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Author Topic: Rite of passage  (Read 2057 times)

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Offline super pasty white guy

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Rite of passage
« on: August 30, 2006, 04:26:16 PM »
Almost home and suddenly I'm dead in the water-  no lights, no starter.  Pull open fuse box and find main fuse has melted the holder.  Look closer and discover that the PO has replaced the 15A with a 20A.  Look still closer and realize that it's an automotive fuse in there.  Start to doubt PO's assertion that he only did things the right way and that the bike's running like a top. 

Put in spare fuse and... Nothing.

Call wife.  Push bike home 8 blocks past all the extremely curious and chatty homeless guys (hey buddy, run out of gas?) at the bus station and up the hill to my house.  On a whim, try starter.  Turns over and runs.

Go inside and get beer.

Clean fuse holder, and connections to fuse holder.  Reassemble with dielectric grease.

Yep, still runs.

Go inside and pour another beer.  Take naproxen. 

Tell story to those who will understand.
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Offline GroovieGhoulie

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2006, 04:41:32 PM »
Sounds a lot like what happened to me about 6 months ago:

http://www.sohc4.us/forums/index.php?topic=6784.0

Lights crapped but I still had the engine, so I limped home.

Crazy I tell you.
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Offline bistromath

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2006, 04:44:07 PM »
You would do well to very very carefully clean all the connections by the fuse holder. Fuses work by blowing when they heat up too much, and poor connections to the fuses add heat, which effectively lower their current rating.

Same thing happened to me last night. I had a knife to clean the corrosion off the fuse holder, and always keep a spare fuse in the spare fuse holder. =)

Would also be good to inspect the connections to the fuse holders.
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Offline Bob Wessner

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2006, 07:26:25 PM »
Quote
You would do well to very very carefully clean all the connections by the fuse holder.

Good point, but I would go one step farther. If these connections are bad, you can bet others are not good either. It might be worth a couple of hours of time to go through the entire harness connection-by-connection and clean them.. including all the grounds.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2006, 02:00:34 AM by Bob Wessner »
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Offline super pasty white guy

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2006, 07:39:32 PM »
Yep, that's on my list.  Would have started it tonight, but the rain had other ideas.

The fuse holder had a fair amount of oxidation, so I'm hopeful that's the big part of the job.

dave
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Manic

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2006, 07:49:05 PM »
I'm going thru the same electrical problems myself.  Fuses keep blowing and taking my lights out w/ me.  If I'm lucky it doesn't kill the engine.  Would you let me know if you find it to be some other problem besides bad connections, and I'll do the same thing?

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Offline super pasty white guy

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2006, 04:44:40 AM »
absolutely.

Dave
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Steve

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2006, 04:59:44 AM »
Hi I has a similar think on Sunday evening had gone for a ride covered about 20 miles pulled up at a red light, the 400/4 cuts no misfire just stopped.  pushed it to the side of the road, no starter, no lights, waited 10 Miles started first time, with no problems over the last 10 miles home.  I will check the fuse's tonight to see if they need cleaning.

Steve  :o
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Offline cben750f0

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2006, 06:40:41 AM »
at least your fuse blew... mine didnt and melted the fuse box!!!!!!... no amount of new fuses was gonna fix it..... so i wired in a blade type fuse box...


peace
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Offline super pasty white guy

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2006, 07:04:55 AM »
Where did you get your fuse block from?  The parts stores near me (Advance) want ~$50 for one.

Finding the source problem is, of course, job 1 but being able to buy replacement fuses almost anywhere sure would be nice.

dave
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Offline BobbyR

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2006, 09:36:53 AM »
Quote from: Bob Wessner on August 30, 2006, 07:26:25 PM
Quote
You would do well to very very carefully clean all the connections by the fuse holder.

Good point, but I would go one step farther. If these connections are bad, you can bet others are not good either. It might be worth a couple of hours of time to go through the entire harness connection-by-connection and clean them.. including all the grounds.

In my usual fashion, I will go one step further. Instead of cleaning the connectors, cut them off and solder the wires together. Connectors are made for ease of manufacture. They should only be used on components than need to be disconnected, such as headlights etc. In the middle of a run, they only add to voltage drop and are prone to vibration and corrosion. I work of a company that manufactures Trains. As they age we find a lot of failures are caused by connectors. Since our stuff is so big and so many wires are bundled together, connectors are a necessary evil. On a simple Motorcycle like ours you really do not need them.
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Offline nickjtc

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #11 on: August 31, 2006, 10:12:12 AM »
Quote from: BobbyR on August 31, 2006, 09:36:53 AM
I will go one step further. Instead of cleaning the connectors, cut them off and solder the wires together. Connectors are made for ease of manufacture. They should only be used on components than need to be disconnected, such as headlights etc. In the middle of a run, they only add to voltage drop and are prone to vibration and corrosion.

Now that's a good idea for a winter project. Thanks. The wiring on Silver Sophie is looking a little tatty so this will be a good way of killing two feathers with one bird.
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Offline csendker

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #12 on: August 31, 2006, 10:22:58 AM »
Quote
Where did you get your fuse block from?  The parts stores near me (Advance) want ~$50 for one.

Wanting to change mine, I bought one like that at the local parts store for a couple of bucks.  I got home and found out that it was cheap for a reason: it only had one 'gozinto' connection, not individual lines.  Now it sits waiting for me to dream up some new electrical stuff, requiring new electrical circuits on my trailer, insert heavy sigh.  I eventually did the obvious and cleaned the original fuse block and replaced the auto fuses with the proper 1" type.  A thorough harness clean-up is on my to-do list for this winter.  And in the process, I will hopefully figure out why my main fuse blows when I switch from low to high beam??
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Offline cben750f0

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #13 on: August 31, 2006, 01:28:14 PM »
well the one is use was made by a company called NARVA, and was only about $20 AUD, all the fuses have individual wireing, just take the old one appart one by one and solder to the new one....  and b/c mine old one was melted, i epoxi'ed the new one to the base of the old one, so the whole lot bolts straight back on.... now i have a 5 pack of every fuse in the tool box under the seat, and have never had to replace one !!!.... well they are there if needed, ... or if the g/f's car blows one..... ;D


 peace
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you are never to old, to act like a kid... be safe
funny thing,chasing someone down hill on a bike 30 years older than theirs..
he said \\\\\\\'it was like watching a 250kg unguided weapon getting stuck up you bum\\\\\\\ http://www.bikepics.com/members/trixtrem/

Saddlewarmer

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Re: Rite of passage
« Reply #14 on: September 02, 2006, 07:07:19 AM »
wired a new fuse panel in the 75cb750 i got. used a fuse block for the ATM type fuses. check out tessco.com for the fuse panel.
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