Electrical problems - a couple of blown fuses

[dcstrom]

I just had a couple of blown fuses - don't think they are related but not sure.

The 3-amp fuse to the power outlet blew, so now power for the GPS. I already used my spare 3-amp fuse some time ago (I caused to blow, my fault), and having a hard time finding 3-amp in Romania. What kind of grief might I cause if I use 5 amp?

The 20 amp headlight fuse blew yesterday (same day as the 3 amp - coincidence?). I put a new one in this morning and it blew again soon after. I installed the upgraded headlamp harness a few thousand miles ago, so I guess the first thing to do is to go back and check all those connections. Anything else obvious I should check for while I'm in there?

thanks

Trevor

 

[Checkswrecks]

Probably not a coincidence. As a fuse goes open circuit, the rectifier output will spike briefly. Fortunately, these are extremely short in duration so don't have a lot of power. Newer fuses can handle the spikes, older fuses and bulbs can not. The 20A is a big fuse and the spike would have been relatively large.


No problem on using a 5A for the GPS for short duration. Heck, you may get away for a longer period, but the fuse is sized to keep the wire from overheating and we've already seen that some of the Tenere wire sizing was on the limit.


With the age of bikes in our group (1st US deliveries) and the fact that both bulbs and fuses age, we are going to start to see a rash of fuses and bulbs start to go. It's cheap anti-annoyance insurance to replace multiple bulbs and fuses when they start to go, rather than one by one. It's cheap reliability insurance to replace the essential fuses soon. Having two fail is your/our clue to start replacing them. With this reminder, I am putting the bulbs and fuses on my winter maintenance list.

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]While you didn't ask about bulbs, there is a relation in that bulbs are also fusible elements and I mentioned the aging process above. Tungsten filaments in bulbs start out fairly smooth and the roughness shown below gets worse as they age and go through cycles of use. Plus we beat the heck of out of them in motorcycles, so they break when the niches get deep enough.[/font]

 

[mrpincher]

Trevor

Same here on my 2012. Lost headlights, heated grips, accessory plug all at the same time. Mine happened early this year 2014. I was still running the old wiring harness. I was riding in a heavy snowstorm on the west side of the the Colorado Rockies when I noticed I had no heated grips. I had a low battery a few days prior and had to jump start the bike in Yosemite.

When I got home I cleaned up my home brew wiring connections, replaced the warrantied wiring harness, and put in new fuses. Seems fine 5 months later. I kinda figured water seeped into a connector. Maybe I zapped the fuses during the jump start - dunno.

Cheers - Mike