My journey into trike building

Just Keep Swimming (part 2)

Having left the main start power installed in the previous part, I moved on to the next step by installing the start relay and engine wiring. This means that these will be some of the longest running wires on the trike.

I am not using standard colours on the wiring, but I am using as a basis some wiring diagrams I found on eBay.

There are several connections on the right side of the engine that are required to be made.

  1. The oil pressure switch (green)
  2. The coil +ve side from the engine run switch (black)
  3. The RPM sense line (yellow)
  4. The alternator exciter circuit (green)
  5. The reverse switch (red)

Also running down the left hand side are the lines for the right hand indicator, the side lights, and the brake lights. The side light and brake lines run on a shared line but an individual line for the left indicator runs down the left hand side.

Also running along the left hand loom are the engine temp and speedo pickup lines, both of which feed into the speedo loom.

The easiest way to do any wiring is to take small chunks and slowly start building your loom.

As I mentioned in the last post there were a few bits left to wire in and secure, so I started with them. The wiring for the starter relay was the first to be fitted and looked something like this.

The start relay

I used a relay so that I would not stress the start switch, after all the switch gear on the trike is actually from a Harley Davidson! There are 4 colour coded wires on the base of the relay and they get fitted like this:-

  • Yellow wire goes to the main battery line
  • Red wire goes to the starter solenoid input
  • Blue wire to nearest earth
  • Brown wire to the start switch

Next was the engine wiring, so starting with the furthest run I started to install the runs. The first wire to go in was the oil pressure switch, a single wire running to the dummy lights on the Acewell speedo. The next line to go in was the positive side of the coil, this runs to the run switch output on the switch gear. The yellow line is the RPM pick up and is connected to the negative on the coil.

the wiring to the engine

The final line to be placed in was the Alternator exciter line. The exciter line is required to energise the electro magnets that surround the rotor, as the rotor spins it cuts the lines of magnetic force generating a currant, or in normal parlance making electricity.

This runs up to the ignition light located beside the key switch. This light is very important as its a balanced circuit, and without it the battery will not charge. If the light goes out then the alternator is working.

It’s alive!

As this is all rough lay in at the moment, I have a little leeway on routing, but I have to avoid hot areas such as the exhaust system.

That’s it for now, in the next part I will be looking at the installation of the lighting circuits and ancillary services.

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