AJS & Matchless Owners Club

Does anyone know the color of the original wiring harness wires?

From what I can see on what's left on mine its black, yellow (possibly), red (or orange), and possibly white.

Thanks

You can find the info yourself by taking the time to look in Christians Archive.
Here are a couple of diagrams from a brief look.........

Page 84

http://archives.jampot.dk/book/Owners_m ... ingles.pdf

Page 147 (clearer copy but will suffice for identifying wire colours) and page 148 (specifically '54 but wire colour lettering is barely readable).

http://archives.jampot.dk/book/Workshop ... dition.pdf

Note that the diagrams do not show any fuses. It is advisable/essential to fit one in the live battery lead. A fuse of around min 10 to max 15 amps should suffice.

Ready made harnesses are available.

If you look in the archives http://www.archives.jampot.dk you will find an Owners manual for the 1954 model 18 in the books section. Page 84 contains a chart of the wiring diagram for your model. This copy is a bit illegible when it comes to the colours, with the word purple hard to read. However if you open the Matchless version of the same year it is much more legible. Colours used appear to be mostly black with a smattering of brown, blue, yellow, purple and green.
Unless you are going for the perfect, as it left the factory, rebuild I would be inclined to include a fuse, missing from the original circuit and an additional earth wire connecting the headlight to the battery earth point and on to the rear light unit. The stop light switch does not get shown until 1957 and may have been an optional extra before then.

Awake earlier than me then Sprids

clive wrote:Awake earlier than me then Sprids

Yes Clive. Nurse had to get me up early today as she has lots of Christmas shopping to do.

Thanks guys, I had looked through the owners manual and just noticed this in the service manual, thanks a ton, this will help a lot.

And yes, I am going for originality down to sourcing cloth covered wire (actually vinyl but looks like cloth) in the correct colors. My harness is completely falling apart from age so it's time to re-do it.

And yes, I plan on fusing it as I'm not so interested in burning the bike down after I finish it