Before I retired from the corporate management and training segment of the powersports industry, the OEM I worked for was having intense conversations with its Japanese parent company about its motorcycles' wiring harness vendors. There were issues affecting the fuel injection systems and revisions to the harness were how they were being solved. There was even a model whose production was halted for one year while its issues were sorted.

The problem of course was the crimps. Not at the canon plugs whose waterproof design long ago eliminated them as problem areas. But at the splices deep inside the wiring harness where brass staples known in the industry as "buses" were not consistently conducting and thus giving trouble. The public of course was not aware of this, but it was a concern at the manufacturer level and serves to highlight the importance of reliable electrical connections on your motorcycle, something that is too often taken for granted.

Today, in our world wherein we work with fifty year old motorcycles, it has been shown that simple replacement of the wiring harness reduces the load on the battery of SOHC fours by a considerable amount. One of my customer's CB350 four had a 7-amp draw before the wiring harness replacement and 6.1 after. The canon plugs did not influence the readings as they were serviced months prior. Therefore, the wiring harness itself was responsible for a 1 amp (the difference was even greater with the headlight on). Customers have also reported solving charging and ignition issues upon replacement of the wiring harness.

The relay mod