Baron Radi'us Internal Wiring
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WARNING!: The modifications described in these web pages are for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. I will NOT accept any responsibility if you attempt these modifications yourself. These modification can damage/ destroy/ make the bike UNSAFE/ VOID the Warrantee, injure or cause death to the rider & passenger if the modification are done incorrectly! Seek a Professional motorcycle mechanic if you think your unable to do these modifications yourself or if you think your motorcycle is UNSAFE. Do the modifications at YOUR OWN RISK!
Now that all the legal mumbo jumbo has been said... I hope these pages help other RS Warrior riders with their mods! Thank you for visiting.
Stay Alert and RIDE SAFE!
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Step 6:
Blue: Clutch side wires #1 (6 wires)
White: Clutch side wires #2 (5 wires)
Black: Throttles side wires (6 wires)
The switch wires are not going to be long enough to go through the handlebars and into the light assembly. So, wire extensions will have to be made.
Before removing the wires from the plastic connector, I took these pictures to make a note of how the factory wire color coding were. I wanted to preserve the metal terminals, just in case I wasn't able to find a source in the local Electronics stores.
You can remove these metal terminals from the plastic connectors without damaging them. If you look at the end of the plastic connector, there are little plastic levers next to the metal terminals. If you depress the plastic levers, the metal terminals will pull right out. I used a small paperclip to press the plastic levers and then leveraging the paperclip against the terminals enough so that the terminals didn't lock back in. You can see the top left photo of the blue connector, the terminals and wires have been disengaged and they will pull out of the plastic housing.
Step 7:
Ok, this is one of the tougher steps. Running the wires through the handlebars. First thing to do is to feed a pull string through the handlebars. There were two methods explained by the Mod Gurus on RS Warrior.
One method was to tie a small metal weight (fishing lead weight) to the end of a piece on string, I used the screw end tips from a spark plugs that I had lying around. Using gravity, you can work the weight through the handlebars (before mounting the handlebars onto the motorcycle). This was the initial way I did it, before mounting the handlebars. I taped the ends of the thread to the handle bars. I didn't want to take a chance that the thread would fall through. I mounted the handlebars with both pull strings installed.
Since, the string wasn't going to be strong enough to pull the switch wires through, I used my string to pull through some dental floss (stronger than the string I was using). That's when the string broke while pulling the dental floss through. Doh!
So, instead of taking the handlebars off, I tried the second pull string method. I taped off all the wire holes and the bar end (that I wasn't using) with masking tape. I then stuck a length of dental floss through the bottom wiring hole of the handlebars. One end of the dental floss was taped onto the bars so that it wouldn't be sucked into the vacuum cleaner. I then attached a vacuum cleaner hose to the end of the handlebars. With all the holes taped off, the dental floss was sucked towards the vacuum cleaner. With the dental floss now at the end of the handlebar, I used a needle nose pliers to pull the dental floss through the upper wire hole.
Mistake #1... double strand of dental floss was not strong enough to pull the switch wires through (top left photo). Doh! So, I had to use the vacuum again to pull dental floss through the bars again. This time I used 14 gauge wire as the final pull string.
With the thicker 14 gauge pull string I staggered the switch wires, and tightly wrapped them around the pull string with electrical tape. I pulled all 11 wires through the handle bars tube at once on the left side and all 6 wires on the right side at once.
*** DON'T FORGET TO INSTALL THE LEFT MIRROR/ CLUTCH PERCH BEFORE RUNNING THE WIRES ON THE LEFT SIDE!
Mistake #2... I forgot to put the left mirror & clutch perch on before running the switch wires on the left side (top left photo). I didn't want to pull the wires out, as it was a real pain to run them through the handlebars, but I managed to get the perch on without removing the wires. I had enough slack to remove the left switch assembly and slide the perch on. I removed the cross bolt from the perch and carefully ran each wire through the handlebar recess and the gap (created by removing the bolt) in the perch until all of the wires were through. It was tricky, but I did it!
If you look at the top right photo, you can still see the terminals still attached to the wires. I thought at the time that I would be able to find male and female terminals at the local electronics stores. Since, I was unable to find a source of the terminals, I ultimately had to cut the terminals off and reuse them. Had I cut them off before running the wires through the handlebars, it would have been much so much easier.
