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Driving Light Fuse Blows

tlyoungb

Junior Member
Hey fellow riders. I have a problem here that puzzles me. Driving lights keep blowing the fuse. They were working when I left this morning and when I got home. Well I had to run to a friends house and they were work fine on the way out. Started getting a light sprinkle rain but the lights were still working. Well started heading home and a person in a car said all my lights were out. The only lights that work were the brake lights.

So my turn signal and brake lights work, but none of the running lights work, and as soon as I put a fues in the box and turn the switch, the fuse blows. It is just the running lights that are not working. I have pulled all the bulbs put die electric grease on them and put them back and still blows the fuse.

Any suggestion?
 
Hey fellow riders. I have a problem here that puzzles me. Driving lights keep blowing the fuse. They were working when I left this morning and when I got home. Well I had to run to a friends house and they were work fine on the way out. Started getting a light sprinkle rain but the lights were still working. Well started heading home and a person in a car said all my lights were out. The only lights that work were the brake lights.

So my turn signal and brake lights work, but none of the running lights work, and as soon as I put a fues in the box and turn the switch, the fuse blows. It is just the running lights that are not working. I have pulled all the bulbs put die electric grease on them and put them back and still blows the fuse.

Any suggestion?
I think you're talking about what I call passing lamps or driving lights, in your description above you were calling them running lights, which I call the front turns while they are on solid. Just want to make sure we are talking about the same lamps. I would try turning them on with the bulb's removed just to rule them out, if the fuse still blows you'll have to trace the wires back into the fairing to find the short, sometimes the wires short out were they come into the housings, anything pinched when you turn the forks? Have you checked the self help section on the forum, some really good advice there also. Happy hunting & good luck, I know you'll find it.
 
similar thing happened to me & it turned out wire under front fender spear pinched by t bolt
 
If fuse blows, you "divide and conquer"...and as Chopper recommended, open all the turnsignal covers, especially ones that look wet inside, and pull the bulbs, inspecting them for moisture/corrosion and that the filiments inside are intact. If you have an ohmmeter, you can check resistance (with ignition off) with respect to ground, the running and turn signal leads for short to ground. Also check the wiring under the fender "loom" making sure the pass thru areas are not chafed. Finally with all the bulbs out, put a new fuse in and see if it holds...if not, you have a wiring short, if it holds, install one bulb, test and continue until you find the line causing the problem. Hope you have a DMM ($9.99 at Harbor Freight) and a decent schematic, to help you trace the wiring and color codes (here is where I like the Clymer book because of the schematic being in color).
 
I was thinking you were talking about turning on the passing lamp switch but after re-reading your post I'm getting ign. swithch, mabad. I think ultrat is on the money, if you follow the wire coming out the left side of the front fender up the brake line, turn your front fork to the right, most of the time you can get to the plug where the wire connects to the harness, pust the lock tab in and unplug then install a new fuse and turn the ign. switch on, if it does not blow you found the problem. If you found no breaks in the wire you'll have to pull the front wheel and fender. It's a easy fix with some solder, shrink tube and maybe a little wire. Some times the wire will get rubbed by the tire or one of the stick on clips will come off. Here's a bulletin from 2000-2001 show detail of clips.
View attachment M-1119.pdf
 
I was thinking you were talking about turning on the passing lamp switch but after re-reading your post I'm getting ign. swithch, mabad. I think ultrat is on the money, if you follow the wire coming out the left side of the front fender up the brake line, turn your front fork to the right, most of the time you can get to the plug where the wire connects to the harness, pust the lock tab in and unplug then install a new fuse and turn the ign. switch on, if it does not blow you found the problem. If you found no breaks in the wire you'll have to pull the front wheel and fender. It's a easy fix with some solder, shrink tube and maybe a little wire. Some times the wire will get rubbed by the tire or one of the stick on clips will come off. Here's a bulletin from 2000-2001 show detail of clips.
View attachment 5463

Hi Chopper, I guess what I call the running lights is the small light on the front and rear fenders, and the two yellow lights up front and in the back.
The turn signals work, and the brake lights work no problem, and I guess they work for the reason that the brakes and turn signal pass thru a different circuit on the bike, but the lights themselves when you turn the switch on run thru the fuse box.

So here is where I am at right now. I removed all the bulbs, and I did notice that the small bulb on the front fender was like sorta blackish looking. Like it had blown. I had a replacement bulb and installed it with a new fues and boom. Still blew the fuse. So would it be a fair to assume that the wire to that small light on the front fender may have gotten water in there somewhere and is shorting out the system?

