Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Routing wiring thru bars over the holiday

So I plan on routing the wiring thru the bars as my project during some time off I have over the holiday. I’m familiar with the posts on the subject but was wondering if anyone has any recent experience or new tips / suggestions they could share, as it’s been a while since the subject was discussed in any detail.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Cheers.

You will have to lengthen the wires. Plan on that. Make sure you don't cut yourself short. Make sure you stagger the splices and keep them as thin as you can. It gets fun fishing, but stick with it, take a breather, grab a beer etc.
The left side is harder than the right, more wires, Do it first and the right side will be a piece of cake.
Also, the stem nut is hollow. Consider passing the wires through it if you wanted and go from under the tree to the headlight. (see Brents oil pressure gauge installation). This would allow a nice pass from the bars to the headlight.
I plan on redoing mine this way some day.

For a nice looking "cover" for the wires, go to Home Depot and get a couple Stainless Steel Hot water tank hoses. Dremel the ends off and pull the S.S. "sleeve" off and use it. I have pictures of this in my photo area.

Have fun Stephen, the payoff is a really nice look!

Thanks Reid. I'm figuring on extending the wires as has been described such as in the Tech Vault here, even though I have stock Speedy bars. Shouldn't be too bad - I can handle a soldering iron.

Drilling the stem nut through ? Interesting ! I hadn’t planned on it but I see what you’re saying.

I had planned on using the SS hoses from ‘The Depot’. I used one as a cover for my clutch cable – looks great. I moved my front signals down so will use the same hose running out to those also. I have a nice rubber grommet that I’m going to try for the center hole in the bars.

I’ve got the week off, the weather looks like it’ll be crappy so I’ll have time to take my time and do a nice job.

Cheers.

If I were close I'd be over to help.

Did mine in an afternoon start to finish... its really not that hard...the HARDEST thing I found was finding enough wire of varying colors...I ended up using a bunch of sharpies to color code the wires...

JUST BE SURE YOU WRITE YOUR CODE DOWN BEFORE YOU TAPE AND PULL....forgetting which wire goes where AFTER its taped and pulled thru the bars could REALLY bite!!!

Also I wraped each side in ele.tape (made a harness) prior to fishing them thru the bars...coat them with a bit of dilectric gease and they pull thru with NOOOO problems at all!!

Yeah - I was really looking forward to a Christmas Day ride - just a short one; out on the quiet roads, crisp blue sky, low sun and that 'feeling' that there seems to be on Christmas morning; reminds me of being a kid again. However, I don't think it'll be nice enough to make it. Never mind. I'm looking forward to getting the stealth wiring done - garage not heated but I've got my little electric heater that'll do the trick with a couple of shots of single malt, medicinal purposes of course.

The 3rd time I did mine, I think I shrink wrapped the whole bundle which made it a little stiffer, but I was able to push as well as pull. Staggering the splices is a good idea! I didn't really do that enough. I used all one color wire, just keep track of it. I finagled the shrink wrap and the stainles water heater hose so I could still see the original wire while splicing it back up to the connector.

One thing tho, I made TWO holes in the center of the bars. You can connect them like an oval with the dremel, but one hole really won't do it. Partially because you can only get about a half inch dia hole in ther before you start to open up the side of the bars, but also because the wire bundle doesn't want to bend that sharply, so each hole allows the wires to come out at an angle, ya know? Plus you can make them more inconspicuous. I wish I had thought ahead to slide a grommet onto the bundle before splicing the connector back on! Would have been nice n clean.

Also, for the water heater hose. I wrapped tape around it just above the fitting, put the fitting in the bench vice, then hack sawed it off. Nice clean cut. Also, I slid it into the wires, then taped the end and slid the wires back up into the bars just enough to hide that tape. Keeps the fraying down.


In this pic you can see how it comes out in two separate bundles, which I routed to either side of the speedo bracket. Looks pretty clean. I like Reid's idea of going thru the stem nut, only thing is YOU will see them from the seat, whereas I can't even see my wires at all from my POV. Just a preference tho.

Nice Benny - thanks man. Can you help me understand what you mean by you...

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...finagled the shrink wrap and the stainles water heater hose so I could still see the original wire while splicing it back up to the connector.

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You lost me on the 'finagled' thing

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I wish I had thought ahead to slide a grommet onto the bundle before splicing the connector back on! Would have been nice n clean.

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Yes - I have a nice, simple black, rubber grommet that'll work perfectly for the job.

Thanks again for the advice.

Steve

Have you seen this write-up?

OK good I'm not always that good at explaining myself... Hopefully we can meet up and compare notes next year.

MEASURE TWICE....CUT ONCE ! Remember that old adage ?

Well I completed the job over the hols. It was fun actually but I’m starting all over again. I screwed up the position of the center holes, tried to recover, but am just not happy with the result. It is off center and not neat enough now.

So I order a new set of bars (from Brent) and I’m going to re-do but apply a lot of lessons learnt along the way.

I found a very nice (IMO) SS flexible, coil tubing I’m going to use to cover the wires from bars to headlight. It’s actually the kind of coiled tubing used for shower hose but it’s sold for the spray faucet thing in the kitchen sink. It looks very cool. It’s solid SS not braid. You have to run two lengths but that works well, one for each ‘loom’ from either side. I cut it to length with a Dremel and put a piece of heat shrink over each end and a grommet into the holes in the bars – very clean. Problem is as I said I did not measure twice, cut once. Perhaps it was the scotch I was using to keep me warm but I somehow drilled the holes off-center.

I also recommend using 18 gauge wire not 16. The stock wires are a mixture of 18 and 20 and using 18 makes the ‘looms’ a little thinner, easier to get through the bars and easier to get through the SS flex hose. Another lesson learnt - keep the initial joins in the bars. I made a few too long. Also, give your self plenty of wire for the extension – at least 14 – 16 inches (Speedmaster). You can always shorten it up when you get back into the headlight. I made a few a bit too short and it was tricky re-joining in the headlight.

Invest $13 in a ‘helping hands’ from Radioshack. Soldering all the joins would have been a pain in the ****** without it and it is a cool little tool.

When I re-do I think I’ll run the clutch wires into a separate hole of its own. That way it will be even less obtrusive. This time round I looped both the clutch wires and brakes wires back into the control unit and through the same holes as all the other wires. Looks OK, is the best option for the brake wires but I think another small hole and grommet will be the answer for the clutch wire.

I did find I needed to go buy some better bits (titanium) because what I had wasn’t working. Ended up a worthwhile investment as it gave a nice clean hole. Dremel grind and sand to make sure they are as clean as possible. I drilled 2 holes clutch side and joined them into an oval to give me more room.

The re-do shouldn’t take long as all the wiring is done (with the exception of re-joining in the headlight of course. Just need to re-drill – CARFEFULLY and re-route the wires.

I’ll keep you posted and put some pics up once I get the new bars and finish up. Now if I can only remember how to wire those turn signals up again ?????

So you should be all done now?
This is my favourite mod see my gallery
All great tips above.

Done but re-doing...this weekend hopefully if the new bars show up. Yes - it is a good looking, effective cosmetic mod and relatively easy to do.

The second time around will go fast! I have that helping hands thing too. AWESOME help for any soldering!

well if anyone is ever around the boston area i would be more then happy to buy lunch for anyone who would like to re run mine

Frank

I'm sure we could do a tech day BBQ sometime this summer

sounds good to me

Frank

as long as it does not rain like last year i will be there

Frank