SuzukiSavage.com - Bike died, fuse pops when brake is pressed

engineer

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Re: Bike died, fuse pops when brake is pressed
Reply #15 - 04/10/13 at 07:48:47

You said the new tail light was a two wire set up, that means that the body of the new tail light is connected to the cylindrical portion of the two filament bulb and acts like the ground wire.

Then you switched in your old socket and its three wires, that is what I would have done, better ground that way. But the new tail light assembly is probably grounding out one of your filament wires somehow. This is more of a mechanical problem, look to see how one of the wires is touching something metal in that new tail light.

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2005 S40, Intruder shocks, Dyna, 52.5/150, 3 washers, 2 turns, modified seat, Raptor

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Digger

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Re: Bike died, fuse pops when brake is pressed
Reply #16 - 04/10/13 at 18:49:45

Here is some info on a little diagnostic tool that may save you some fuses. It is a circuit tester I made:

I made a tool to assist me in doing wiggle checks on suspect circuits. I find that using this tool is easier and cheaper than blowing out lots of fuses as you search for shorts.

It is a license plate light fixture and wiring harness that I removed from an old pickup truck eighteen years ago when I was putting a rear bumper on it:

I cut off the OEM connector and crimped on some spade connectors to the ends of the two wires:

You can see where I filed down the spade connectors so that they would fit into the holder for the fuse.

I pull the fuse on the suspect circuit, plug my tester leads into the fuse holder, turn on the ignition switch, and wiggle away. If I find a short to ground, the light gets really bright.

If you are testing the headlight/taillight circuit, you may want to disconnect those bulbs first, since, if said bulbs are drawing juice, the test lamp will be burning brightly and thus making it harder to detect shorts.

IHTH!

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Digger
2001, Metallic Glacial Blue, Raptor Petcock, Verslavy (first hole) (otherwise, mechanically, the bike is stock), 13,xxx miles
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justin_o_guy2

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What happened?

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Re: Bike died, fuse pops when brake is pressed
Reply #17 - 04/11/13 at 07:05:49

It is a short on the tail light (that we had just replaced earlier).

I dont know Why people dont associate a problem today with work done yesterday. Painful lesson learned, Ill bet.

I wish people would include REcent Work done on the bike with reports of troubles..

This would have been a 20 minute solution had the trouble report included
I replaced the tail lite assembly, now IM having electrical problems.,
BUt newbies to mechanics often dont associate such things. Takes suffering a stubbed toe or 2 to get that neural pathway established.
I wish I had thot to ask

What recent work have you done?

When I first saw the report, Owell,, learning experience for the board.
again

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Qwapy

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Re: Bike died, fuse pops when brake is pressed -
Reply #18 - 04/12/13 at 22:22:45

Problem solved. Thanks to all the individuals that helped (and try to help)in the troubleshooting process. It was a learning experience indeed (and fun, not painful). I guess if we all were knowledgeable about our machines we would not need to look for each others help, wouldn't we?

I followed WD advice and the problem was fixed.

WD wrote on 04/10/13 at 13:10:31
Quote:

Tail light wire to factory tail light wire, brake light wire to factory brake light wire. Bullet connectors, or butt connectors, and some extra wire to extend the bike pig tail to meet the light pig tail. You DO NOT need a separate ground wire. If you have a 3 wire light, the ground wire goes to a mounting bolt, or better yet, is cut off flush with the back of the light.
The factory tail light pig tail gets thrown in the trash with the factory light. The harness end on the bike gets cut off and replaced with something that won't vibrate apart or rot when it gets damp. The ground wire from the old harness gets traced back to where it meets the main harness and gets deleted. Or you can add a ring terminal and affix it to the fender under the seat.

@justin_o_guy2: Nobody is perfect. Thanks for your advice; I will try to remember that next time I run into trouble with the bike. I will have to try to have a talk with my neurons Grin

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WD

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Re: Bike died, fuse pops when brake is pressed
Reply #19 - 04/12/13 at 23:07:46

Swapping lights will generally result in a popped fuse or bulb (or 2) until you get the hang of properly using crimping pliers... and the cheap ones from Autozone or Walmart don't count. I use professional electrician's crimpers, the cheap ones tend to cut through the insulation and cause shorting.

And it is really easy to miswire a light ground and cause a backfeed into the rest of the system.

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engineer

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Re: Bike died, fuse pops when brake is pressed
Reply #20 - 04/13/13 at 06:18:16

Good to hear that the problem is fixed. Thanks for posting the final results. I always enjoy reading these troubleshooting posts but some people never get back and explain what the real problem turned out to be. So like any good detective story it's always better to find out what the culprit was. It's always educational to follow these threads.

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2005 S40, Intruder shocks, Dyna, 52.5/150, 3 washers, 2 turns, modified seat, Raptor

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Qwapy Junior Member Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 82 Orlando, Florida Gender:	Re: Bike died, fuse pops when brake is pressed Reply #21 - 04/13/13 at 12:23:44 Totally agreed
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