Relocating Key Switch From Headlight Shell

[tommer2]

How about some help guys I'm relocating the key switch from the headlight down to the air box area. The hot wire in the headlight shell for the key switch is a 14 gauge wire. Going the extra distance to the air box,about 20 inches should I go to a 12 gauge wire? Thanks for the help.

[Ray from Indiana]

The european wires are listed in order of size in mm^2 cross sectional area. AWG is what's normal in the States. I'd say go with the 12 Ga...why not? not much difference in cost.

[Abstruse1]

It depends on what you power with that wire. I think the ideal setup would be to use a heavy wire from the battery to the headlight shell, then use a relay to switch it. Heavy load items are the headlight and louder horns. Both need relays, in which case 14 AWG should be fine.

I did a test awhile back, comparing the voltage drop to a headlamp (on the bench), using ~6' of 12 and 14. I was surprised that there was very little additional drop with the smaller wire, around .3 VDC as I remember.

I wouldn't assume that the bike has adequate wire sizes, nor low resistance terminals, esp. after all these years.