Melted wiring harness!

[terrylee]

It blows if on low or high and even when bulb is not plugged in. I'm at my wits end, have done everything but take harness back off and uncover everything and taking a look.
I did uncover the wires connecting to the coils and saw nothing wrong there, did coil relay mod. while I was in there. Still having left coil getting hot when key is on for very long, the coil itself is not hot or the the wires going to it, but the posts that hold it on frame. I have know idea if this has anything to do with the headlight problem. Anyway to bypass the on/off switch to see if the switch is the problem? terrylee

 

[GabrielGoes]

I think your gonna have to get inside the harness and take a look at each wire associated! while your at it get some spade connectors for each wire u cut... I had a problem just like yours with blowing fuses and i found atleast 3-4 problems when i took my harness out, (one major problem was my Headlight Ground Was not Grounded at ALL!!! i think the only reason it was working in the first place was because the loose end was rubbing against the frame or something therefore grounding it!! I properly grounded my headlamp ground and felt really good about it afterwards) im telling you, you'd be suprised what you'll find when you take your harness out/expose it!... I Put The Harness back in with the 3-4 problems fixed and it worked like a charm! i would say just take your time and address the problem with your harness, get it all exposed and make it all really neat! P

P.S. Mine took about 12 Hours but i REALLY took my time, i pulled an all nighter with mine but i think you can get it done much quicker since you seem to have some electrical experience with your bike unlike i did at the time i did mine.. You Got It Man ! Gotta get Motivated!!

 

[terrylee]

Thanks man, I about had myself talked into just that. I have replaced most of the connectors with spade type, but obviously there must be a problem in there somewhere. Guess that's what I get for getting one off ebay. I still hope the new switch I ordered will help, at least I guess it won't hurt. When I get done with all this my wife will have the nicest bike with all most all new parts. But I want to make sure she's riding something dependable. terrylee

 

[GabrielGoes]

Thanks man, I about had myself talked into just that. I have replaced most of the connectors with spade type, but obviously there must be a problem in there somewhere. Guess that's what I get for getting one off ebay. I still hope the new switch I ordered will help, at least I guess it won't hurt. When I get done with all this my wife will have the nicest bike with all most all new parts. But I want to make sure she's riding something dependable. terrylee

awesome it sounds like a really good bike, although i dont think the problem is your switch it definitly cannot hurt to have 2! make sure your headlight ground is properly grounded.. make sure all the grounds make sense also! i did a single point ground as POSPLAYER explains in his tutorials he and many others helped me get through my dilemma

 

[Matchless]

Blowing a fuse is caused by either a power wire that is short circuit to ground or a by component connected to it. It could also be caused by a faulty component that is drawing to much current. Finally it may also be caused by a wire incorrectly terminated or plugged to a wrong wire of a component in error.

1) Get a handfull of fuses.

2) Make sure you can access all the wires with, tank off, headlight open, sidecovers off, igniter, coils brakelight etc.

3) Have your wiring diagram at hand

4) Inspect the black/white, red, orange/xx (xx any other colour) for any indication that they may have overheated and melted the insulation at any time. If so remove insulation tape and inspect wires under the wrapping as they may have melted through to another.

5) Make sure your ground wires are terminated in the correct places.

6) Inspect you fusebox connections

7) If nothing suspicious shows up, pull all the connectors from the wires, but keep the battery and the grounds connected, including the fusebox and the wires on the solenoid.

8) Insert a fuse and see if it blows, if so then your problem should be in the harnass. You may need to bend and move the harnass a bit in case its intermittant.

9) Next connect up the ignition switch plug and switch on - does the fuse blow? Switch on all switches. Move and juggle all wires.

10) Carry on connection up one at a time until the fuse blows, then start disconnecting any other components/connectors you may have connected up to that point and ensure the fuse only blows when a specific item like R/H control switch is connected.

This allows you to systematically attempt to reproduce the fault and thus localise it. I recently found a blowing fuse was caused by a rear brake switch that was faulty, as soon as one touched the brake pedal it blew, mostly while your foot was still on the ground. Sometimes it worked perfectly for a couple of days.

I am not sure if this could be your original fault also showing up with the harness replaced or if this is a another fault in the new harness.
Hope this helps.

