Holy crap that's a lot of wiring for an LT...
Looks great bro!

Thanks!  Wiring is one of my "specialties" if I were to try and say that I have one lol. 

It all started because after mounting the new headlights on the bars, there was no room for the giant stock key assembly.  I already had a 4 wire key from my 2001 Yamaha Wolverine 350; because I lost the key for it, looked everywhere and finally broke down and purchased a new key and tumbler/assembly a few months later.  Of course after months of looking, and then finally installing the new key system in the Yamaha, I found the key that went with the old assembly like 12 hours after I had swapped in the new unit.  At that point, I just decided to leave the new key on the Wolverine and save the old one for if the new one died, or I needed a key setup for another project such as this.           

When the previous owner had the whole frame powder coated, he utilized a different subframe that had no mount for the stock tail light.  I saw the wiring harness was hacked together, and I needed to make a custom mount for a tail light anyhow, so I said screw it, lets do an R1 LED tail.  I already had a 12v regulator/rectifier hanging around that I used to use on my CR500 Supermoto (but with this most recent rebuild on that I opted to go back to AC and to get rid of turn signals and an LED tail.  The vibration on the CR500 which is not counterbalanced like the LT500 puts the LT to shame when it comes to the severity of the vibration.)

At that point I thought, if I am going to DC current and im rebuilding the wiring harness from scratch anyhow, now is as good a time as any to add a battery into the system...

So basically it started out small and one thing led to another.  Now that its all done I am happy I made the extra effort.  I plan on keeping the zilla for a LONG time and it looks like the motor will be done by the end of the week.

I used all waterproof solder/heat shrink wire connectors, then covered with heat shrink tape, and covered that with electrical tape, so it is all wrapped up snug as a bug in a rug.  If I ever do have to to take apart or change things, they all have connectors on them rather than permanently attached to each other so after taking off the electrical tape/heat shrink tape, I can unplug and dismantle/reattach the entire wiring system without a whole lot of trouble. 

I was always taught if your going to do something, you might as well do it right the first time.  The battery seems to hold quite a bit of juice too.  I have had the headlights on over a few times for a total of 10 or 15 minutes doing testing and showing friends/family my handywork and the battery is still powering the headlights at the same brightness as when I first installed it.

I will get more pictures/videos when I get the motor back in it and running. 

Also, I ran the wiring for the brake light from the R1 tail, I just need to find one of those banjo bolt brake sensors with the right pitch for the front brake master cylinder.  Once I get it, I just have to attach the positive and negative wires to it (that are already there) and I will have a brake light off the front brake!  I was going to do the rear brake, but since I am more likely to always hit the front brake than the rear, and I tucked all the wiring inside the frame that goes back that direction anyhow, the front brake is a better choice for said switch.


Whats really cool is I was able to re-use a lot of the stock wiring so based off the wiring diagram, most of the wire colors still match up to what they run to.  The only wires that are not matching color are the additional parts (from the regulator rectifier to the battery, from the battery back to the key, and from the key back into the Yellow/Red wire that sends power up into the handlebar controls for the lights. 



Does anybody know what amperage draw I should expect from two 35watt halogen bulbs?  I put an in-line fuse on the positive just as it leaves the battery and goes out to power the machine accessories.  Started with a 15 amp fuse....