85 shadow bobber noobie build

[cdav59]

this is my first build and im very new to this scene so im still trying to learn as much as i can. to break it down my bike is a 1985 honda shadow vt500c that i picked up for pretty much free (friend of my brothers didnt want it anymore) after we got it running we decided it needed a new look so we came to conclusion of bobbing it. however we ran into problems when it came to the electrical work after a couple of weeks of working on it and realizing the wires were barely hanging in there we decided the only plan of action was to strip the harness completely and start over from scratch. this is where the build stopped i got frustrated trying to figure it out to the point where i stopped working on it all together. i want to get back into it and finish what i started. if anyone on here has ever worked on a bike similar to mine im open to any suggestions. im trying to not do a half assed job and want to do the majority of the work myself but im just stumped when it comes to the wiring......

 

[Maritime]

Do you still have the old harness? If so what you can do is remove all the wrap and seperate all the wires out so you can see the runs, you can buy reproduction connectors and wire and just make a new harness, one wire at a time. Copying the old one If you don't have it or it is hacked beyond recognition, there is a thread here with some basic systems wiring you can build a functioning harness from. You start with each main circuit like, starter, ignition, lights, etc and wire them from the battery/fuse block etc. Honda has excess wires on the old bikes and you can simplify them quite a bit if you get a diagram and do a little reading on how each system works. I will be tackling this on a 82 CX500 twin soon. It runs and all the lights work but I know if I don't redo the wiring there will be gremlins galore and they suck.

 

[cdav59]

I still have the original harness somewhere this is the diagram I want to build off of it seems simple enough any thoughts?

 

[Maritime]

You can use that I am sure, only thing you likely have a CDI not points and you likely have a combined regulator and rectifier in one. Most of the wire colours should be the same on the shadow as that diagram as Honda are pretty consistant on the wire colors, heck even my civic has wires the same color for the same funtions as my bikes.

Cheers,

 

[sasquach]

Here ya go

http://www.usualdosage.com/shadow/VT500C%20Wiring%20Diagram.pdf

 

[cdav59]

Thanks for the advice guys i will post pics of the bike soon

 

[john83]

Ah, wiring. Such fun. Let's see some pictures of where you're headed with this.