I have a Multimeter, but I am not sure what I am looking for, or where to connect the leads on check the wire. What kind of reading will be displayed on the multimeter? Thanks.
 
Hi Chopper, I guess what I call the running lights is the small light on the front and rear fenders, and the two yellow lights up front and in the back.
The turn signals work, and the brake lights work no problem, and I guess they work for the reason that the brakes and turn signal pass thru a different circuit on the bike, but the lights themselves when you turn the switch on run thru the fuse box.

So here is where I am at right now. I removed all the bulbs, and I did notice that the small bulb on the front fender was like sorta blackish looking. Like it had blown. I had a replacement bulb and installed it with a new fues and boom. Still blew the fuse. So would it be a fair to assume that the wire to that small light on the front fender may have gotten water in there somewhere and is shorting out the system?

I have a Multimeter, but I am not sure what I am looking for, or where to connect the leads on check the wire. What kind of reading will be displayed on the multimeter? Thanks.
Have you unpluged the front fender tip light, you should be able to reach it up under the left side of fairing, just follow the wire up the front brake line to find connection, if not just pop outer fairing off to access. Then try new fuse while it's unplugged or check fender tip lamp wire with muti-tester.
 
Ok. After many long hours and almost 25 fuses. Well actually I had 6 fuses left. I think I have triumphed over the shorting demon problem.

Well as you have read in previous post, I was having problems with blowing fuses and needless to say I was getting very very mad. I was ready to give up and take it to the dealer and let them deal with it. so with that said, here is my story.

All day at work I pondered the delima and almost blew a fuse in my brain. I got home for lunch and just kept looking at different threads and such but nothing. So I get off work. Head over to the auto parts store and grab and box of 25 15 amp fuses. I got home. Sat down and had a really nice Microwave Meal, grab the ol HD Service Manual and started looking at the wire digrams in the back. I am no electrical person, so it was pretty much getting nowhere, but I charged on.

After eating my meal and just about had enough of the service manual I put on my shorts and Tail of the Dragon T-Shirt and headed out to the garage. Man I had that bike torn down to it skivvies. Bulbs pulled and everything just hanging everywhere. Wife was walking the dog thought I was nuts. After a while I did to. Anyway. Here I am....almost 5 hours into this thing, and down to 6 fuses.

I put the 7th fuses in, and bang the it did not blow. Man my heart was pumping 900 beats a min. I thought I had it. So at this point, I doing the PEE PEE Dance and started putting everthing back together. Just before I put the outer fairing on, I wanted to give it another shot. Turned on the switch and everything was ok. Man I am singing the song Holy Holy Holy.

So here I got put on the outer fairing and turned on the switch and bang. Blew the fuse. It was as if someone had chopped of my legs. I just wanted to drop to my knees. So I started thinking it was when I put the fairing on. So off the fairing came and started checking and blowing fuses again. So here I go. Start taking everything apart again and by this time I was just going to put it back together and pack it up.

I was so mad, I just turned on the switch and started graping wires in the fairing. I am poking and proding and poking and I just gave up. I grabbed a hand full of wire and moved and bang. I saw sparks shoot out and hard a cracking noise. I said WOW what the heck was that.

So I started looking at this set of wires and low and behold this is what I found.

22668_1319196308771_1496692437_30836669_8280112_n.jpg


22668_1319196348772_1496692437_30836670_3305071_n.jpg


22668_1319196388773_1496692437_30836671_199128_n.jpg


As you can see in all three photo how the cables are ran. These cables were butted right up againt the metal bracket. Who knows how long it had been that way, but surly long enough to rub down to the wire. Then i got to thinking. I had the dealer do a 50k service and they also removed the front forks and serviced them. But I don't know if they had to remove the inner fairing or not, and I know that they replace the steering head bearings also.

So then only thing i could do was put some die electric grease on black electrical tape around the wounds, and here was my SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM.

22668_1319196428774_1496692437_30836672_2942228_n.jpg


22668_1319196468775_1496692437_30836673_649670_n.jpg


22668_1319196508776_1496692437_30836674_7332195_n.jpg


I try not to throw anything away, and just happen to have this small black hose in my roll around. Grab the sissiors and some plastic ties and bang.

