| Author | Message | ||
     Cabuc |
I replaced my front turn signals with LED signals from American Sport Bike. I also installed the proper equalizer. Now in the garage the signals work great, not blinking too fast or anything, but when I take it out for a spin it only takes a few blocks before the auxiliary fuse blows! I put in a new fuse, and it melts through that one too. I find out later that the LEDs only require .5W when the bike requires 10W bulbs. That equals way too much current, right? So how do I solve this problem properly (other than putting my old broken lights in)? | ||
| Kusskid76 |
Hey Cabuc, its not too much current the leds don't use enough that is why you need the equilizer to provide more resitance so they don't blink like crazy. I would go back and check all my wiring make sure all my connections are correct, and then I would look to see if I had any broken insulation on pinch points like where the wires go thru the brackets. You could have a wire shorting out when you start going down the road. Please take your time with this the problem area can be very small hard to see and very hard to find, when i got my S1 it kept blowing fuses because some hack did the wiring for the taillight relocate and i had to take the whole tail section apart to find the short and like you it only happend when i was riding. If that isn't it call American Sport Bike they customer service is great and Al from American Sport Bike is on badweb all the time, very knowlagable. Hope this helps  | ||
| Cabuc |
Ah nuts, I was afraid of that. But yeah that makes sense. I did check my work and covered the contact points with electrical tape to prevent a short and the fuse still blows. At one point I did see a brief puff of smoke coming from the front. Is it possible that a short might have caused a problem somewhere down the line other than the contact points? Perhaps part of the instrument panel since its part of the circuit? By the way, thanks for your help. This is really narrowing it down. | ||
| Cabuc |
Oh and the fuse seems to be going out much faster now, even when the engine is off, which is why I'm speculating that this has caused a bigger problem. | ||
| Kusskid76 |
Listen man, you got BIG problems, electric is not my strong suite butI KNOW when you see smoke its to late!! As i was told a long time ago once you let the magic smoke out it don't work no more! you said you used electrical tape, please tell me you didn't just twist the wires together and tape them. If you did you need to take it all apart find and replace the damaged part or parts. go to the auto parts store and get some crimp on connectors, heat shrink tubing and a crimping tool and use that. I'm not trying to be insulting just don't know how you put it together. If you need more help pm me for phone# | ||
| Cabuc |
Oh no, I didn't mean to give the impression that I just taped everything together. They all have new crimped terminals. I've done this before, only with computer equipment. | ||
| Reepicheep |
The equalizer is just a big resistor that draws extra current so the flasher doesn't blink fast. Try disconnecting the equalizer(s) and see if that stops the blowing fuses. | ||
| Kusskid76 |
Just wondering Cab but do you have leds on the rear too? You said you have the equalizer did you change the blinker relay as well? | ||
| Kusskid76 |
Cab where is the 12V power for the equillizer coming from or what did you tap into to get it? | ||
| Cabuc |
Only the front signals were replaced with LEDs. The rear are still stock. And for the equalizer, I replaced it with the conventional turn signal flasher. Was I supposed to patch the equalizer in along with the flasher? | ||
| Kusskid76 |
Cab If I read the instructions correctly Yes you should have the equillizer and a conventional flasher relay. I f you were to change the rears over to LED's you could do away with the equllizer and just use a relay for LED lights. As I understand it and as Reep and I stated earlier the LED's use far less electricity and provide less resitance for the circut so the equillizer is a resitor, the reason for that is that the convention light circut is set up so when a bulb blows and resistance drops it blinks twice as fast so with LED's lower resitance they will blink fast. Now you took the equillizer out and your still blowing fuses? | ||
| Cabuc |
Sorry for you leaving you guys hanging. Been busy. Anyways, so I took the equalizer out and it doesn't seem to be blowing the fuse anymore (though I haven't ridden it yet, only had it running for a bit while working on it). I tried it with the old and new front lights and it seems okay. Mostly though I've been looking for what electronics might have been damaged and I can't for the life of me find any sign of where that smoke came from. I thought it would have to be in the speedometer, but I cracked that open and found no residue or melted wiring. The shop manual doesn't list the electronics running on the accessory fuse. Besides the turn signals, horn and speedometer back-lighting, is there anything around that area that runs on the acc. fuse? haha. I'm starting to think it was just water-vapor and I was paranoid. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Probably came from the equalizer' | ||
| Cabuc |
I rode it to work today and I let out a sigh of relief when I passed the point where the fuse would normally blow, but about 2 miles later it goes out...progress I suppose. | ||
| Cabuc |
I think I found the problem! Maybe? There's a white/green wire coming from the speedometer that appears to be cut--not burnt off. I'd reattach it to where its supposed to go, but I can't find the other end. Does anybody know what the wire is for? The manual doesn't have any explanation for it other than it's supposed to be connected to something. | ||
| Cabuc |
PROBLEM SOLVED It had absolutely nothing to do with the turn signals. It was the clutch cable out of all things. It had a tiny worn spot that rubbed against the chassis at certain positions, probably grounding out the clutch switch. The way I figured it out was I lost my patience and stuck a stronger fuse in and felt around for any hot wires. And that was that. Thanks kusskid and reepicheep for all your help. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Stop!!! If that was the problem, you have another issues you have to address. There should be NO voltage present on the clutch cable. You may have a chassis grounding issue, check the grounding strap that goes from the chassis to the swing artm mount. You are getting stray voltage from somewhere, it shouldn't be there.. Brad |
