MK III Warning Light wiring

calbigbird · Jun 15, 2009

I am trying to get the warning light console for my MK III working. To this end, I ordered a new warning light harness and W/L Control Unit Simulator.

First, the harness. It has a plug that looks to match up with an unused plug from the main harness, under the tank. The loose ends of the harness have the proper ends to attach to the ridiculously expensive bulbs, but the colors are not correct. Am I missing an additional harness, or do I just match up wires based on the wire colors before the harness?

Second, the Control Unit. The wiring diagram shows wires coming off the alternator, the shop manual indicates a Green/Yellow to one AL lug and a White/Green to the other AL lug and associates these with the Rectifier. I took the rectifier and zener diodes off and went to a regulator rectifier. Do I grab a wire off that unit, or use the wires directly off the alternator and would the proper color coded wires in the harnes still work? Also, the similator unit has blade connectors and the wiring harness has bullet connectors. Am I missing something again, or is this just the British way of getting even?

Ron L · Jun 16, 2009

First
Yes, this is one area where Norton mysteriously mismatched wire colors. At the plug you should see Yellow to Green/White, Yellow to Green/Red, Slate to Green, Red to White/Brown, Purple to Blue/white, and Purple to Red.

Second
Assuming you have the solid state assmilator, you connect the two spades marked "AL" with leads in parallel with the regulator/rectifier. If you are using the stock wiring harness the easiest way is to use a four-way Lucas connector and plug one lead from the stator, one lead from the regulator/rectifier, and one lead from the AL terminal of the assimilator. Repeat for the other leg of the stator. You will need to make a two wire sub-harness to do this. Your alternator leads from the regulator/rectifier are probably both yellow, so I would use two lengths of yellow wire with a bullet at one end and a 1/4" spade at the other. Plug these into your assimilator on the "AL" spades and connect them to the yellow wires from the regulator/rectifier and the G/Y and W/G wires from the stator.
The other connections on the assimilator are the White/Brown to the warning light and the Red to ground.
Tape up or remove the wires from you harness that connected to the original zener diode and rectifier, as well as the unused G/W and W/G in the harness at the assimilator

calbigbird · Jun 18, 2009

Thanks for the information, that looks like exactly what I needed. I am a bit physically hampered right now, but as soon as I can get out and around the bike again, I will wire up as you have suggested.

Once again this forum has come to my rescue.

rbt11548 · Jun 18, 2009

calbigbird said:
.......the ridiculously expensive bulbs,

Hi ,I too baulked at paying the daft price for the Mk3 bulbs and in the end I replaced all the bulbs in my Mk3 with bulbs from Maplins,which is I think the UK equivalent of Radio Shack. I looked up their catalogue, and found they had 12v tiny bulbs with the wires aleady attached, ( there are a number of different styles), they cost me about £3.60 for the 4, all I had to do was cut the wires to length and solder the wires to the light holder connections. Have a look in Radio Shack's and other suppliers catalogues , they probably stock them.
Robert

calbigbird · Jun 22, 2009

Thanks to Ron L, I think I have the wiring at the warning light end of the wiring figured out. The other end is still giving me a problem.

I have located a wire bundle that I believe contains the wiring for the warning light control unit. The only problem is the colors don't correspond with the wiring diagram. What I have is:
GRN/WHI - this goes to an AL terminal
WHI/GRN - this goes to the other AL terminal
Red - this apparently goes to the E terminal
BRO/BLU
BLU
GRN

Six wires, five terminals on the control unit, and three of the wires are the wrong color. Any suggestions?

I also have a two wire bundel that I believe go to the neutral switch. (a Red and a BRO/BLU). Again, this does not match with the wiring diagram.

I still think this is a British plot against the Yanks. :wink:

rbt11548 · Jun 23, 2009

calbigbird said:
Thanks to Ron L, I think I have the wiring at the warning light end of the wiring figured out. The other end is still giving me a problem.

I have located a wire bundle that I believe contains the wiring for the warning light control unit. The only problem is the colors don't correspond with the wiring diagram. What I have is:
GRN/WHI - this goes to an AL terminal
WHI/GRN - this goes to the other AL terminal
Red - this apparently goes to the E terminal
BRO/BLU
BLU
GRN

Six wires, five terminals on the control unit, and three of the wires are the wrong color. Any suggestions?

I also have a two wire bundel that I believe go to the neutral switch. (a Red and a BRO/BLU). Again, this does not match with the wiring diagram.

I still think this is a British plot against the Yanks. :wink:

Hi calbigbird, I took a picture of mine before I took it off and replaced it with the Boyer unit with charge light, here is the picture. The blue wire you mention is a "spare" according to the wire diagram and also going by the picture, if you were to follow it it joins onto the feedwire for the pilot/head switch and the hi/lo switch on the opposite bar, but it is unconnected towards the rear of the bike, it terminates in the battery box area. It may have been to fit something on an Interplod bike running to the rear for extra lights, but it is a spare, as the rear lights work from the brown / green "park circuit". The green wire is the netral switch wire. The brown/blue, would have gone to the rectifier/ battery / powerpoint / capacitor & ignition switch circuit.

