Not sure if it’s of any interests for someone, but I thought why not to share this… boring experience of creating (or more like adapting i should say) cheapest wiring loom out there, to fit DRZ400 or any other enduro bike for that matter!
So, since drz400e conveniently came with nothing on it, just some funky aftermarket wiring to power up turn signals and such, I thought of the idea… why not to strip the original wiring to the bare minimum that is required to run the engine and charge the battery, and then… well create a completely separate wiring to power up lights, brakes and turns, and then another one – to power up all the chargers, heaters and what not?
Thinking this way, if I’ll do that, and one of the wiring loom will fail at some point, it won’t matter that much for as long as it’s not the loom that’s powering up the CDI unit or the spark plug, and if it was the main CDI wiring – then I’ll have only a handful of wires to inspect!
So, the Loom No1: Power Loom
Simple to make, not that quick to source and plan, as there are not that many suitable bus bars or fuse boxes out there for something like that, sizes all wrong or not pretty enough for that purpose.
So what I did there was quite simple, fuse near the battery, 30amp cable from the battery to the front with a fuse closer to the battery and a fuse box on the tower. Down the middle, a 30 amp relay that will be power up by ignition. So that gives me a wiring that comes on and goes off with ignition.
Loom No2: Charging loom!
This one was by far the simples one of them all, as there are only 3 AC wires that lead from the stator coil to the regulator rectifier, and 2 to the battery! Because I have moved regulator rectifier to the front, I have stretched another 30amp cable from the battery to the front, with fuses either end. Initially wanted to fit SAE charging port closer to the tower (to charge battery when bike is not in use or easily accessible port to connect air pump), but in the end – I didn’t (could not squeeze anything else there on the tower) …
Loom No3: Ignition loom.
This one was also pretty easy, as I only had to remove all the unnecessary stuff, find out what a kill switch does and make a connection to it so the new loom would send a signal to all the right parties, and extend some wires to power up the relays (for other looms).On drz400, kill switch sends negative signal to the CDI!
The last, Loom No4: Switch gear Loom.
To power all the lights, horns, turns and such – I pick up the cheapest wiring loom out there (wy125 – some Chinese scooter), the price was really ridiculous, and it included all the handlebar gear! Switches were quite good quality, wires… well, not so great, but I kept on going..
Stripped it all down in the same manner as the main loom, removed all the unnecessary stuff, left basically just the loom for lights, turns (I used urn signals with built in flashers, so no need for relays), horn, one end to connect power and one end to connect to the starter solenoid! And that’s about it.
I had to make my own diagram thought, as if you can imagine, there is not a lot of info out there about Chinese scooters…
The only thing that was not quite as planned or anticipated that scoters use “positive ground”, so all wiring was pretty much in reverse if that makes sense…. Instead of all ground cables – black (as usually on all bikes and other systems), I had to use all green cables as grounds… that caused a bit of an issue later as on my DRZ-E engine was replaced with DRZ-S engine that had Neutral Switch that obviously provides ground to the system to light up the Neutral light, not the opposite…
As you can imagine it was a bit of the shocker at first seeing sparks flying, and then that moment came “ah… how I did not see that coming…”.
Anyway, all turned out to be working ok-ish, and the only concern now if those flimsy plugs of theirs will last or will start breaking off and causing my troubles…
Oh, and as any project, it wasn’t without mistakes and sacrifices… took some time to figure out the lights, some of the cheap Chinese plugs came undone and had to be re-soldered (in hopes that soldered connection will not come apart – I was wrong) and obviously wrongly wired neutral light sent fuse up in smokes… and that’s about it!
Oh, and you know those flimsy wires and flimsy plugs I have mentioned before? Well… second part of this story is definitely coming!
Explore more about DRZ400E!
Project “Suzuki DRZ 400” Adventure Build:
- Making a choice!
- Project Tracking (Any motorcycle project)!
- Why you should grease your suspension bolts and bearings… (find on my DRZ400 project)
- Motorcycle frame powder coating nightmares (why you should or shouldn’t powder coat your frame) + Bonus tip
- First impression and first problems on my newly rebuilt DRZ-400
Suzuki DRZ 400 Mods:
- Crankase Breather box mod – How to stop oil being blown out of the vent!
- Making Custom Wiring loom for my DRZ400 (or 3, or 4!)
- R&D FlexiJet, The Flexible air fuel screw on suzuki DRZ-400, is it any good?
- Big Safari Fuel Tank Balancing Attempts (and fails)
Suzuki DRZ 400 Fails!
Coming soon…!
