Crankin’, but not runnin’…

I have the engine wired up. It took several days, mostly because it was hard to dedicate much time to it.

After much waffling, I finally decided to put the fuse block on the frame downtube. It will be more accessible for troubleshooting there. Almost everywhere else within reach would be exposed engine heat.

I welded two tabs to the pipe and drilled them to fit the mounting holes in the fuse block. The fuses face downward so they will be visible from underneath once the body is back on.

For weeks, I’ve been spending time trying to draw up a wiring diagram, but I’ve started it over repeatedly. Just can’t seem to get it together. I decided to kind of wire and draw simultaneously, based on a checklist of things that need wiring. For example, I need to wire everything on the engine that needs straight 12V when the key is on, so I list them: electric choke, fuel cuttoff solenoid, coil (through ballast resistor).

On the checklist, I set the wire colors, based arbitrarily on some concepts in my mind. For example, red is almost universally 12V power, but I like to think of things that always have power should be red. What’s reddish, to indicate 12V, but not always? Ok, orange. 🙂

So, I cut a piece of orange wire long enough to go from the choke to the fuel solenoid. put my nice quick disconnect spade connector on one end, cut another orange wire for solenoid to the ballast resistor, then put both of those in a spade connector for the solenoid and a ring connector on the resistor end of that one. Then run a wire from there to the fuse block, cut to length, put another ring on the resistor end and for now leave the other end a little long, but cut it.

There is a stop-run switch on the handlebar, so I guess my orange wire should extend up there before plugging in to the fusebox. Of course, that requires that I decode the wiring to the switches and connectorize it. The connector itself takes a while, but when it’s all wired up and ready to go, I meter it all to make sure they all work and then I finally draw out that bit of the diagram, remembering to include all the connections and connectors. I also try to draw the parts in a rough representation of where they are on the trike.

Ok, next wire.

So, you see, it takes a while.

The payoff is that by dedicating my thoughts and wiring retentiveness to the job one circuit at a time, with a big picture in mind, I think the trike will be well wired, reliable and easier to troubleshoot when something does crop up.