XJ900 Diversion - How much stuff can I wire up?

[c_dug]

Morning all.

How can I work out how much I can hook up to my divvy before having a detrimental effect?

I currently have decent heated grips wired up but would like to add some more bits and pieces, most likely a secondary tail light and brake light incorporated into my top box (so far I am thinking two strips of 12v LED's), then a charger for my phone, possibly some extra strip lights at the front and maybe one day some extra heated gear.

Obviously this adds up to a lot of extra bits and pieces so how do I work out the limit and will it have an effect on things like battery life and MPG, if so how much.

Thanks
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[Robby]

The limiting factor is the alternator output. You aren't going to affect battery charging or mpg, but you will reach a point where the alternator can't produce enough power to run everything. This point should happen before you overload the wiring, which would be bad.

Trial and error is the way to go about it. Things like LED lights or additional tail lights are very low power, up to 5W which is less than half an amp on a 12V system.

If you're doing lots of modifications, you may want to consider running a separate "accessory" loom, or a loop that connects back into the main loom in only one position. This takes load off the existing wiring doing the important jobs, and means less bodging of the original wiring to fit thing.

In general, your bike has a pretty good alternator so it can power lots of things. The only things that draw a lot of current are things that make heat.

[c_dug]

I was hoping to run the lights through the existing switches, is that likely to cause any issues?
____________________
I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[RhynoCZ]

Not really, go ahead

You could also use LED turn indicators to get some ''free'' power out of the system.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Ribenapigeon]

Look up your bikes alternator specs for a start. Then add up the drain the standard equioment (lihhts etc). Deduct the later from the former.

Make up an accesory loom with its own fuse and relay. Just get the bits from halfords.

Check out the draw in amps the kit you want add uses. A few leds on your too box will be low im guessing less than 300ma and a few watts.

[Ribenapigeon]

[J.M.]

[c_dug]

Not really wanting to change my indicators, I turned some extended stalks to suit the current ones as they were covered by my top box rack so unless I found LED indicators with the same stalk diameter it would render than a waste of time!
____________________
I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[lawsonn]

Hi if i would say if you run led lights the the existing wire harness should be fine. i wouldn't run normal lights off the stock wiring as may over load the original wires.

But.. LED's are low amp and watt but bright so if i was you i would just run LED's then there are no worry's about over loading anything.

[hmmmnz]

[lukamon]

[c_dug]

So, to start with I will probably be ok to just wire up the extra lights, the secondary tail/brake light is the one I am most worried about and by the sounds of it the bike will have plenty of umph for that. Then if I am going to go much further with bits and pieces consider changing things for LED's.

All this stuff about secondary looms for bits and pieces, how do I deal with necessary switches (for instance for the brake lights), I was just going to feed straight out of the brake light circuit and then back into it, parallel?

Electrics are far from my strong point but I will be able to get any needed components from RS via work so no need to deal with Halfrauds.
____________________
I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[Ribenapigeon]

For your your extra brake lights don't worry about a loom just wire them in paralel with the existing one. The fused and relayed loom is more for accesories like phone chargers and GPS etc. In fact if your going to add an extra brake light then just go the whole hog and upgrade to LEDs for both.

Search onlne for a wiring diagram for your bike as well. It will be usefull when it does come to making up a loom.

[c_dug]

I have a Haynes and a Yamaha workshop manual so I should have a wiring diagram in both of those.

I'll look into replacing the tail light with LED, I'm a bit wary of fiddling with things like that, if it ain't broke don't try and fix it and all that jazz.

Plus I actually want the bike to be worth something (so as close to standard as possible) when I'm done with it, changing lights to LED is a bit more than an easily reversible bolt on.
____________________
I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[Ribenapigeon]