Hopefully problem solved. I put the outer fairing back on, and check everything out, works like a dream..................Sorry it is getting late, and I just had to pinch myself and head outside to the garage to make sure all this I was typing was not a dream. But it works. I am debating on weather or not to talk to the dealer about this for just let it ride. I got photos so I think I will take them with me.

Thank you guys for all you advice, and all the help. I just wanted to post this up, and sort a give everyone a heads up that next time you have your outer fairing off? Look around in there and make sure that nothing is rubbing around. Just put a rubber hose over those edges. It may save you a bunch of heartache down the road.

Again Thanks
photo.php
 
Ok. After many long hours and almost 25 fuses. Well actually I had 6 fuses left. I think I have triumphed over the shorting demon problem.

Well as you have read in previous post, I was having problems with blowing fuses and needless to say I was getting very very mad. I was ready to give up and take it to the dealer and let them deal with it. so with that said, here is my story.

All day at work I pondered the delima and almost blew a fuse in my brain. I got home for lunch and just kept looking at different threads and such but nothing. So I get off work. Head over to the auto parts store and grab and box of 25 15 amp fuses. I got home. Sat down and had a really nice Microwave Meal, grab the ol HD Service Manual and started looking at the wire digrams in the back. I am no electrical person, so it was pretty much getting nowhere, but I charged on.

After eating my meal and just about had enough of the service manual I put on my shorts and Tail of the Dragon T-Shirt and headed out to the garage. Man I had that bike torn down to it skivvies. Bulbs pulled and everything just hanging everywhere. Wife was walking the dog thought I was nuts. After a while I did to. Anyway. Here I am....almost 5 hours into this thing, and down to 6 fuses.

I put the 7th fuses in, and bang the it did not blow. Man my heart was pumping 900 beats a min. I thought I had it. So at this point, I doing the PEE PEE Dance and started putting everthing back together. Just before I put the outer fairing on, I wanted to give it another shot. Turned on the switch and everything was ok. Man I am singing the song Holy Holy Holy.

So here I got put on the outer fairing and turned on the switch and bang. Blew the fuse. It was as if someone had chopped of my legs. I just wanted to drop to my knees. So I started thinking it was when I put the fairing on. So off the fairing came and started checking and blowing fuses again. So here I go. Start taking everything apart again and by this time I was just going to put it back together and pack it up.

I was so mad, I just turned on the switch and started graping wires in the fairing. I am poking and proding and poking and I just gave up. I grabbed a hand full of wire and moved and bang. I saw sparks shoot out and hard a cracking noise. I said WOW what the heck was that.

So I started looking at this set of wires and low and behold this is what I found.

22668_1319196308771_1496692437_30836669_8280112_n.jpg


22668_1319196348772_1496692437_30836670_3305071_n.jpg


22668_1319196388773_1496692437_30836671_199128_n.jpg


As you can see in all three photo how the cables are ran. These cables were butted right up againt the metal bracket. Who knows how long it had been that way, but surly long enough to rub down to the wire. Then i got to thinking. I had the dealer do a 50k service and they also removed the front forks and serviced them. But I don't know if they had to remove the inner fairing or not, and I know that they replace the steering head bearings also.

So then only thing i could do was put some die electric grease on black electrical tape around the wounds, and here was my SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM.

22668_1319196428774_1496692437_30836672_2942228_n.jpg


22668_1319196468775_1496692437_30836673_649670_n.jpg


22668_1319196508776_1496692437_30836674_7332195_n.jpg


I try not to throw anything away, and just happen to have this small black hose in my roll around. Grab the sissiors and some plastic ties and bang.

Hopefully problem solved. I put the outer fairing back on, and check everything out, works like a dream..................Sorry it is getting late, and I just had to pinch myself and head outside to the garage to make sure all this I was typing was not a dream. But it works. I am debating on weather or not to talk to the dealer about this for just let it ride. I got photos so I think I will take them with me.

Thank you guys for all you advice, and all the help. I just wanted to post this up, and sort a give everyone a heads up that next time you have your outer fairing off? Look around in there and make sure that nothing is rubbing around. Just put a rubber hose over those edges. It may save you a bunch of heartache down the road.

Again Thanks
photo.php
Congratulations :) You had me rolling on the floor reading this, not that it's funny but I could so relate, and I mean really relate. I'm glad you stuck in there and found it, I would talk to your service manager, if he's a good one you'll at lease get your next service free. Congrats again.
 
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