1978 XLCH Wiring PART 1 of ????

I've mentioned in other posts that I planned to do a little clean up in regards to the wiring on my 1978 XLCH. My original intent was to just do the areas I had intended and then write it all up as a single post.

Well, no surprise, it's been more involved than I planned and taking considerably longer. I figure I better go ahead an start posting my current progress. Otherwise, I won't be making any posts for a while followed by one epically long one at the end.

The major problem in getting this done is that every time I determine a point to fix up to, I trace to that point and things look as bad if not worse. Keep in mind, the bike did start and run prior to this adventure. While I know I shouldn't be surprised at anything I found, I am still a little... irritated.

If you've been following any of this, I'll start where I left off and bring you up to speed on where I am currently. 

After removing the ape hangers, I was left with extended wires to the controls which needed to be shorted. I also new that most of the buttons and switches in the controls did not work. 

Not surprising, here's what I found in the right side. The only button that worked here was the starter button.

The left control looked slightly better although none of those switches worked.

The switches themselves are about $15 each (2 required) and the buttons $10 (need 4). Then there's having to solder wire to each contact.... 

Not to worry, Drag Specialties to the rescue once again!  For about $50 you can get the front control wire harness (part number DS-305202). The beauty of this is that it uses factory color wire plus the switches and buttons are already soldered.

It was at this point I moved over to rebuilding the front suspension (covered in a separate post) while waiting for the above kit to arrive.