Boxerworks.com

'84 R100

Thinking I should replace both ground and positive cables on my bike. OEM replacements seem to be available for not a lot of dough. The original ones have not given me any problems but I remember reading about how poor quality the original ones were. Probably a Duane rant.

Your thoughts gentlemen.

Zombie Master wrote: Your thoughts gentlemen.

Duane doesn't rant.

I remanufactured mine using #4 welders cable.
Soldered the terminals.
Cost me about $10-$12.

Here are some of welding cable for less voltage drop.

http://www.euromotoelectrics.com/EME-Battery-s/79.htm

as a temporary repair I used some 10/3(oven/dryer) electrical wire(multi-stranded) doubled up; have not yet made the permanent repair.

I've been doing what dougie did. I buy new terminals at the hardware store and then I get some #4 welding wire from the welding supply store (where they sell it way too cheaply). Then I cut a couple pieces of shrink tubing and slip that on. To crimp the terminal, I set the vise jaws apart about half the width of the terminal and use a dulled cold chisel and whap it good twice across the width of the terminal. On some of them, I had put some dielectric grease in the terminal, thinking it will prolong the life of the job. After crimping the terminals, I try to pull them off but they're very secure.

For good measure, I add the Rob Frankham wire harness.

Chuey

If you go Dougie and Chuey's route follow it up with double shrink tubeing. That transferes the "flex" in the cable evenly and will help stop some of the fine wires from breaking at the crimp with age.

Garnet wrote:If you go Dougie and Chuey's route follow it up with double shrink tubeing. That transferes the "flex" in the cable evenly and will help stop some of the fine wires from breaking at the crimp with age.

+1

Gee, and all along I thought I had invented making cables using #4 Welding cable and #4 ring terminals, using heat shrink tubing on the ends.

The cable makers chiming in here are right. When you make such a set of your own you'll thoroughly enjoy the extra flexibility and the real rubber jacket of welders cable instead of the stiff PVC jackets of many cables. Plus the conductivity of the #4 welding cable will be a bit more than the stock cables.

One extra step I do, after crimping the terminals on the end of the cable, is to wick some solder into the joint. I use one of those micro butane torches for the heat. Do be careful with the wicking. Let it go too far and you will end up with the ends of the wires themselves soldered solid. That will make the cables very prone to fatiguing and breaking right there.

I also make the negative cable a tad longer so I can fasten it on the left hand side of the transmission--thus avoiding the failure prone threads at the speedometer cable to transmission location. To fasten the cable to the left hand side of the transmission you'll need a short spacer around that 6mm bolt to fill up the counter bore along with and a longer bolt to suit.


Ken

Ken in Oklahoma wrote:One extra step I do, after crimping the terminals on the end of the cable, is to wick some solder into the joint. I use one of those micro butane torches for the heat. Ken

Me too. Those little butane torches are great.