I was in the middle of rewiring my 74 Norton when I came across something pretty funny. I'm the second owner of the bike and have enjoyed it for 14 years now. When winter came, like all winters, I spend my time in the garage doing either upgrade or repairs. So when this winter came it was time to face the Prince and do some much needed upgrades to the electrical, as well as to create my own wiring harness to get rid of all the unused Interpol circuits that are not used. My plan was to use marine wire and to use color heat shrink to follow the original color codes of the wires. So , I had a small question of in what was the best way to run what wire where? and being tired of looking at the wiring diagram decided to go straight to the source. Having the original harness, I decided to remove the original tape , and BEHOLD!, RATS!!, well actually mice . Mice had chewed the insulation from several wires and the one they decided was the tastiest was my brown/blue. Now the thing is there is no doubt in my mind that this happened at the Factory!? There was no marking on the out side of the tape and the tape when it is placed on the harness from the factory is done in a very specific way, like a field dressing where the tape over laps where it branches off to other leads. Also having two rabbits as pets I'm very confident determining that these where mouse bites and not fraying of any kind . Two small gouges on either side and a tiny sliver in the center. Thinking back at all the times my bike just did weird unexplained electrical phenomenon and I raised my fist in the air cursing Joseph Lucas name it was the rats at the factory I should of been cursing!! Could it be that where all wrong about Lucas , :twisted: "Laughing now and its hard to type".
But the lesson here I guess is if your running the original harness , whats under all that tape?
But the lesson here I guess is if your running the original harness , whats under all that tape?