Wire mod instructions for Dummies, Like ME!

[Befbever]

Olivier, you took out the wrong connector!

It's the yellow wires that get hot and melt the brown connector, which is what I've taken out on both Futura and Tuono (thanks FB!)..
Do the yellow wires feel hot after 10 minutes? If not, it's okay.

Doing my nephew's Falco this weekend. Measured it against my Tuono last week:
Battery at rest: 12,83V (both)
Idle with lights on: Falco 13,75V - Tuono 14,30V
4k rpm lights on: Falco 13,12V - Tuono 14,12V!

Measuring is to be done at the battery, not at the dash.

[sabestian]

Olivier, you took out the wrong connector!

I say take both out! If you take one - in case of a need to disconnect - you will need to cut cables anyway.

Should I connect additional wires to both of blue and both of red/black cables (that would be 4) or pick one of each (which one?). Or two red/blacks (with double fuse box) and one blue (that would be 3 altogether). I need a drink.

I am looking at those pictures and nothing I'm stuck.

OK, I think I found the answer:

My figures were
Prior:
volts at idle 13.75 volts at idles with lights on 13.84
Volts at 4K revs 13.40 volts at 4K with lights on 12.95

Before I did the mod I also checked the voltage from the reg/rec b!!!!!efore it goes to the battery.It was 14.15 at idle and 14.20 with the lights on.This clearly shows that the wiring is at fault and not the reg/rec.

I did the mod by chopping the brown connector out and soldering the 3 wires together.
I ran a 5amp length of cable for each of the 4 connectors coming out of the reg/rec.
2 of the wires i soldered onto the 2 red/black wires and ran both directly up to the rear of the 30amp underseat fuse where i soldered them to the red/black wire.

The other 2 5amp wires I soldered onto the remaining 2 blue wires from the reg/rec connector.I soldered these directly to the battery negative lead.

My voltages after the mod are excellent:
14.30 at idle no lights 14.20 at idle lights on
14.10 at 4K 13.95 at 4K with lights on

My thoughs are that it is both the positive and negative parts of the circuit that are loosing voltage;it is well worth adding the negative wires into the equation.The postive wires will make things better.The negatives better still!
Bailey.

and

I added two wires .......
One from the red/blk at the fuses (next to the solenoid) which went to the red/blk at the reg/rec
And One from the negative of the battery to the blue at the reg/rec
I also joined the two blues together, as one
and soldered the two red/blk's together as one.

I am going through an extremely long thread on Futura forum, and as I am a genuine highly sophisticated dummy I will quote some of their posts that helped me understand the idea of the mod. This maybe helpfull for other dummies Not everybody is in the comfortable situation of temporary insomnia to go through 452 replays !!!!! Sorry for repeating everything from the beginning just with different wording but it did the trick for me...

BTW: No, Aprilia, surely there is no reported problem

Basically after eliminating the brown connector at the rectifier, you run 2 additional wires to the battery. One straight to the negative on the battery and the other to the 30amp fuse connector which goes to the positive on the battery.

(...) you need to remove all wires from your brown & white rectifier connectors & solder the crimps where the wires attach to the male/female connectors otherwise you still can have the connector meltdown problems even with the mod.
My version of the wiring mod involves taking 4 16g or 14 guage wires(your choice as both will work & the 16 is easier to work with but you may see a slight gain with the 14g) & adding one wire to each of the 4 spades in the harness side white connector. Reinstall the wire/spades back in the connector & run the new wires in a sheath up under the frame, along the bottom of the gas tank & back to the battery area. Approximately 3' of each wire will be required.
The two wires that you soldered to the red/blue factory ground wires are attached to the battery ground post. I soldered mine directly to the large factory ground wire clamp & recovered with heat shrink tubing but you could use a ring terminal & just bolt to the post.
The two wires soldered to the factory red/black feed wires originally went to the small fuse box behind the battery & were soldered onto the factory red/blk wire at the spade. This makes reinstalling the box fiddly & many of us now run the 2 feed wires directly to a heavy duty inline fuse holder assy which attaches to the battery positive post.

There should be a fuse block next to the battery with 2 30 amp fuses if the Capo is laid out the same as the Futura & Falco. One fuse is feed by the positive wires coming out of the white connector at your rectifier & the other is feed by the battery & runs to the front fuse box.
My version of the wiring mod adds 1 wire to each of the four spades on the wires coming out of the rectifier white connector. 2 are grounds & run to the battery negative terminal & 2 are feeds running either to the rectifier 30 amp fuse in the block or directly to the battery positive terminal tying into an inline 30A fuse just before the battery with the fuse holder lead attaching to the battery.

Just if anyone thought about taking the shortcut:

Add the ground wire also & you should get the 4K number up a bit. It will also help keep the wires cooler.

The two stock ground wires become one shortly after the white connector & may or may not be properly grounded to the engine. Running a similar sized ground directly to your battery equal to the feed wire you added is an important part of the wiring mod.

[Hansie]

If you ad an extra fuse, say 30 amps and the original is say 30 amps, the rectifier has a 60 amps fuse now because they are connected parallel....

Dont know if this going to be a problem if something goes wrong, anybody??

[go_modem_go]

Olivier, you took out the wrong connector!

It's the yellow wires that get hot and melt the brown connector, which is what I've taken out on both Futura and Tuono (thanks FB!)..
Do the yellow wires feel hot after 10 minutes? If not, it's okay.

The Brown connector wasn't hot at all, nor were the wires discoloured. But I took the wire out of the brown casing and soldered some tin-solder on each wire spade & plug end to improve connectivity.

I wasn't meant to replace the white plug, but it was a PITA to re-insert the wire spades with some solder on them. Decided to just get rid of it, and imo it's what improved the electrical flow. It has never started up as easy - amazing difference!

