Apparently to get an engine to start, you need the engine, gas and sparks!
Engine? We have that. Gas? Well now that the tanks are back on the bike, it’s easy. We can even have oil, which sounds like a really good thing!
OK, ok, we can make this work I guess!?!
I’m teasing, we managed all of that and more of course. So let’s discuss the electrical work we’ve done. Installing the instrument panel was not a piece of cake…
Foreword on my electricity knowledge
As you know by now, I’ve started this renovation project with 0 mechanical knowledge. Even less than zero. I’m left handed and can barely screw or unscrew something without doubting which way to go and often going the wrong way!
With regards to electricity, things are even worst! How can it be worst? I don’t know. I don’t understand voltage and amperage and basically just know there is a + and a – and these have to be connected to something.
Yeah, it’s pretty bad.
So, I can’t even describe how worried I have been about the electrical work to be done on the bike. I just knew that I would not accept to redo the mess it was!
The minimal set up to start the engine
We weren’t going to wait to have everything back on the Indian, to start the engine. It’s better to check the engine can run smoothly, sooner than later, in case you need to take it appart again!
So, to test the engine, we needed sparks and to get sparks, you need the battery, the ignition coil, the distributor, the spark plugs and some wires in between. Sounds easy enough.
We got some appropriate wires from the pro who worked on the engine. The wire to be used between the ignition coil and the distributor, and between the distributor and the spark plugs is a high voltage wire.
The ignition coil transforms the battery’s low voltage current, to a high voltage current which creates the sparks in the spark plugs. The distributor distributes such current so the sparks created, is alternating between the 2 spark plugs.
Wiring the high voltage parts was an easy step one.
Step 2 was to connect the ignition coil to the battery obviously and then the distributor. It’s easy as well because it is indicated on it which side you need to connect to the battery and which side it to be connected to the distributor.
When ready to start the engine, connect the negative cable of the battery to an unpainted metal part of the bike’s frame and go.
And that’s it! And it worked!!
You can check the diagram on Jerry Greer site. It makes it pretty easy to understand. Apart maybe for the connection of the ignition coil to the generator. That thinner wire drawn from the side of the ignition coil to the side of the generator isn’t super clear. On the picture below it’s the long red wire.
The instrument panel: the plan
Part of the above wiring was temporary, obviously! We needed to work on the connection of the instrument panel, to turn the bike on and off easily!
As mentioned above, letting my dad redo the same mess he had done before was out of the question! Split cables, dominos, tapes… do people really do that? Is it acceptable?? Maybe it is and maybe, we’ll end up with a bit of a similar mess… but I will do my best not to!
So, at one point I was tempted to buy a complete wiring set like this one because it is so clean, but I had no clue what was what.
I’m really glad I didn’t because when we started looking at the instrument panel, I realized that the ignition switch was not original! And this explained so much!!! And the wiring set might have been problematic with our ignition switch.
So let’s do this…
The basic postula
My dad admitted he didn’t remember how to wire it all. I admitted to my complete lack of understanding on how it works and how to redo the whole thing. So we discussed and we agreed to certain things:
- The previous wiring done by my dad was a mess
- Under no circumstances are we going to redo the same mess
- No split cables, no unnecessary tape, no dominos
- We are going to build up from what is done and add wires little by little
- Test things and if it works, add more
Well, my dad seemed to agreed when we discussed but… not in practice! He said yes but then went to do the complete opposite.
I don’t think I was asking for much. I think it was a pretty sound plan considering there was no way we could possibly pull the wires all at once and that it would just work!
My plan versus my Dad’s plan on how to proceed
So just saying it again: I wanted to take it slow. Focus on wiring the basic necessity and then add things little by little.
What are the basic necessity we agreed on when discussed? The battery, ignition coil and the generator. That’s it. Test if those work and then worry about the lights. Then test the lights and if they work, worry about the horn…
The ignition switch being little, I let my dad start the work while I was working on the saddle. Divide and conquer, I thought.
I came back to see him a few times but he wasn’t ready. I knew I needed to give him time to wrap his head around the wiring. Give him time to understand and remember. That was fine with me.
Two or 3 hours later (!), having finished what I had to do with the saddle, I came back to check on him. 2 cables were connected. One for the generator. One extremely long cable for the tail light!
“Dad, what about the battery? We said we would connect the battery, not the tail light” I said. He replied “we’ll connect the battery to the tail light“. ???? “No, no, no! We are not starting like this” He got really upset and confused and like every time we had this type of argument, shut down like an oyster.
It hurts me too to have such conversations. I don’t want to. I don’t want to upset him like this. This isn’t part of the goal.
But we did and since I wasn’t about to let him do a total mess, we started all over.
Understanding the ignition switch
As mentionner above, the ignition switch we have is not the original military switch one might have on an Indian Scout 741. It’s ancient but not original.
I googled and googled but couldn’t find one similar and certainly could not find explanation on how to wire it properly!
So we experienced and tested things with just a battery and a light bulb to see how the current circulates.
After a while, a couple things became fairly clear and I summarized those in the below sketches. The likelyhood that you have the same switch and therefore need the same wiring is thin. But if you take one thing out of this, it should be that, with persistence and methodology, you can too understand how your switch works!
BIG ERRATUM! The generator needs to be connected to the battery otherwise, like us, your engine won’t stop when you turn off the switch. Will update the diagrams asap.
Installing the ignition switch
After the initial phase, where my dad pulled cables all over, we started the installation of the ignition switch over, with our new found understanding of how it worked. Battery first, ignition coil and generator next. That’s it. And it worked! As it should and as we came to understand it would.
I was fairly happy actually! The week-end was over and I was to go back home knowing that we had not done everything that needed to be done, but that what was done was indeed well done!
Alone, this was not a bad achievement!
Especially considering how daunting the task was at first and how stressed out I was!
To achieve this, I had to fake knowing what I was doing, to project a necessary confidence, so my dad wouldn’t question what I was doing. It was actually probably the hardest part!
Next steps
All seemed well under control and what was connected worked when I left. When I came back to see my dad 2 weeks later, I thought we would ‘just’ have to connect the light, the brake and the horn. That was still quite a bit of work, with still unknown parameters, but it felt manageable…
Except that things didn’t work anymore. At least they didn’t work how they should have.
It took a while to figure out what was going on…
Want to guess?!
My dad had moved the cables around in the switch!! What?? Why?? Seriously! I don’t know why! He said it was to try to make things work. But things were working!!
So I moved cables around, back to their positions and we were then able to move forward with the other connections!
Electricity part 2 is coming!
At first, I didn’t think I was going to do a part 2 but since I keep on rambling, I guess there has to be a part 2! I do hope you at least find my rambling mildly entertaining. 😉
So this first part was mostly about the ignition switch and the second part will be about the rest of the wiring. I promise!
But maybe, it feels like this first part was mostly about how it seems like my dad is doing his best, to not finish the renovation. How this whole thing has been, up to the end, one step forward, 2 steps back. You can expect a bit more of this in part 2!
Nether-the-less, fear not, this series will come to an end as the Indian is now whole and 99% of the work is done and all or almost all is working. We still have some fine tuning to do but we are getting very very close to the end of the tunnel!
Now I’m getting really scared for what lies beyond such tunnel!
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