Gen I : Location of wiring harness for Yamaha Heated Grips

[Deco Ray]

Hey Everyone,

Hope you all had a good holiday. I am installing a Yamaha Heated Grip kit on my 2004 (non ABS) and am trying to figure out where the wiring harness for the grip kit should run. Here are my options as I see it:

1) Behing the steering head (in the frame). This makes the most sense, but there does not seem to be enough length is the harness wires.

2) In front the the steering head, under the ignition switch.

3) Through the fairing braket.

Is there anyone out there who has had one installed, who can shed some light on this for me? Or some photos?

Thanks!

Ray

 

[FJRBluesman]

What kind of kit is this? My aftermarket Symetc heated grips have plenty of wire to go thru the firing brace and to the left side panel. ALl are tucked in nicely there, along with the switch that is mounted ot the black plastic plate.

 

[Deco Ray]

What kind of kit is this? My aftermarket Symetc heated grips have plenty of wire to go thru the firing brace and to the left side panel. ALl are tucked in nicely there, along with the switch that is mounted ot the black plastic plate.

FJRBluesman, It's a Genuine Yamaha Heated Grip Kit. It came in it's original package when I bought the bike this past summer.

Don't even get me statrted on the location of the switch! They could have come up with a better alternative than over the clutch reservoir. I would like to mount it in the fairing itself. I just do not feel like cutting into the fairing just yet, but I know I will.

Thanks

 

[FJRBluesman]

What kind of kit is this? My aftermarket Symetc heated grips have plenty of wire to go thru the firing brace and to the left side panel. ALl are tucked in nicely there, along with the switch that is mounted ot the black plastic plate.

FJRBluesman, It's a Genuine Yamaha Heated Grip Kit. It came in it's original package when I bought the bike this past summer.Don't even get me statrted on the location of the switch! They could have come up with a better alternative than over the clutch reservoir. I would like to mount it in the fairing itself. I just do not feel like cutting into the fairing just yet, but I know I will.

Thanks

Well it's panel "C" or Inner panel 3, I think that you need to cut into, which is very cheap to buy if messed up. I'm not totally familiar with the Yammer model heated grips, so I'll let the experts reply.
Good luck.

 

[Deco Ray]

Well for the sake of any members who may need to know in the future: I installed the grips and the harness. I ran the harness in front and against the steering head, on top of the fairning bracket. The harness was then wire tied to the steering head casting to prevent movement. Connections and cables running from the hand grips to the harness were then covered in wiring loom as was the fuse holder. The fuse holder was also wire tied to the fairing bracket. The wiring harness has two grounds. I grounded both, even though only one is required. One to the frame and the other to the battery.

 

[mcatrophy]

... I grounded both, even though only one is required. One to the frame and the other to the battery.

Might be a bad thing, your earth current from other loads (e.g. starter motor) may be shared along this path, might fry the wires/connectors eventually. I'd suggest both to a common ground point, preferably the battery.

 

[Deco Ray]

... I grounded both, even though only one is required. One to the frame and the other to the battery.

Might be a bad thing, your earth current from other loads (e.g. starter motor) may be shared along this path, might fry the wires/connectors eventually. I'd suggest both to a common ground point, preferably the battery.

Thanks for the feedback. I do not claim to be an electrical engineer in any way. The two grounds are common to each other. I checked that.

I figured since one went to the frame and the other to the battery, there would two paths, perhaps one would have lesser resistance in times of load or feedback. I'm thinking that redundancy in grounds can't be bad.

Is my thinking incorrect?

 

[mcatrophy]

... I grounded both, even though only one is required. One to the frame and the other to the battery.

Might be a bad thing, your earth current from other loads (e.g. starter motor) may be shared along this path, might fry the wires/connectors eventually. I'd suggest both to a common ground point, preferably the battery.

Thanks for the feedback. I do not claim to be an electrical engineer in any way. The two grounds are common to each other. I checked that.

I figured since one went to the frame and the other to the battery, there would two paths, perhaps one would have lesser resistance in times of load or feedback. I'm thinking that redundancy in grounds can't be bad.

Is my thinking incorrect?

Think about other loads, the worst is probably the starter motor. Its return path to the battery is from the metal of the starter motor, through the engine casing, and via a cable to the negative post of the battery.

If you connect one of your earth wires to the frame, one to the battery terminal, the starter current will share between the original path and the loop through your two earth wires, the current in each path in inverse proportion to its resistance.

I don't know the starter current, I expect it's of the order of 100 amps, almost certainly somewhere in the range 50 to 200. While the "shared" current may not be significant when all connections are tight and corrosion-free, the slightest build-up of resistance in the original path will force more current through your earth wires; even one tenth could possibly lead to melt-down or worse.

While your starter normally only runs for a second or so, if ever you need to start with a flooded motor, it will run for many seconds (the WOT technique). What might make this worse is the flooding could have been caused by a bad battery connection causing difficult starting, you can see where this is going.

OK, I'm a pessimist, it will probably never happen.