Snag List - Resolving the Wiring Short

Hi There!

I have been fairly busy and have not had time to provide some feedback on the restoration of the SAUDF 1941 Harley-Davidson WL.

I have encountered a couple of issues that I am trying to resolve, namely:

1. There was a short in the wiring and fuses kept popping when I switched the lights on;
2. The carburettor has been flooding;
3. The horn button has a short in it;
4. The brake light does not come on;
5. The front headlight does not come on either.

The Wiring Short Issue

There is (was) an issue with the wiring.  I used a 1946 wiring diagram for a 5 point switch (because my Harley has a 5 point switch) to wire the Harley.

But I then ran into a problem:

• When I turned the switch to the "Ignition" setting:
• only the "Oil Pressure" warning light came on - the "Generator" warning light did not come on.
• in addition, the battery visibly ran down - meaning that there was a small current running  somewhere.
• When I turned the switch to the "Ignition and Lights" setting the fuse popped.  Meaning that there was a short somewhere.

To try and resolve this issue I did the following:

• I went through the entire diagram twice, checking every wire to ensure that it is connected properly and I also tested every wire with the multi-meter - I started to suspect that I might have pinched one of the wires when I fastened the oil or the fuel tank.  But I found nothing out of order.
• I then though that the short was in the physical switch.  I then took off all the wires from the switch and I checked that none of the points on the switch earthed back to the battery.  Again nothing was out of order.

At this point I was stumped.  So I checked other 5 point switch wiring diagrams to see if they differ.  The ones that I could find on the Internet were all post WW2.  But they all looked like the wiring diagram above.

I then remembered that the old Harley-Davidson User Manual that I bought a while ago had a wiring diagram on it.

The ONLY difference between this wiring diagram and the others that I could lay my hands one was that the Red wire from the switch to the front head light did not connect to the 2nd terminal on the switch, but the 1st terminal.

This made more sense to me, as it means that the all of the red wires were connected together and consequently live.  I decided to test this version of the wiring diagram and changed only the one wire from the 2nd to the 1st terminal on the switch.  And that resolved the problem.

Here is a short video in whoch I demonstrate that the dash board lights are working when switched on and when the motor starts, that the generator and the oil pressure lights actually turn off (indicating that the generator is working and that there is sufficient oil pressure).