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Message started by Mosbi on 07/20/19 at 15:11:34

Title: Harness wire section diameter importance ?
Post by Mosbi on 07/20/19 at 15:11:34

Hey there,

I was talking with my father about me wanting to work on the wiring harness and how I was kinda worried about choosing the right different wire sections, then he told me that it did not really matter, I could redo the entire thing using, say, 1.5mm² electrical wire, and they do it on the bikes only to save costs.
Is that so ?

My gut feeling was that different sections would offer different electrical behaviour (resistance, thus amperage).

Thanks

Title: Re: Harness wire section diameter importance ?
Post by Dave on 07/20/19 at 15:18:21

The diameter of the wire is related to the load.....the more power needed the larger the wire size. Choose a wire too small, and you can have a melt down that cascades and burns everything up!

I would not install any wires smaller than the bike has before you work on it. The only exception would be if you are installing LED's that require less power - you might be able to step down a bit for the wires that are supplying power to the LED's.

Title: Re: Harness wire section diameter importance ?
Post by Gary on 07/20/19 at 20:02:34

Often wire size (gauge) is determined for mechanical reasons not electrical load. Skinny wires are easily broken by vibration or handling.
Gary

Title: Re: Harness wire section diameter importance ?
Post by Mosbi on 07/21/19 at 01:30:48

@Dave : that's what I was thinking, but is the opposite true ? Is there a risk to replace a wire with one that has a larger diameter ?

@Gary : good point. Say I take the largest diameter that the harness has and use it everywhere, will it work ?

Thanks for your answers !

Title: Re: Harness wire section diameter importance ?
Post by Dave on 07/21/19 at 03:37:48

Using a larger wire is like having a wider hallway or a larger pipe.....there is less resistance to movement and the current can flow through easier.

I would try and copy the size of the wires in the bike as closely as possible.

Title: Re: Harness wire section diameter importance ?
Post by Gary_in_NJ on 07/21/19 at 05:43:45

If the wire gauge is too thin, then the wire becomes the fuse. As noted above, wire gauge is chosen for the load and distance. On a motorcycle distance isn’t an important concern, but load is. If you’ve converted the lighting to all LED, then you can reduce wire gauge.

Title: Re: Harness wire section diameter importance ?
Post by Armen on 07/21/19 at 06:38:17

One of the things that makes me crazy when wiring a bike is the super thin wires used on a lot of aftermarket LED lights. Putting crimp connectors on them is a pain, and certain to fail soon.
One of the reason (besides the increased resistance of thinner wires) that I use thicker wires is the safety/strength of using the thicker wires in connectors.
Many moons ago I did some voltage drop tests on OEM skinny battery leads vs the more full figured aftermarket ones on a 900 Ducati. The chubby wires showed almost no voltage drop, while the OEM ones were around 1/2 volt drop per lead.
Bike started a lot quicker.