I bought a new keyed ignition to install but it only has a single path (2 wires).  The stock ignition has 2 paths (4 wires).  On my GS, can I tie the red and the grey wires together and put on one side of the ignition switch and connect the orange and brown wires and put on the other side of the switch?  In essence, when the switch is on all 4 wires would be tied together.
I figure once the ignition is on everything is hot anyway and they are presumable the same voltage so why the need to keep them separate?

Quote from: ams14 on October 19, 2020, 08:07:13 AM
I bought a new keyed ignition to install but it only has a single path (2 wires).  The stock ignition has 2 paths (4 wires).  On my GS, can I tie the red and the grey wires together and put on one side of the ignition switch and connect the orange and brown wires and put on the other side of the switch?  In essence, when the switch is on all 4 wires would be tied together.

Don't tie the red and grey wires!

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I figure once the ignition is on everything is hot anyway and they are presumable the same voltage so why the need to keep them separate?

But then most of the equipment will stay on when the switch is the off position.

The way I interpret the wiring diagram, the two orange wires and the brown wire (taillight) need to be tied together for a two wire ignition switch. The red supplies power, so that goes to the other wire of your new ignition switch.

The brown wire is used for parking lights, so you'll lose that function (if your bike had it).

Cool, thanks! I think i follow, I only have one orange wire though?

I took a closer look at the diagram.  It looks like the red is the main power line, I will keep that on one side as you recommend.

It looks like the grey connects to the orange (via the yellow splice) to power the 2nd ignition path

So I think I can tie the orange/brown together and connect to the 2nd side of ignition switch (and leave the grey unconnected)


btw, there is the wiring diagram:
http://www.bbburma.net/Scans/Haynes_WiringDiagram_US_90-96.jpg

What you have described should work. But I'd tie grey together with orange and brown, otherwise you'll lose speedometer illumination.

What year model do you have? Apart from slight variations in the wiring diagrams for the different models, they are all very similar. But make sure you look at the correct diagram for your model.