Ignition wiring

[vwmon69]

Hello. Can anybody please help. I got a 2003 XT600E which I've had for about 4 years without any problems. When bike didnt work I narrowed in down to bodged wiring from ignition barrel which had shorted and burnt some wires. When I fitted new barrel the wires are different colours.
The colours on the bike are. Brown, red, blue, blue/black, blue/red, and blue/yellow.
The colours on ignition are. Brown, red, black, blue, blue/red and black/white.
Wired up brown and red which makes starter turn over but not sure which way other ones go. Any help much appreciated

[motorang]

Oh my,
I give you my honest opinion:

The wiring may be different because it is from a different model, probably with a different ignition. How can we know?
And whatever you connect there, those "clamps" are an emergency fix only. You would have more troubles in the near future with that even if you get the wiring right now.

So what do do?

Get a wiring plan of your XT600 E and have a look what each wire is for, and which wires (colors) are switched in each position.
Then get a multimeter and check if your replacement barrel does the same switching on every key position.

If the ignition is different (TCI versus CDI) you will have no luck.

And if you found out how to hook the barrel up or got another barrel to fit your bike, either go with proper connectors (crimped blade or bullet connectors), or solder the wires togehther, or use Wago lever connectors, all of which do not cut into the wire but provide a good electrical connection for decades.

Andy

[vwmon69]

Hello Andy. Thanks for the reply. The picture of the wiring is what I inherited from previous owner. All wires now have proper male and female connectors and are waiting to go in 2 separate block connectors. One with 2 and the other with 4. I can't get hold of a model specific wiring diagram. I have tried multimeter in various positions on both the old and new barrels to find similarities between the 2, but can't get exact match. I never realized it could be 2 different ignition systems on bike. Thought it was just going to be cdi. That's something I'm going to have to look into.
Thanks again for your help.
Mick

[Captain Haddock]

So any idea of what XT models use what ignition setup? I'd always assumed they were all CDI right through.

[Mezo]

So any idea of what XT models use what ignition setup? I'd always assumed they were all CDI right through.

They were all CDI until 1990 when the XT600E came out (the 3TB) and from then on it was TCI, they are easy to spot as you plug in to the box (no wires coming out).



Mezo.

[motorang]

... while the kickstart versions still were CDI as far as I know

Andy

[Captain Haddock]

I've had mine for 15 years now, just goes to show you never stop learning something new about something you thought you knew inside out.

[Mezo]

I've had mine for 15 years now, just goes to show you never stop learning something new about something you thought you knew inside out.

TCI means an ignition system namely Transistor Controlled Ignition is a trigger that signals the coil which builds a field and makes the sparkplug spark during the run as apposed to the older CDI (Capacitor discharge ignition).

Mezo.