In my opinion, they did it wrong and should've never sent it that way.  contact them.

wired and routed:
today i was able to wrestle with the rat's nest otherwise known as the savage wire harness. http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1304297812/45#59

one of sbaugz's recent postings of how he wired up his tach and speedo got me thinking:
sbaugz wrote on 06/11/11 at 10:57:08:


entire post here: http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1299948401/30#41

i attempted sbauz's route as it seemed like it could be a pretty clean install.

omitting the kickstand kill switch, i chose to use the wires from it, to extend the ground and negative coil connections into the headlight.




i then wrapped the two wires from the speedo in heat shrink tubing and ran them into the headlight along with the wire harness from the tach. the reds and blue from the speedo and tach were connected to the two grey wires aka running lamp wires. the black wires of the speed and tach where connected to the black and white wire i used from the kickstand kill switch as a ground wire. the green wire of the tach was connected to the green wire also running into the headlamp from the coil. all connections were made with bullet connectors except in the areas i had to extend wires.


im very happy with the end result. nice thinking sbauz!

i think im going to defeat the rat's nest no problem!

IDK, maybe Im just anal, but those crimp connectors leave me uncomfortable, might last for years & be just fine, but Im sold on soldering connections. Takes longer, but it is sure to last.

I have an FAA mechanic certificate with A&P ratings.  (big deal, eh?)  Crimped connecters are the preferred method in aircraft.  I'll admit the crimped connectors for airworthiness requirements aren't the type you'd get in a box from Big Lots, but the name brand automotive and marine stuff is pretty good.  They aren't cheap.

Soldered connectors have at least five disadvantages:
-- They fatigue more rapidly in vibrating environments.
-- The joint needs to be cleaned of flux, even if you don't use an acidic flux.
-- You have to do a heat-shrink cover over the joint afterwards
      - more stuff to buy
      - more steps in the process
      - more craftsmanship required
      - easy to not look tidy
-- It takes more skill to do a proper solder joint.
-- It takes more time.

I would recommend to those using crimped connectors to do some testing of your typical joints.  Do a few test crimps using the types of connectors and wire you intend to use.  Then yank, twist, pull, and otherwise abuse the connection a lot to see how it holds up.  This is occasionally a very disappointing procedure.

One other tip:  you can increase the fatigue resistance of a crimped joint by shrinking on some heat shrink tubing about a 1/2" on both sides of the joint OVER the crimping insulator.  Overkill?  Maybe.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 06/13/11 at 07:40:19:


No doubt your soldered connections would be at least as good as the connections in the stock wiring.  Some folks actually like to solder -- it feels more like you are creating something of quality, rather than using something so plebian as some fancy-looking pliers to make the joint.


To all: What is the guy doing wrong in this wire-crimping video?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DqizFbQarA

I'm a fan of Posi-Lock connectors.

http://www.posi-lock.com/posilock.html

A drawback, though, is that they're not very compact.

I don't remember what I spent on the last bunch I got. They do cost more than crimp-on connectors.