I'll replace the brown connector next time I access the area - I just got a new 100A starter relay from ebay, for €16,24, which I'll fit as a precautionary measure (My Y2k Falco still has the old 50A relay).

[aggoodin]

If you ad an extra fuse, say 30 amps and the original is say 30 amps, the rectifier has a 60 amps fuse now because they are connected parallel....

Dont know if this going to be a problem if something goes wrong, anybody??

I'm switching mine to 2 15amp fuses now. I didn't think of that. Duh

[go_modem_go]

I'm switching mine to 2 15amp fuses now. I didn't think of that. Duh

I am an electrical analphabet. Just followed instructions. Will do the same, if you think this is more sensible (I also have 2x 30A paralell)...

[Befbever]

There are 2 red wires and 2 green wires leaving the rectifier. And there is only 1 of each at the battery I am missing something

Does that matter?
I just did it on the Falco. Just added one wire to each. So two positives and two negatives added. Not too thick (2 square mm) because that's when you get into trouble trying to put it back into the white connector.

Hansie, you're right. I'm switching to 2 x 15 as well. Thanks!

Olivier, you are of course right. It doesn't matter if you take one or both connectors out if you have to replace the rectifier. I just said it because the white one doesn't get hot.
Incidently, this Falco is the second Aprilia on which I couldn't get the spades out of the brown connector because one tab had slightly melted into the spade. I wasn't sure with the first one but with this one I'm positive.
I used the OE spades and soldered them together. Did the whole mod in about an hour.

Having just done the wiring mod on the 4th Aprilia this year (and still a dummy ) here are the results:
lights on on both tests on the Falco:
idle before:13,75V - after 14,44V!
4k rpm before: 13,12 - after 14,20V!

Even better than on my Tuono and this Falco has been around the block quite a few times!

A special 'thank you' goes out to Firebolter and why? I was setting the TPS to zero on the Tuono today and the airbox was off to put the stock velocity stacks back in. I must have touched the little O-ring for the clutch vacuum with my sleeve loosening the torx bolts because suddenly the little bugger was gone!
Luckily I still had the spare one that came with the FB/repoe3 airkit.

So thanks for being meticulous!

[aggoodin]

I am an electrical analphabet. Just followed instructions. Will do the same, if you think this is more sensible (I also have 2x 30A paralell)...

Ok now that I've taken off my electrical dunce cap and thought about this....

Parallel fuses add together when in circuit. Electrically all the extra and existing wires for this mod are 1 wire, with two 30 amp paths for the electricity to pass through. The wire itself can hold amperage untill it burns up and the fuses are there to blow before the wire can burn up, but thanks to the two 30 amps fuses we are doubling up the load the circuit protection can carry before it pops.

Now our intended 30 amp circuit protection is capable of 60 amps with 2 fuses. And after further thinking there must be another 30 amp fuse in there parallel somewhere from the factory also for the existing wiring. Now we theoretically have a 90 amp circuit before the fuses pop.

But then all this is going to the battery from the voltage regulator. I would surmise the most that could happen is the battery could explode from being over charged.

[velowood]

This could be considered trivial, but my "mod to the mod" is: I used one 12 gauge wire for each side to the battery, instead of 2x14 gauge. I just couldn't see why I should run two wires!
And BTW, having more fuses won't overcharge the battery.... they are there to protect the wiring in case of a short.

[Firebolter]

A special 'thank you' goes out to Firebolter and why? I was setting the TPS to zero on the Tuono today and the airbox was off to put the stock velocity stacks back in. I must have touched the little O-ring for the clutch vacuum with my sleeve loosening the torx bolts because suddenly the little bugger was gone!
Luckily I still had the spare one that came with the FB/repoe3 airkit.

So thanks for being meticulous!

You're welcome. That is one of those little things that gets lost easy, so I figured why not include one.

I am keeping the 30A fuse in mine for this reason. The whole reasson I went this way was to create a seperate path so if I lost one side, I would still be able to ride home. If you pop a fuse on the "added" wires, then you are back to the stock wires which also needs 30amp protection. These are 2 seperate paths to the battery which in theory can carry the same amount of voltage/amps. I'll ask one of my electrical engineers, but when we originally did this on the old board, this subject came up and was hashed out and the thought was the new wires needed to also have a 30A fuse.

[aggoodin]

Two parallel 30 amp fuses still equals a 60 amp circuit no matter how you look at it.

Go open your electrical panel for the house. For the 60 amp circuits there is a bar across the switches of two 30 amp breakers. Electric dryers and the central air conditioner are 60 amp circuits (2 30 amp breakers).

[sabestian]

The Mod finished. Connectors in a bin. Four additional wires, one fuse.

First tests - cold - mildly warm engine:

Plus 0.4-0.5 V across battery terminals in comparison with standard, almost brand new wiring!

Now I am getting 14.2 at idle (1400 rpm), 14 at 4000 rpm - does not matter if lights on or off !

[jtomas]

I'll have to double check my work.. but was simple enough to do..
However after finishing the mod.. at startup at idle.. I'm getting 11.9V

what gives?
I'm also using a new battery fully charged.

maybe some of my soldering sucks?

[sabestian]

I'll have to double check my work.. but was simple enough to do..
However after finishing the mod.. at startup at idle.. I'm getting 11.9V

what gives?
I'm also using a new battery fully charged.

maybe some of my soldering sucks?

I don't think you are charging your battery at all. It seems like there is no connection somewhere. I mean no connection, not weak connection.

Check if you put everything together like it should go. It is easy to get confused. Maybe the fuse is blown?

[Befbever]

If you bought a blade fuse holder like mine, there's no fuse in it. You have to put one in.
Sorry if this is stating the bleeding obvious but Sabestian is right: your battery doesn't seem to be charging at all!