Bill’s Suzuki Bandit rebuild

We have had a little flurry of loom repairs this year. Even I admit a refurbished loom is not that interesting to look at, so I don’t post many of them here. But this is a typical example.

Bill is rebuilding a much-prized Suzuki Bandit, and wondered whether the ratty old loom could be brought back to life rather than completely rebuilt. He sent it down from Scotland and I had a good look over it. Generally, old looms get corroded and damaged, especially on the delicate bits. The other issue is burning: the classic locations are where the regulator rectifier plugs into the loom, or the main feed to the fuses, since these are where the most current tends to be carried. Sometimes you can fillet the badness out and splice in new. Other times there isn’t the space or opportunity.

A refurb costs about a third of the price of a new loom, and I reckoned this one could be salvaged. All you do is record the structure of the branches and twigs coming off the main loom, plus any twists and turns, and open it up to see what cables need replacing. I always graft in new cables using crimps, rather than soldering. They are neater, and often electrically better too, especially when there is mild tarnishing on the older copper strands.

Because some of the lengths for the maimed outer parts of the loom are uncertain, there is always a bit of guesswork involved. Big and I emailed back and forth a few times to try and minimise the risk I might make things too long or short.

The hardest part was fitting the original Suzuki indicator plugs. You can get them from the excellent Kojaycat, and the male ones (that go on the indicators themselves) are easy to do. The female halves (on the main loom) are a real challenge to get right. But we got there in the end. Final job: testing every cable against the wiring diagram to check for high resistances.