Airhead wiring diagram questions

[jstrube]

I'm looking at the diagram in the Haynes manual (heard there are errors) for my 74 R90/6 & had a couple of questions about what I am looking at:

1. The wires are all marked with a number like 1.0 1.5 .75, 2.5, etc. What in the world do these designations mean?

2. The switch seems to have 5 positions, O,P,1,2,3. Is this OFF, Park, run with no lights, run with parking lights & run with all lights?

3. What is the parking light & where is it? It shows a "parking lamp", not sure what this is...

4. "dip, headlight flasher & horn switch" What is dip & what is a headlight flasher?

5. What is a "starter cutout switch"? Is that the side stand switch?

6. they show a symbol right in front of the turn signals, in the blue wires that almost look like diodes. What are they? It is an arrow & a rectangle box.

Thanks guys, I'm trying to understand this wiring before I take the front forks off to change them out for dual disks & later model switchgear.

To me, it looks like the wiring on a bike is fairly simple & the connectors all have corresponding numbers or letter designations, like "31", "56a & b", etc...

Thanks!

 

[pglaves]

I'm looking at the diagram in the Haynes manual (heard there are errors) for my 74 R90/6 & had a couple of questions about what I am looking at:

1. The wires are all marked with a number like 1.0 1.5 .75, 2.5, etc. What in the world do these designations mean?

2. The switch seems to have 5 positions, O,P,1,2,3. Is this OFF, Park, run with no lights, run with parking lights & run with all lights?

3. What is the parking light & where is it? It shows a "parking lamp", not sure what this is...

4. "dip, headlight flasher & horn switch" What is dip & what is a headlight flasher?

5. What is a "starter cutout switch"? Is that the side stand switch?

6. they show a symbol right in front of the turn signals, in the blue wires that almost look like diodes. What are they? It is an arrow & a rectangle box.

Thanks guys, I'm trying to understand this wiring before I take the front forks off to change them out for dual disks & later model switchgear.

To me, it looks like the wiring on a bike is fairly simple & the connectors all have corresponding numbers or letter designations, like "31", "56a & b", etc...

Thanks!

I can answer some of this.

1. Those are metric wire sizes - like our gauge as a wire measurement but metric.

2. No idea on this one. Too long ago.

3. Inside the headlight is a tiny bulb, probably burned out or missing. That little bulb and the tail light together are parking lights. They run the battery down quickly.

4. That is the switch on the bars. Dip is low beam, headlight flasher is the thumb operated, spring loaded high beam position, horn is the horn switch.

5. The starter cutout switch is supposed to keep the starter from running if the engine is running. Saves wear and tear on starter drives.

6. Don't know - it may mean a blinking light.

and finally, those wire numbers are European standard DIN numbering system numbers. For example, 12v from the battery is 30. Ground is 86.

 

[20774]

2. Follow the money...er...wires. O is definitely off...no power anywhere. P is sends power to the parking lights as well as some instruments. 1 sends power to the coils and other instruments. 2 basically adds circuits P and 1 together. 3 finally takes the 2 circuits and adds the headlight and horn to the circuit.

6. I don't see that on any wiring diagrams I have. I can only think that it has something to do with cutting power to these circuits when you trying to start the bike. A diode of some kind.

 

[guenner]

1. Here's a comparison table for wire gauges and diameter in millimeter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge

3) I remember that in my younger days in Germany on certain streets you had to turn on your "parking lights" if you parked the car there overnight. I think it was (maybe still is) mandatory for all cars/trucks/motorcycles to have "parking lights".

6) A sign like in this picture?

DIN standard for automobile electric terminal numbers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_72552

/Guenther

 

[lkchris]

1974 (only) /6 bikes came with the 5-position ignition switch.

FWIW, this switch was also standard on non-USA versions of R80G/S, ST, etc.

For 1975-on bikes, headlight switching on/off was moved to left handlebar, except again for G/S, ST, etc., where there were never left handlebar light switches produced.

As noted positions are
off
park light
ignition on (no lights)
ignition on, park lights only
ignition on, full headlight

Postion 4 seems a really gentlemanly way to traverse rally tent areas at night.

PS: If you want to convert your G/S or ST to this ignition switch, there is a dashboard to match.