One more Ironhead wiring thread for the pile..

[CARUSOwTow]

So I'm working out the last few bits on this IH i've been working on since November and it has come down to the wiring.
I am kind of stumped here so if anyone has better know how on wiring than me, which is not hard to do, please help me out here.

The motor is an 85', electric start XLH1000.
I'm running two headlights up front that I want to wire to an on-off-on switch. the down on position will be just the lower light, middle is off, and up on is both.
ignition is a Dynatek 2000i with Twin Fire II single fire coil. No VOES..
The key ignition I am running is one of those Lowbrow off-on-start boat type set ups that starts up like a car on the turn of the key.
voltage regulator and starter/sol are stock.
a Biltwell B tail light.
Antigravity 12 cell batt.

Thats about it.

I have a stack of wiring diagrams that I have found on here but each one is slightly different and I don't know electrical well enough to pick and choose what is going to make sense on mine.

I have one 30A circuit breaker block as my main, a 20A blade fuse for my lights, and another in line fuse for the ignition?..maybe?..

Any help here is appreciated and if you're in SoCal, beers are on me..

[TriNortchopz]

Killer bike...nice build. Seems simple enough.

[Tattooo]

Yes sir that a damn fine looking bike......

[JBinNC]

First, acquire and study a wiring diagram for the bike your motor came out of. That will give you guidance for the starting and charging systems.

Essentially, you should divide your wiring system into four systems:
Ignition, and anything you want to function while the motor is running, i.e. horn, idiot lights, maybe the brake light.
Lighting, including head and tail lamps, maybe brake lamp, and the hi/lo switch.
Starting, including switch and relay, and battery cables.
Charging, including generator or alternator, and regulator.

Think about each of these systems separately, but realize that you will integrate them into one harness.

Roughly following HD practice, I like three breakers, a 30A main breaker, and two 15A breakers, one for the ignition system and one for the lighting system. I like the old style HD breakers because the threaded posts are convenient for stacking several circuits.

I personally try to use the HD wiring colors when possible (from the '70s wiring harnesses), because I am familiar with their system, and it is consistent from year to year and model to model. That will help if others have to diagnose your wiring at some future time.

Here's the basics for the three breakers:
The main breaker batt post will connect to the positive battery post, or the starter solenoid at the battery cable post (which is usually neater). The load side of the main breaker will be the positive battery feed to the ignition switch, and the battery power to the starter relay (if used). You should attach the 12V feed from the regulator to this breaker as well.

From the ignition switch, one wire from the ignition terminal will go to the batt post of the ignition breaker, and another wire will go to the batt post of the lighting breaker. Feeds to everything else will come from the load side of these two breakers, and you can divide the circuits between them as you wish.

If your ignition switch is robust enough, you can eliminate the starter relay, and run one wire from the start post on the ignition switch to the small terminal on the starter solenoid.

You can use 16ga. wire for the whole system, except the main feed to and from the main breaker should be 14ga. In a 12V system, no larger wire is needed, and for smaller lamps, 18ga. will suffice.

I recommend that you run a ground wire to the headlamp and taillamp. HD does this now, but didn't in the '70s and '80s.

Your ignition will function much better, and the plugs will stay cleaner, if you use a VOES switch.

Now, start drawing up your wiring diagram, and good luck.

Jim

[Sugarcubes]

This is pretty much what I used to wire my Ironhead Chop. Its simple and easy to follow.

[bpeak]

Hey man. Beautiful build. Nice work!

I built an ironhead last year (thread in the sportsters section - ironhead chop redo it right). Out of that I got a lot of questions how I did my wiring. Ended up doing a video series on the YouTube channel. Might be of help for ya. Let me know if there's anything I can do to assist.

This is pasrt 1 of 3 videos. Warning - they are long and boring. Grab some popcorn and get comfy. Haha.

[CARUSOwTow]

Ey peak, I was just watching these about a week ago haa. I got them saved so I can go back to em when I get back to the bike. You did a hell of a job on that thing man good shit. I will for sure use that as a reference. Thanks again!!

[CARUSOwTow]

Thanks a ton man! Lot of good info in here. I'm not so lost as to how to wire up a bike. It's just this one in particular for some reason.

My big question is about the headlight and the switch I'm gonna wire em up to.
So I have 2 lights, on on top one on bottom. Both for 12v, self grounding. The switch i have is a 15a 3 way on-off-on.
I want to wire them so that when its on the down-on position just the lower amber light is on.
The middle is going to be off for starting and when I go through the gate at work or just all around sketchy bullshit.
The up-on position I want to have both top and bottom running.

The thing I'm getting tripped up on is splitting them onto that switch. So if split the wire on the bottom light and run one lead to the bottom switch and the other to the top as well as the top light on the up-on pos, will that work? Or is the bottom one going to pull juice regardless and they will both always be on or off?..

Heres some pics of the lights, switch and a children's drawing of how I think it would look..









Anything helps man and tanks again!

[TriNortchopz]

Look again at your child's drawing, both hot on high, both hot on low...both sides of the toggle switch are connected with your 'split' wire.

[JBinNC]

You have a single pole, double throw, center off switch. You need a double pole, double throw, center off switch to do what you want to do. It could be done with a diode, but the amps involved would make that solution problematic.

Jim

[CARUSOwTow]

Right on. That helps. So with the double pole switch, how would I wire that up to do what I'm trying to do here?

[Tattooo]

Right on. That helps. So with the double pole switch, how would I wire that up to do what I'm trying to do here?

Go buy the stitch first.....

[JBinNC]

Right on. That helps. So with the double pole switch, how would I wire that up to do what I'm trying to do here?

With the double pole switch, you have two switches like the one you have now, in one.

So, you will wire 12V to both center posts, with a jumper.
One side, you will jumper both end posts, for the lamp that you want "on" in both positions.
The other side, the other lamp is connected to one end post only, and will only be "on" at one position of the switch.

Easy.

Jim

[Tattooo]

With the double pole switch, you have two switches like the one you have now, in one.

So, you will wire 12V to both center posts, with a jumper.
One side, you will jumper both end posts, for the lamp that you want "on" in both positions.
The other side, the other lamp is connected to one end post only, and will only be "on" at one position of the switch.

Easy.

Jim

Yep it's so easy no need to explain it..... That's why I said get a switch, it will be obvious......

But now he knows I hope....

[CARUSOwTow]

Fuck that makes sense man. Seriously, thank you guys for the help. That shit had me stumped for a bit. On quite possibly the easiest thing I've had to do on this bike so far haa