As For ............."I still think this is a British plot against the Yanks. :wink:[/quote]" .... did we ever thank you for Ruby Wax?

calbigbird · Jun 23, 2009

Thanks, a picture really is worth a 1,000 words. I think part of my problem is the wiring harness. Whoever had the bike before me butchered the wiring harness beyond recognition. I purchased a new harness from Old Britts, but with wiring colors don't not seem to run true.

Your picture shows two white wires to the IGN post. My loome doesn' have white wires anywhere near this point. Your picture shows two red wires on the E post. There is only one in he portion of the loome where the control unit goes. Your WL post had a white brown wire attached. Again, there is no white brown wire here.

The unused blue I get. That and the W/G and G/Y are the only wires that correspond to the colors in the diagram.

L.A.B. · Jun 23, 2009

calbigbird said:
I still think this is a British plot against the Yanks.

It's a CANADIAN plot!

rbt11548 said:
The blue wire you mention is a "spare" according to the wire diagram and also going by the picture, if you were to follow it it joins onto the feedwire for the pilot/head switch and the hi/lo switch on the opposite bar, but it is unconnected towards the rear of the bike, it terminates in the battery box area. It may have been to fit something on an Interplod bike running to the rear for extra lights, but it is a spare, as the rear lights work from the brown / green "park circuit". The green wire is the netral switch wire. The brown/blue, would have gone to the rectifier/ battery / powerpoint / capacitor & ignition switch circuit.

The Blue wire as you say, is a "spare",-except for Canadian models that apparently had lights that were required to come on once the engine was running at the "IGN ON" position, so Canadian models had a different assimilator (part 06-6392) that switched the lights on automatically,-immediately the engine had been started, hence the need for the Blue harness wire! The spare Brown/Green wire and terminal in the harness is for the Canadian tail lamp assimilator connection.

So for the standard 06-6393 assimilator, the wire connections are:

White - IGN
Green/Yellow - AL
White/Green - AL
White/Brown - WL
Red - E

For Canadian models, the (06-6392) assimilator connections are:

Brown/Green - TL (Tail Light)
Green/Yellow - AL
White/Green - AL
White/Brown - WL
Blue - HL (Headlamp)

The factory manual gives full information, the Canadian option is also noted on the MkIII manual wiring diagram.

rbt11548 · Jun 23, 2009

calbigbird said:
Thanks, a picture really is worth a 1,000 words. I think part of my problem is the wiring harness. Whoever had the bike before me butchered the wiring harness beyond recognition. I purchased a new harness from Old Britts, but with wiring colors don't not seem to run true.

Your picture shows two white wires to the IGN post. My loome doesn' have white wires anywhere near this point. Your picture shows two red wires on the E post. There is only one in he portion of the loome where the control unit goes. Your WL post had a white brown wire attached. Again, there is no white brown wire here.

The unused blue I get. That and the W/G and G/Y are the only wires that correspond to the colors in the diagram.

Hi calbigbird, as you say your loom looks to have been butchered and you have only 2 wires that match the g/w & g/y, ok! the red IS earth that can go to any earth, make sure it's good, I know you said you had done away with the zeners etc. so just ignore them in the diagram. This diagram may help in running new wires which may be the easiest option rather than trying to trace wire that may have been cut out by the previous owner. The reason for the 2 reds would have been the wire would have been going onto the spade to give a connection then carrying on to connect to something else. As you can see the diagram only shows 1 red as long as it's properly earthed it will be ok

All the best
Robert

calbigbird · Jun 23, 2009

It appears you are correct, I will have to run wires independent of the wiring harness. As an example, I can see where the white/brown wire disappears into the harness from the warning light harness, but I can't find where it comes out. the more I work with this new wiring harness, the more I find problems with it.

Thanks for the diagram and the information, and thanks to all who have contributed.

calbigbird · Jun 25, 2009

Success at last.

I started to wire around the main harness to get the warning lights to work. As I was searching for white wires to connect to the neutral and ignition lights, I came across the five wires for the control assimilator. Every picture and diagram I have seen shows the assimilator near the battery in the middle of the bike. These wires were under the tank. I hooked them up, ran power wires from the lights to the white kill switch wire in the headlight bucket and frightfully turned on the key. Everythink came to life. All four lights are working as designed. The only problem I see is the ignition light flickers on at idle. As soon as it comes off idle the light goes out. May need a new alternator. I may just leave it alone until the light stays on all the time.

I think about all I have left to do on this project is have the fenders polished.

A hearty thanks for all the suggestons and pictures and all who have been willing to pass along their knowledge. Were it not for all of you, I would still be trying to figure out where to look for parts. As soon as I get the cast off my foot and clearance from the doctor, this baby and I are going for a ride!

Ron L · Jun 26, 2009

The only problem I see is the ignition light flickers on at idle. As soon as it comes off idle the light goes out. May need a new alternator.

This is normal. The alternator is not capable of delivering sufficient current at idle to extinguish the light.

MK III Warning Light wiring

calbigbird

Ron L

calbigbird

rbt11548

calbigbird

rbt11548

calbigbird

L.A.B.

Moderator

rbt11548

calbigbird

calbigbird

Ron L

Similar threads