Difficulty on changing wiring harness

[pkohlstedt]

Great morning... 4 miles from home this morning everything went dark & had some smoke coming from under the seat- thought my ass might be on fire! The wife came & got me & then i went back armed with flashlights & tools . I found the small ground wire that goes over the battery burnt the insulation off it . Got towed & can't tell why but it looks like it goes through out the harness to the front of the bike . I will have to save a little before getting a new harness- $300 ... or $100 used on ebay.... so hard is it to replace ? wish me luck...

[macmac]

You fried a ground wire? A black with yellow wire?

year and model please.

Until then I would pull the tank and follow that wire to where it might be any good enough to see what color(s) the insulation is.

Maybe you will get lucky and find it dead shorted at rear cly 2 where the harness turns up and tends to chaff on the frame.

'IF' there is a oem nylon wire tie there do not cut it. Instead release the tab, and open it.

In any case year and model, and ID that wire color if you can.

[ringadingh]

You wouldn't have burned a ground wire, thats for sure.
If only a small portion of the harness got burned you should be able to splice in new wires. That would be simple.
The harness probably isn't real bad to change, just some contortions to fish it through. I would try a good used harness if your isn't repairable before I bought new.

[pkohlstedt]

2006 nomad - yep the black & yellow wire - the small one that goes from ground to the connector over the battery -fried the connector too. I have the tank off & it looks like it runs to the front of the bike , haven't stripped it but looks like inside the harness got burned too . I will be cutting that up a bit to see how much damage is done - i think I'll have to get a new harness.will post pics when wife lets me have the camera

[ringadingh]

It sounds like the ground wire was near the positive battery terminal and made contact. That is a way to burn a ground wire, with a dead short like that. Id guess that your seat was pressing down on the wire for a while and it finally wore through and made contact.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

I don't know but I have heard from people that know. Changing out the wiring harness can be a pain in the a$$. Lots of things can go wrong when you change it out. I had a 2007 Honda VTX1300R and had a problem with the wiring harness. It was covered under warranty. The tech said he could repair it but if I wanted it replaced it would be covered. When I found out all the problems you run into with replacing I opted for him to repair. Never had any other problems.

[macmac]

This is realy weird. i would hunt for the cause real hard... Is there something aftermarket on the forks on this bike, maybe baddly installed passing lamps?

[cnc]

Like Mac says, this is weird. Just trying to think this through. To fry the ground wire to such an extent it would have had to come in contact with an unfused positive wire and presumably of a heavier Gage. Is it possible that it came in contact with the positive battery post, or Battery cable? Where ever it is, there should be some serious, arcing, melted insulation and or burn marks on the positive point of contact.

[macmac]

yeah turning a heavy ground wire into a resistor is pretty hard to do. I am dyin' ta' know what the cause is. It also causes me to wonder how the gooseneck bearings are.

If this fail was on the forks there is a good chance the roller balls in the bearings are now black ugly rocks, but I don't know that.

Pop the lamp bucket and look at the grounds there.

[rez]

Can someone send a picture indicating the harness area near rear #2 Cyl. that seems to be prone to chafing the harness and causing problems. Does this involve only certain year Nomads....or all?? Thanks.

[ringadingh]

The chaffing problems occurs when the harness is not well secured with cable ties to the frame tube on the 1500's. Its located at the LH side at the corner of the gas tank area, you can feel the harness there right under the tank. Sometimes a wire will rub through and either short out, or create havoc intermittently.

[macmac]

Sorry I can't, as the trailer is in the deep freeze just now,and thar's no diggin that ice even with the BobCat. Just lifting the tank gets you there.

[pkohlstedt]

I think it might have been a wear through issue . the black & yellow wire that runs to the joint connector & up through the harness all the way to the coil has been fried.Hard to tell with all the burnt wire . unless it was the coil? Here's some pics - i pulled apart some of the tape to see the wires . if i can figure out how to post the pictures

[pkohlstedt]

another pic.. no add on lights or anything up front . just a power port off the acc. leads in the headlight bucket - been there for 5 years .no sign of trouble from them.

[MAS Tequila]

That bend in the harness is where it goes over the head isn't it?

MT