Addison
XS400 Enthusiast
So in my quest to better understand the electrical components of the motorcycle electrical systems, I've tried to simplify things by seperating them into two categories....
Keep in mind I am not an electrician and have zero prior experience working on anything electrically related.
Please correct me if any of this is wrong!!!
Category One - this contains things that run off a fully charged battery, and therefor require the strongest voltage, such as the starter. This is the part of the system that requires a voltage regulator, a charging system, and is constantly working, unless the bike is off. It is either discharging power, or charging the battery.
Category Two - everything else that requires power, when a circuit is closed - ie: signal lights, brake lights, etc. This part of the system could potentially run without the voltage regulator, but if done so, would eventually drain the battery.
My bike, in it's current state, is an electrical gongshow. It has been modified, fixed, patched, redone, scrapped, multiple times. It is a blend of aftermarket pieces, stock pieces, and patches/fixes/zip ties/tape/shoddy soldering.
I am wondering if I can do the following:
Modify the electrical system to run off of two batteries.
The first battery would manage the voltage regulator, the starter, and hopefully the headlight.
The second system, would then run all the other pieces - such as the signal lights, horn, and act as a backup onboard battery for starting (by switching the wires over from battery one to battery two).. The benefit of this, is that I could easily bypass all the complicated systems and simply hookup a new set of signal light switches to the 2nd battery, that would need charging periodically (once per week perhaps?)
Is this as dumb and stupid as I think it is? Or could this possibly work? I have an 83 Maxim and I just am not confident reading the complicated wiring diagrams... I wish I understood this stuff better because I would like to have really neat and tidy wiring that works properly but at this point I feel like if I hit a bump the entire harness is going to fly off the bike and wrap around my neck and kill me.
Anyone out there who could simplify things for me would be greatly appreciated...
Keep in mind I am not an electrician and have zero prior experience working on anything electrically related.
Please correct me if any of this is wrong!!!
Category One - this contains things that run off a fully charged battery, and therefor require the strongest voltage, such as the starter. This is the part of the system that requires a voltage regulator, a charging system, and is constantly working, unless the bike is off. It is either discharging power, or charging the battery.
Category Two - everything else that requires power, when a circuit is closed - ie: signal lights, brake lights, etc. This part of the system could potentially run without the voltage regulator, but if done so, would eventually drain the battery.
My bike, in it's current state, is an electrical gongshow. It has been modified, fixed, patched, redone, scrapped, multiple times. It is a blend of aftermarket pieces, stock pieces, and patches/fixes/zip ties/tape/shoddy soldering.
I am wondering if I can do the following:
Modify the electrical system to run off of two batteries.
The first battery would manage the voltage regulator, the starter, and hopefully the headlight.
The second system, would then run all the other pieces - such as the signal lights, horn, and act as a backup onboard battery for starting (by switching the wires over from battery one to battery two).. The benefit of this, is that I could easily bypass all the complicated systems and simply hookup a new set of signal light switches to the 2nd battery, that would need charging periodically (once per week perhaps?)
Is this as dumb and stupid as I think it is? Or could this possibly work? I have an 83 Maxim and I just am not confident reading the complicated wiring diagrams... I wish I understood this stuff better because I would like to have really neat and tidy wiring that works properly but at this point I feel like if I hit a bump the entire harness is going to fly off the bike and wrap around my neck and kill me.
Anyone out there who could simplify things for me would be greatly appreciated...