Electrical - 8 - Way Power Connector


8-WayPowerConnector

 

I saw this idea in a post on one of the Yamaha forums. I don’t remember which one it was so I cannot give due credit to the guy who thought of it. I wrote this specifically for the Stratoliner and Roadliner. They have an auxiliary power connector under the seat. I don’t think the 1300 has one but you could use any switched 12 volt line instead. The tail light wire would be a good choice.

 

 

Go to Radio Shack and get one of the 8-terminal strips, #274-670, one of the 8-position shorting strips, #274-650, a 40 amp 12 volt relay, #275-001, a 30 amp inline fuse holder, #270-1234 or 270-1237, and some 10 gauge wire (e.g. 278-568 or 278-569). If you buy a whole spool you’ll have plenty left for other projects like wiring Stebel horns, big lights, etc. Wire by the foot can be found at Lowe’s and Home Depot.

 

 

Loosen the screws on one side of the terminal strip, slide the shorting bar under all the screws and tighten all the screws. Now, when you connect a 12 volt source to any of the terminals, 12 volts will be on all the terminals.

 

 

Find a convenient place to mount the terminal strip but be careful that there is no way for any metallic object to come in contact with any of the screws. You could mount it to the plastic cover over the battery (the one that holds the tool pouch).

 

 

Find a convenient place to mount the relay. It should be relatively close to the terminal strip.

 

 

Remove the fuse from the inline fuse holder. It will be replaced when we complete the installation. Crimp or solder an appropriate sized lug (RS #64-3040, etc.) to one end of the fuse holder wire and connect it to the positive terminal of the battery. Route the wire nicely, cut it shorter if necessary, crimp or solder a female spade connector (RS #64-3135, etc.)  to the other end, and  plug it onto the wiper terminal of the relay. The wiper is terminal number 30 on the relay in my drawing.

 

 

Crimp or solder a female spade connector (RS #64-3135, etc.) to the end of a 10 gauge wire and connect to the Normally Open (NO) connection on the relay. That’s terminal number 87 on my relay.

 

 

Cut the wire to length so it can connect to the terminal strip. Crimp or solder an appropriate sized lug (RS #64-3130, etc.) to the end of the wire and connect it to any of the terminals on the side with the shorting bar. The 8 screws on the other side of the terminal strip will all have a switched 12 volt supply when we finish this project.

 

 

Now we have to be able to energize the relay when the ignition is turned on and de-energize it when the ignition is off. That means we must connect the relay coil to a switched 12 volt source and ground. The relay coil draws very little current, so much smaller wire can be used. I used 22 gauge wire, but any size from 22 up will be OK. You can use the 10 gauge wire if you want to, but it’s pretty big.

 

 

Crimp or solder an appropriate sized lug (RS #64-3058, etc.) to one end of the wire. Connect the lug to one of the relay’s coil wires. It doesn’t matter which one. The coil terminals are 85 and 86 on my relay.

 

 

Route the wire to either the battery negative terminal or a frame connection. Cut the wire to length and crimp or solder an appropriate sized lug to the end and mount to whatever grounding point you chose.

 

 

Crimp or solder an appropriate sized lug (RS #64-3058, etc.) to one end of a wire. Connect the lug to the other one of the relay’s coil wires. Locate a switched 12 volt source and splice (RS #64-3053, etc.) the other end of the wire to it.

 

 

You can now replace the fuse in the inline fuse holder. If you have a voltmeter or a 12 volt test light, connect it to any of the terminals on the terminal strip and verify zero volts. Then turn on the ignition and verify there is 12 volts at all terminals on the strip.

 

 

 

JackK, K5TGJ

 

Later I cut the 8-position shorting strap in half and remounted it to the terminal block. That gives me two sets of four contacts. I connected the 2nd set of four to the battery negative terminal. Since you can put more than one lug under a screw, I doubt anyone would ever need more than four screw connections. Now I have four for power and four for ground.

 

JackK