 

[terrylee]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will try what you wrote. I did try this on everything up frt., unplugging each connection and then turning on headlight switch and fuse blew each time. But I'll try it the other way as you said unplug everything and then plug back in one at a time. I'll try any and all things at this point. terrylee

 

[terrylee]

Thanks guys for all the help! I did what suggested and unplugged everything and sure enough as soon as I plug in the wire in the back to the tail light the fuse would blow. Found that a aux. light I installed on the back for extra tail and brake lights had melted wires touching each other. Probably happen when the harness melted. Replaced the socket hooked it back up and no more blowing fuses!! I still have the left coil getting hot (posts only). I assume this means it time for a new coil. It is only the left one that is doing it. terrylee

 

[Matchless]

Terry,
Glad you found it, as it can become quite a tail chaser.

Check you coils resistances and swop them around just to be sure.
If its only happening when the motor is not running with the ignition on, it means it is getting a ground from the igniter/points while the motor is not turning. Should not really be happening with an ignitor, but can happen if points are closed in that position........?

Maybe your coil is not faulty.

 

[terrylee]

thanks will do, I'll check connections to ignitor to make sure I did hook one up wrong. Haven't really ran bike since this wiring problem happen, but will do so. terrylee

 

[terrylee]

Ok, checked and all connections are correct. Checked and getting 4.6 ohms at both coils, and the coil doesn't seem to get as near as hot when running. A little warm when running, but after 5-10 mins. with just key on and not running and the posts that hold it on get very hot, almost enough that you don't want to keep holding on to it. Bike seems to idle pretty well and revs. easily once the bike gets warmed up. Also swapped wires and still left coil getting hot. Oh yeah bike doesn't have points. terrylee

 

[GabrielGoes]

Ok, checked and all connections are correct. Checked and getting 4.6 ohms at both coils, and the coil doesn't seem to get as near as hot when running. A little warm when running, but after 5-10 mins. with just key on and not running and the posts that hold it on get very hot, almost enough that you don't want to keep holding on to it. Bike seems to idle pretty well and revs. easily once the bike gets warmed up. Also swapped wires and still left coil getting hot. Oh yeah bike doesn't have points. terrylee

From my experience terry, HOT was never good for me it lead to a meltdown in the end, like matchless said, swap the coils and see if the problem follows the coil, maybe the ground wire is not a thick enough gauge if you combined quite a few, or maybe just an improper ground, i dont know i would go for like a 50 mile round trip on the bike then maybe consider letting the wife ride it!

 

[Matchless]

Terry if you swopped both wires positive and the negative trigger from the ignitor to the other coil and with the resistances testing OK at 4.6 ohm primary, maybe check the secondary as well.

Try physically swopping the coil and make sure the mounting posts are not corroded on the surfaces that bolt up, thus any heat in the coil core is not dissipating to the frame. Paint and corrosion may be a culprit here.
Finally check if you are getting a permanent ground/negative coming in on the coil from the ignitor when the bike is on, but not running..
Normally if the bike is not running the trigger pulse in your pickup is not firing the ignitor, which in turn should not put out a permanent signal to the coils.
If you get this just briefly touch the starter and see if it goes off and maybe moves it to the other coil. If so you coils should be OK, just heed any excessively prolonged ignition on without bike running. I recall this was an issue when using the HEI modules and depended on exactly where the ignitor was when you turned the igntion switch off.

Keep well.

 

[terrylee]

Thanks again guys, I did swap the lead in wires to the coils and the problem stayed with the left. I will try taking it off and cleaning post and frame and see if that may help. I did have to take this coil off when I was putting on the new harness. Also I think I did combine two of the ground wires coming out near each other on the right side, one was a heavier gauge wire than the other, so will undo that and ground separately. terrylee

 

[terrylee]

Ok. cleaned and sanded ends of posts and where coil attaches to frame and seem to help, got warm but not hot. Checked all grounds and I had not combined them and they looked good and grounded. Thanks for all the help, am going to try to ride as see what happens, and as soon as I can afford will just replace coils so she has new ones anyway. terrylee

 

[Matchless]

Glad to have been able to help. Enjoy your riding!