TOPIC:

Hello Folks, here's an overly complex explanation of a very simple question I'm struggling with...

I'm changing a US KZ13 round headlight (interestingly stamped 'Yamaha'!) over to the square type, and have a question about the wiring routing;

It's an A1, has the thick loom bundle running under the lower triple clamp (correctly?) and then up & behind the headlamp as usual, but it's a very long loop and hangs down very visibly below the clamp, is this normal?

The round headlight bowl only had an access hole in it's lower half, so this (perhaps) encourages the big loom bundle to stay low.

The square headlight 'bowl' I have has wiring holes in it's upper and lower half.
(don't know if this unit is definitely Z13 original, could be GPZ type of same era, doesn't have the adjuster bracket bolt hole for example)

If I route that lower loom through the lowest headlight entry point, it keeps the 'loop' hanging very low as before.
If I route the lower loom (or even just one of it's 2 branches) through the upper entry point, it pulls the loom loop higher and looks cleaner under the lower triple clamp (without binding there) but it then does then tend to bind, along with the other loom branches, between the back of the headlight and front of the frame stem tube (when turning the bars).

What's the correct way to present the various bundles of looming into the square headlight housing, regarding the two entry points?

Also, the square headlight seems to really struggle (or I do!) to fit all the wiring and connectors in it's smaller internal space, any tricks to 'packaging' all this behind the reflector and bulb?

I've done a ton of searching for images that would answer this in a second, but no joy

Appreciate any guidance you can give on this,

Richard.

I got this photo from someone when asking a similar question, and I bet he wouldn't mind me re-posting it. I am still battling the same exact thing! The place is very cramped and confusing. In general, I don't understand why the wiring has to always be like a bunch of seaweed pulled from a beach!

Thanks Stan that's a great picture of the wiring, looks like we just have to 'force' it to all sit around the bulb connector and (I suspect) a bit of "crush it in place when reassembling" !!

Next thing is to figure what goes through upper and lower holes in the shell and what effect that has on the lower loom run.

Fun fun fun!

Thanks again.

Indeed, it's a jungle that one day I will prune For now I need to have everything work properly.

Based on the info I already gathered, here are two photos of my current state of headlight affairs.
The main harness comes up from below between the horns. It enters the headlight bucket through the bottom hole, the wires from the ignition and all the others coming out of the speedo unit, enter through the top hole. They are connected inside, then comes the 'nest' forming... The bottom nut is the one connecting the bucket to the headlight bracket underneath (had to buy it as well).
My bike came with no lights at all - headlight, tail, signals etc., so all is new to me as well. I still need to figure out how to connect the front turn signals. I don't see any wire bundle pointing to them from the harness - I might have missed something and need to investigate it more.

Perfect pic's again, you're spoiling me!

I'm in the workshop tomorrow so I'll ID the indicator wire colours and where the route from, hopefully then you can trace back and see if they're there or been cut back etc.

Your 2nd pic suggests my back-shell isn't the Z13 one, mine has massive cut-outs for the loom, literally about 40％ of the back of it, and they look original moulded edges etc.) so it's maybe a GPZ one.

Thanks for confirming on the route of that lower loom bundle, makes sense too (to avoid the log-jam behind the headlight) so I guess once I figure out how much of it lives inside the headlight I'll then have to see if the 'spare' needs shunting back along the frame.
My coil connections look to be in the right place so that looks like the limiting factor in loom position, at the front at least.

Thanks again for the quick help and good knowledge.

Stan's photo depicts mine as well. (80 KZ 1300) I agree that it can look like a "dogs breakfast" inside the bucket but a sensible arrangement of the wires and plugs does give ample room for the back of the headlight and the bulb connector for it. I also have a "sizeable Loop of the main-wiring loom, before it enters the bucket. Consider it to be "strain-relief". Don't expect to get the inside of the bucket arranged correctly the first time. I've spent a lot of time over the years re-positioning "this connector and that connector" in order to keep the wiring volume, compact. I have several of the smaller plugs attached to the inside of the bucket with two sided "foam" tape simply to achieves some order to the wires. This only works if, when positioned, there is no "strain" on the wires of these plugs. Otherwise the heat from the headlight will release the tape.
Simply put: Just make the effort to make it look like a nice "nest" which surrounds the back of the head-light and it's connector.