuse upgrade and more

#6

Post by JSBail »

Shadowknws29 wrote: Tue Oct 25, 2022 9:26 am Do you have any other photos of the fuse box wiring. I did a similar upgrade but i may have screwed the wiring up lol.
Sorry for taking so long to reply but I just noticed this. I don't have any other pics but all I can say is that I wired it the exact way the original fuse box was. The red wires you see at the bottom of the new box in the pic are jumper wires, the new box had jumpers but not enough, I could've bought more jumpers but that would've been an additional $10 for just a few stamped steel jumpers so I just made my own. I had to do this in order for the fuse box to function in the same way the original in regards to what circuits got power in relation to ignition switch position.
Scott
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