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Wiring loom tight at steering head, my find

8K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  Glock Holiday 
#1 ·
I have read some post of it being tight at the steering head, my finding is when turned fully to right lock it would get very tight on the steering head.
I pulled the bolt from the rear of the tank moved it back 4", on the left side there is a small clamp that holds the wiring loom. With steering straight loosened the two screws on the clamp, turn bars full right. It moved the harness a 1/2 forward! That's how tight it was at full lock right. I adjust 1/4 more forward and tightened it all back up.
Not saying all are like this, but there has been reports of wiring problems at the headlight bucket. Maybe this may take some strain of the wiring harness at the steering head.
Just my finding on my T-120
:grin2:
 
#2 ·
I found the same after my oil light started coming on intermittently. On investigation, I found that when I turn the bars full right the oil light comes on and stays on for a while! The tightness has caused a loosening of the harness plugs where it goes into the clocks. Been meaning to loosen it up and I found your post. Thanks!

PS - The slight creaking of the wiring against the steering neck when full right turn is the tightness indicator. If it goes then its loosened!
 
#5 ·
wiring harness

So I hv had the Triumph guys check it and they put a warranty claim for a replacement wiring harness since the current one keeps showing the oil light for no reason. I shoved a lighter between the speedo and the keyhole module and that seemed to take care of the light for some time :smile2:
I freed up a bit of wire from the rear of the loom and it did free up 1/2 to 1 inch of wiring to the front(by above method) but I guess the connectors are screwed. So lets hope the wiring harness change does some good.
 
#7 ·
Interesting. On my TTR it did the same thing. I figured it was just too tight from the factory build. The loom has extra length to accommodate the fairing. Sounds like they may be using the same loom on all bikes. Anyway, I loosened the harness turned to lock and then tightened. No more squeaking.
 
#8 ·
I've loosened up the tidy using a longer bolt and kicked out the clutch cable on my 2017 Street Cup. So now the harness doesn't stretch so tight that it creaks anymore. But it still pulls a lot when the bars go right and then pushes back (a lot) when the bars go left. Seems like too much movement and I would still expect to see problems down the road, from all that flexing. The clutch cable may have been one identified problem but I don't think it's the whole story.

Also - other posts in this general theme have indicated wires failing at the voltage regulator. Those regulator wires look pretty stiff and, wrapped together with the rest of the harness, are probably causing a lot of needless movement in the harness overall. This is especially true since the voltage regulator doesn't need to be on the forks. Sure - it should probably see some airflow but a frame mount somewhere, say behind the radiator, should suffice. If you really want to leave it on the fork, then perhaps consider trying to separate the wires to it from the rest of the harness.

Dinking with the harness on a new bike, under warranty, may seem disconcerting, but so is the prospect of waiting til it fails and then trying to get the bike to a dealer for a replacement harness. If it's a stock harness replacement, what's changed?
 
#9 ·
If you really want to leave it on the fork, then perhaps consider trying to separate the wires to it from the rest of the harness.
That’s exactly what I did with my 2016 street twin, I unwrapped all the wires from under the tank up to the headlight bucket wiring, one of the wires going into the right connector into the regulator had split showing bare wire into the connector and another split about an inch above from all the movement, removed the terminal from the connector an put heatshrink over the wire and then wrapped up the two sets of wire into the reg separately and then the rest of the harness all wrapped together with new harness tape, so all in three wrapped wires now go through the headstock tidy into the harness box under the tank, should futureproof the harness for a while
 
#10 ·
I had the headstock tidy recall done on my 2016 Street Twin in May, 2019. In early July my turn signals and flashers stopped working. The turn signals would work intermittently for a few seconds at a time. My dealer found a broken connection on a purple wire directly behind the headlight. I had to pay the bill, $184.75 because my bike's 3 year warranty was up the previous month. Dealer filed a "good will" claim with Triumph on July 10th. I haven't heard if Triumph will cover the broken wire repair. It seems to me that the wire damage was probably started before the headstock tidy recall. My bike had around 12,000 miles on it at the time.
 
