Splicing electrical connectors

Motorcycling
1

Yo folks,

Since moving up from five to six gears can be confusing to a wee brain like mine, I’ve decided to fit an Acumen digital gear indicator:

However, there is no plug and play connector for my bike and I will have to splice into the wiring loom to get it to work.

Several questions here for the handymen among us:

  • Rather than using clamp blocks, I think soldering the connections and taping them up with electrical tape is the way to go. Is there any special solder I should use, or the same stuff I used for my pet science projects in school also good for bike applications?

  • Do I need any special tools to get behind the clocks of my bike? Do I have to take the whole @#!@# nose cone off? (Hey I knew getting a faired bike was gonna be trouble :w00t: )

  • Also I’m fitting one of these puppies hooked up to a Pt100 temperature sensor so I can see how tough I am for riding in this cold :cool:

SYL-1912a.jpg800×587

I’ll be installing the temperature readout recessed in the right fairing, but does any 'Bird owner have a good idea for a place to fit the sensor where it isn’t affected by waste heat from the engine, yet still gets enough fresh air to deliver an accurate reading?

Ta, Stefan Mechanic

2

this prob wont much much use but an idea
instead of taping it up why dont you use heat shrink it will look neater

3

Yeah shrink tube is a brilliant idea, I think I’ll go with that.

4

Not sure you have much choice on the solder front (all lead free now)

But silver solder is good…:wink:

I did not actually ‘split’ the wires when fitting mine.

Removed the front plastics to get good access to the rear of the clocks/loom.

Carefully bared the required sheath on one side to expose the cable core and then soldered the (very thin) acumen wires onto that, then applied a load of insulating tape over the top.

:smiley:

5

For soldering onto the loom I would recommend you get a set of automatic wire strippers like these;

http://lkl-products.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=42

they break & pull back the insulation only without damaging the wire. Saves you loads of time when doing electrics, you will have to use insulating tape though not heatshrink.