Step 8:
I went to a Yamaha dealer (parts person couldn't find terminal part # on the computer) & a couple electronics stores looking for the terminals. Couldn't find any, nor could I order any (at a reasonable price).
At the electronics stores I bought some colored stranded 18 gauge wires, heat shrink tubing, and some stainless steel braided conduit sheathing. I didn't write down the colors of the wires coming out from the handlebars, so I guessed and picked up 8 different colored spools of wires. I could have saved some money and just got one large spool of a single wire, but I'm always doing some electronics work and though they would come in handy down the road. I didn't get two colors right (yellow & pink), but I made do with the other colors. Everything else I had at home already (tools/ supplies). Some colored wires were used more than once. To differentiate the same colored wires, I use a black felt permanent marker to run a black line down the wire.
First step was to cut off all the terminal connectors from the wiring harness. I then used an Exacto knife blade to carefully pry the terminal crimps away from the remaining wire. I then re-crimped the terminals to my 8"-10" extensions using my ratcheting crimping tool (orange handle). As an added measure of precaution, I soldered the wires and terminals. The completed extensions are pictured in the top right photo.
UPDATE: I found a source for the Hitachi type connectors the Warrior uses. I haven't ordered any, so I haven't personally tested them out. But, I do believe these are an exact match for the stock OEM connectors. The prices are very reasonable. The link is: www.electricalconnection.com This would have made the install much easier if I had known about this supplier.
UPDATE: I get a lot of emails asking for some help trying to locate a local source for the stainless steel (ss) braided material. RSW forum members have mentioned that they used the ss braided covering found on flexible water supply lines used for kitchen sinks, bathroom sinks, and toilet supply line found at local hardware stores. They just cut the ends off the flexible water supply line and use the braided material that covers the plastic tubing.
Step 9:
Before soldering the two ends of the wires together, I slipped on a 1" section of black heat shrink tubing. After soldering the wire extensions to the handlebar wires, I slid the heat shrink tubing over the bare wire. Next I used a heat gun to shrink the tubing. All the handlebar wires were done in this manner.
Step 10:
Since you have to deal with 11 wires on the left and only 6 wires on the right, I purchased two sizes ( 1/4" & 3/8") of stainless steel conduit sheathing at a local electronics/ radio warehouse type store (Radio Shack on STEROIDS!). I guess they use the conduit sheathing to protect wires and for shielding purposes. I found them on large spools, they were sold by the feet.
Before slipping in the conduit sheathing, I wrote down what wire extensions were soldered to what stock wiring colors. This was so that I could re-assemble the connectors when I was done, as the conduit sheathing covered up the solder joints.
The left wires (11 each) slipped through the 3/8" sheathing easily, the 1/4" sheathing was too thin for 11 wires. I pushed a couple inches worth of the conduit sheathing up into the lower handlebar hole. After enough of the sheathing was inside the handlebar (to prevent the wires from being chafed from the hole), I taped the other end of the conduit sheathing to the wires with electrical tape.
Getting just the 6 wires through the 1/4" conduit sheathing was really tough. The sheathing does stretch a little bit, and does spring back to it's original shape eventually. The tight fit looked real nice though. Top left photo shows the sheathing before being pushed up into the lower handlebar hole.
Middle picture shows the sheathing a couple inches into the hole.
Far right photo is where I used electrical tape over the sheathing & wires to prevent it from fraying apart.
Final Step:
Final step was to reattach the terminals into the plastic connectors in the proper configuration. I used the photos above of the connectors and my notes regarding the color coding of my extensions to re-assemble the connectors.
I routed all the wirings through the wire guides and into the headlight assembly. Reconnected all the connectors into the main wiring harness. Then re-attached the headlight assembly back onto it bracket on the lower triple clamp.
Secured the tachometer shell back onto the top triple clamp. Stuffed all the connecters into the rear portion of the headlight assembly and reinstalled the headlight.
Final task was to test the bike and all the switches. I checked all the turn signals, horn, hi-beam/ low-beam, kill switch and the starter button. All checked out fine! Turned the ignition key on and started the Warrior. Listened and smelled around to see if there were any short circuits. Nada.. all was GREAT on the first try.
Other sources of info regarding this mod, can be found in this thread on RS Warrior forums: http://www.rswarrior.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1760&whichpage=1
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Text & Photos © Copyright 2006 REDHORSE