#11 ·
I hope that Triumph will do a good faith compensation for the matter of less than a month.

One wire break is definitely inconclusive but could also be indicative of too much strain on the wiring harness. I'm curious about one thing. I've already removed my rectifier/voltage regulator from the forks and it seems like that relaxed the harness significantly at the steering neck, but I no longer have a comparison.

If you observe the pull of the harness (bars turned to the right) and then disconnect the two regulator connectors (hot wire and ground on the left, as your looking at it from the front, and the alternator wires on the right) and turned the bars to the right again - is the harness significantly reduced in movement? The connectors just pull straight up off so that's a pretty easy test.

My IMHO take on the clutch cable is that too much movement in the harness is the primary cause of abrasion by the clutch cable and also, the cable has little or nothing to do with pulling wires apart at the neck. To use a medical analogy, the whole recall thing could be more like treating one symptom, rather than addressing the problem.
 
#13 ·
With 3 yrs of history and probably near 100k bikes out there, the majority of folks have likely never had a problem with their wiring. I haven't either (and second that knock on wood) but saw what I think is a potential long term type problem. A lot of riders have reported problems and it would seem from recent posts that T is out of warranty replacement harnesses - not a good sign. As soon as I found that T had gone to a frame mount regulator for 2019, I went ahead and made the switch. (I don't think they drilled a couple of holes in the frame and relocated it behind the radiator as a styling update.) In the process I noticed how easy it is to slip the connectors off the regulator, and so I proposed the test for those who may be curious about whether they could relieve some of the movement on the harness, without having to do the relocation to find out. I wouldn't think that full lock is requisite to having problems, but it surely would increase the potential for them.

As readers are likely tired of my recurring theory on the subject, having bled all over any recent threads on the topic, I am retiring from further comment on the subject of wiring looms. That is unless I ever actually have a problem.
 
#14 ·
Streetiger, as someone with wiring issues, I am very appreciative that you took the time to think about this problem and offer information to help fellow Triumph owners. All suggestions are helpful and when we piece together everyone's thoughts and experiences, maybe we will come up with solutions. Thank you!
 
#15 ·
Dropped the SC off yesterday, needs a new loom & none in the country (AUS). Had the clutch cable reroute recall done a few months ago but first symptom was instrument panel resetting clock and trip meter, then the indicators went.
Had a play around the loom wrapping around the headstock trying to ease pressure but it seems to me the small metal guide bars (?) that stop the forks rubbing on the loom caused a kink in the wiring going to the instrument cluster. Kink plus stretch = $#!+
Hopefully no more than 10 days / 2 weeks without the bike... ?
 
#16 ·
I just got my Street Twin (641 miles) from the dealership where it sat for 2 months waiting on a new harness. If you turned the handlebars full right all the instrumentation would cut it....turn bars back left everything would come back on.Triumph warrantied a new harness but they didn't have any in the US. for a while. Seems to run alright and there is a bit of slack at the steering head. Glad to have it back and I hope it won't act up again for the length of time I keep this bike.It's not the only bike I have right now in my shop but it is the first Triumph I've ever owned..
 
#17 ·
One solution presents a second problem. On my old Street Twin (sold it a month ago) I fixed the tight right lock issue by doing as one guy above did, just extended and shimmed the stock plastic tidy and freed the clutch cable entirely from the tidy. The second issue that occurred was now that the loom was free to move back and forth a little, on a full lock LEFT turn the pointy end of the stock headlight mount dug into the top of the harness exposing wires. I took a dremel and ground off the point of the headlight bracket, or you could buy an after market bracket and save the grinding. There is nothing good about the way the harness is routed, there are more than a few similar but entirely different issues concerning same.
 

Attachments

#18 ·
My turn

Just hearing about this recall a month after purchasing my T120. Time to call the dealer I guess...

LAST UPDATED: 08/14/2019
BONNEVILLE T120
You have outstanding recalls:
NHTSA 19V133
Date safety recall reported: Mar 10, 2019

Summary
The headstock tidy (guide) situated behind the head stock on the left-hand side of the main frame
 
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