XR200 Wiring

[8mag]

Howdy, I could use some help. I just picked up a wiring harness for an 88 XR200 to put on my 98 to clean up the wiring I did for the lights.

My question is, the 98 has a 3 wire stator. The 88 had 2 wire stators. Can I just leave one of the 98 stator wires disconnected and still get power to my lights?

Since the 88 only has one wire for the lighting, I'm guessing the lights must be grounded to the frame somewhere, right?

Thanks!

[Duster]

On a 2000 XR200R there are 3 wires coming from the alternator:

Bl/R, Black / Red for ignition

Y, Yellow for lighting

P, Pink for lighting

Do not mess with the Bl/R wire. For lights, you must first remove the jumper connecting the Y and P wires. The current is AC, therefore it does not much matter whether you use the Y or the P for current, but I chose to use the yellow for 3 reasons:

In car-talk, Yellow is the battery current hot wire;

The wires on the voltage regulator that I have are yellow and black;

I got a slightly higher pre-regulator voltage reading from the yellow wire.

I’ve attached a wiring diagram that I hand drew (yea, I know it is sloppy…). Sometimes a picture is the best way to explain something. I must stress that the proper way to wire a voltage regulator is in parallel, not in series. This may seem odd, but it is correct. Think of a voltage regulator as a fork in the river, one fork always gets 12 volts, the other fork gets whatever is left over, whether that be 0 volts or 40 volts. MSR as well as other vendors sell regulators for ~$20, you do not need the $90 Honda part. It mounts underneath the wire holder under the tank, there is a hole there waiting for you to hang it from.

The other thing to take note of is that an alternator puts out AC current, which is ok for lights, but not ok for other things like electronic odometers, they need DC, which requires a rectifier along with a regulator.

[8mag]

Hey Duster, thanks for the detailed response. What you're showing is just what I have now using the 98 wiring harness.

What I think you've said in your hand drawing is I will need to ground one of the alternator wires, rather than leave it open. The 88 harness only has one lighting wire connector on it hence no loop in the harness and no second alternator wire, I was trying to figure out what I needed to do with the now 'spare' alternator wire. I'll check it out when I get it, but I'm pretty sure on the 88's the lighting ground is to the frame. Does that make sense to you?

[Duster]

I am not sure what you mean by new wiring harness. I am assuming that you have a 98 xr200r that has 3 alternator leads, that you are connecting to a new harness from an 88 xr200r. If that is the case, then yes, ground the pink wire.

For what it is worth, I made my own harness with 16g color coded wire and shrink tubing. It works great, and it is just how I want it. I do not crimp connectors. I remove the plastic, solder the connections, and shrink tube them. I think that it is cool watching the tube shrink. Green is ground in Honda-speak. There is a grounding terminal on the left side of the frame under the tank full of green wires. Run your grounds to that.

Get a meter from RadioShack for $10. I like the analog ones better. I just want to see the needle move. It makes life easier.

[8mag]

I am not sure what you mean by new wiring harness. I am assuming that you have a 98 xr200r that has 3 alternator leads, that you are connecting to a new harness from an 88 xr200. If that is the case, then yes, ground the pink wire. .

That's exactly what I'm doing, thanks. I'll let you know how it turns out when I get it

[socalxr]

WoW, you da man!!!!

[wazzabie]

On 8/14/2007 at 6:23 PM, Duster said:

On a 2000 XR200R there are 3 wires coming from the alternator:

Bl/R, Black / Red for ignition

Y, Yellow for lighting

P, Pink for lighting

Do not mess with the Bl/R wire. For lights, you must first remove the jumper connecting the Y and P wires. The current is AC, therefore it does not much matter whether you use the Y or the P for current, but I chose to use the yellow for 3 reasons:

In car-talk, Yellow is the battery current hot wire;

The wires on the voltage regulator that I have are yellow and black;

I got a slightly higher pre-regulator voltage reading from the yellow wire.

I’ve attached a wiring diagram that I hand drew (yea, I know it is sloppy…). Sometimes a picture is the best way to explain something. I must stress that the proper way to wire a voltage regulator is in parallel, not in series. This may seem odd, but it is correct. Think of a voltage regulator as a fork in the river, one fork always gets 12 volts, the other fork gets whatever is left over, whether that be 0 volts or 40 volts. MSR as well as other vendors sell regulators for ~$20, you do not need the $90 Honda part. It mounts underneath the wire holder under the tank, there is a hole there waiting for you to hang it from.

The other thing to take note of is that an alternator puts out AC current, which is ok for lights, but not ok for other things like electronic odometers, they need DC, which requires a rectifier along with a regulator.

Are you sure pink wire from the xr200r 2001 alternator us suppose to go to ground?  

From the factory on a 2000 XR200R there are 3 wires coming from the alternator:

1. Bl/R, Black / Red for ignition
2. Y, Yellow for lighting
3. P, Pink for lighting

From the factory on a 2000 xr200r the wires are looped together.

I thought that both the yellow and pink wires were hot.

[Chuck.]

That is because Honda floats the ground on alternator sections designed to power a DC system.  

XLs are that way and then internally ground the AC head lite section.

Here is an XL diagram and it show a floating ground on the battery charging section and internal ground on the head light section. It shows the yellow and pink going to the Rect and both sides of the diode bridge. The power out of the rect on a R/W wire plus the green ground. The white wire out of the altrnator is from an internally grounded section to power the head light, it is blue on early alternator. The fix for the poster if he wants DC is to disconnect the ground in the alternator for the lighting section and connect that end of the section to a pink wire going out to the rectifier.  Also replace the blue wire with a yellow. Then you will have a 90+ alternator with wire colors to match Honda.

 

Here is Honda's wire color chart for street bikes but most of the colors match off road bikes, of course the best authority is the wiring diagram for your specific year/model. .