72K1 wiring harness & main switch

rick56

rick56

Member
Due to the fact that no one seemed to have a wiring harness for a 1972 K1 (A Honda OEM harness). I bought an OEM harness from David Silver that was for a 71 KO. My main switch was for my K1 a 72. I am new to Honda CTs but not bikes and unfortunately have found out that a 72 K1 switch is wired differently internally than a KO switch and will not work with a KO wire harness. Also the battery I bought has the connector for the 72 harness, the KO connector is much smaller on the older harness. I was able to salvage the old engine connector off my chopped up old K1 harness and I soldered it to the four battery leads on the new harness.
Here's the 64 thousand dollar question? If my harness and main switch are both for a 1971 KO, will they work in a 72 K1 bike?
I can get a KO switch YEAH I know it would be cheaper to get an aftermarket K1 harness...but I changed the battery plug! And I also when with the smaller KO tail light. Let the games begin!

Rick
 
Havin' fun

Havin' fun

Member
Sounds like the mess I just went through. Get the right harness and switch, and call it done. IMO.
Why the drive for OEM if you modified it anyway?
 
rick56

rick56

Member
Problem will be solved-Why OEM?

I am returning my K1 switch a getting a KO switch that should work fine with the KO harness I have. The reason I strive to buy only OEM or NOS Honda is from having actually worked for a Honda motorcycle dealer in my youth 1978-1981. This also is true for automotive parts. Most aftermarket parts don't fit, don't work, and are made to sloppy tolerances. If I do buy aftermarket it is a last resort. I have had many bad experiences with cheaper nock offs..remember mexican body parts for fords and chevys? I watched body and fender pros pull their hair out trying to line up panels. Sure you can go and find real cheap Chinese motors for $250.00 on line. But when it breaks down good luck finging parts that will fit and work. If you doubt me just ask any Harley owner who had an AMF bike in 1975. Low tolerences meant low quality. When the Harley Davidson employees bought back the company and tightened the machine tolerances on their bikes the motors went from 10K to 100K mile engines over night. I also did machining for close to ten years. That is why I only buy quality OEM parts. I love Honda because their quality and reliability are lendgendary.

Rick
 
Havin' fun

Havin' fun

Member
Rick,
I get it now.
FWIW- I had ZERO complaints about the aftermarket harness I bought from hondanuts.
On my bike, someone had replaced either the harness or switch on my bike a long time ago, and I couldn't figure out which was wrong, but "sniped" battery terminals should have been my first clue. After plugging everything in with my brand new direct fit battery I thought that was easy, until something started to smoke...:eek: Unplugged the battery and removed ALL of the wire wrap to find all it took was one wrong wire at the connector. I had come to find out the switch was for one year CT70 and the harness was for another year possibly only one year apart and they made the ground wire on one, and a battery positive on the other. (SAME CONNECTOR though:eek: )
So they helped me figure it out and I bought their harness and the new HONDA switch. I am now back on track for my restoration.

I guess what I am saying is, make sure you know what you have before you melt some wires.
 
rick56

rick56

Member
Honda CT 70 wiring

Sorry to hear you had a shorting problem. Did you find out what cooked? I posed a similar question and concern about frying my bike to a mechanic and he turned into a butt head. Said I lacked experience..blah blah. Hes partly right since this is my first CT but I have owned over 30 bikes so I know alittle bit. Besides I've got close to $2K into mine so hooking it up wrong a toasting my electricals is not something I relish. I just sent off my K1 switch yesterday. I'm going to order a KO switch from Dratv to match the KO harness I got from England. I guess I got lucky by reading this site and finding out before I made a costly mistake of frying my new harness and switch that they have to be the same year. FYI that same mechanic told me that Honda made three different harnesses for one year CT. I understand that what Europe, America and Canada gets are different. That's why I needed to check first. Before I sent back the K1 switch I looked at the colors of each wire as it connected to the KO harness and I found one lead that did not match. Thats all it takes to ruin your system is one wire off. Hope you got it fixed?

RM
 
Havin' fun

Havin' fun

Member
Mine is fixed. All I needed to do was figure out which was incorrect, the wiring harness that was in it, or the switch that was in it.
I already had a new harness off to the side for installation when I was finished putting it back together.
I ended up getting a new switch now after I found out someone a long time ago replaced the switch with the wrong one. That is was smoked the wires, but thats ok too, since I was undecided if I was going to get a new switch.
This made my decision for me.
It's all good now.
 
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