Complete failure of electrical system.

[RHODESIA SMITH]

eish suffered a bad one. Riding down the road at about 120km/h in the fast lane- when bike simply cut out - all electricals completely dead. Pulled over fuses fine ect. Later when i got the bike home i checked all earths ect and found that fuse contacts although clean were not actually making good contact with fuses and the problem was exacerbated by the fact that the cheapie fuses were slightly longer than the OE and as a result were actually not making good contact. What i did was to make an extra earth wire from the mounting plate that the fuse box and starter solenoid mount to directly to the negative tereminal of the battery and then solder in a bridge of teh main fuse to the spare fuse so now i have a double fuse for the main fuse. I also replaced the fuses with the proper length fuses and cleaned and crimped all the contacts. i must add that all of this was worked out after much unnessary stripping if wiring, frustration and jumping up and down!! But this is how we learn.

[Big T]

See my post on the fuse block and check the back of your fuse block

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. RHODESIA SMITH,

That was some nice work taking care of that little "present" the Previous Owner left you. Thanks for sharing. Would you do us a favor and put your bike (year and model) in your signature file so that we can know what we're talking about? Thanks. In any event, I hope you can find something on my little website that will help you. Now here's one of my "virtual handshakes".

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[bakalorz]

eish suffered a bad one. Riding down the road at about 120km/h in the fast lane- when bike simply cut out - all electricals completely dead. Pulled over fuses fine ect. Later when i got the bike home i checked all earths ect and found that fuse contacts although clean were not actually making good contact with fuses and the problem was exacerbated by the fact that the cheapie fuses were slightly longer than the OE and as a result were actually not making good contact. What i did was to make an extra earth wire from the mounting plate that the fuse box and starter solenoid mount to directly to the negative tereminal of the battery and then solder in a bridge of teh main fuse to the spare fuse so now i have a double fuse for the main fuse. I also replaced the fuses with the proper length fuses and cleaned and crimped all the contacts. i must add that all of this was worked out after much unnessary stripping if wiring, frustration and jumping up and down!! But this is how we learn.

I'm not sure exactly what you are describing with the part I made red, but I suspect its a bad idea ...

If you are saying that you paralleled the main fuse with a second one, that would be bad because now it will take more current to blow a fuse in the event of a short somewhere.

If you are saying that you put two fuses in series for the main fuse or put a fuse on the ground wire, that is kind of a bad idea too. You don't really gain extra protection, since one properly working fuse will protect you. You would get extra places where corrosion or failure can creep in, which would be a disadvantage.

[RHODESIA SMITH]

Sorry Chaps, Its a GS850G year 1981 so that makes it a GS850GX?

all I basically did was make an earth wire running from the negative terminal of the battery to the one screw that mounts the starter solenoid. that way i know for sure that that plate where the fude box and starter solenoid is mounted to is well earthed.

I am too not convinced that i have done the right thing by building in a double fuse for the mains by incorporting the spare fuse holder into the main fuse by soldering a bridge and replacing the main 15amp fuse with 2 7,5 amp ones.- Well I did something right as i have my electrical system back?

now I am trying to figure a way to wire up a normal type left hand handle bar switch into my bikes harness. (I broke the original one and it cannot be repaired). The original one was one with the automatic turn signal cancel ,and the switch I have found to replace it does not have that option. ( I though ok as the auto cancelling is not always not such a good idea, as when im in slow moving traffic traffic it causes confusion to the already confused driving population around me).

Any of you clever fellas out there know which wires to swap around, cut ect so I can fit the non auto one onto my bike? I have a complete switch with the plug so it is not chopped up.

thanks again

[bakalorz]

Sorry Chaps, Its a GS850G year 1981 so that makes it a GS850GX?

all I basically did was make an earth wire running from the negative terminal of the battery to the one screw that mounts the starter solenoid. that way i know for sure that that plate where the fude box and starter solenoid is mounted to is well earthed.

I am too not convinced that i have done the right thing by building in a double fuse for the mains by incorporting the spare fuse holder into the main fuse by soldering a bridge and replacing the main 15amp fuse with 2 7,5 amp ones.- Well I did something right as i have my electrical system back?

now I am trying to figure a way to wire up a normal type left hand handle bar switch into my bikes harness. (I broke the original one and it cannot be repaired). The original one was one with the automatic turn signal cancel ,and the switch I have found to replace it does not have that option. ( I though ok as the auto cancelling is not always not such a good idea, as when im in slow moving traffic traffic it causes confusion to the already confused driving population around me).

Any of you clever fellas out there know which wires to swap around, cut ect so I can fit the non auto one onto my bike? I have a complete switch with the plug so it is not chopped up.

thanks again

That makes more sense now, you did two seperate things ... in the OP it sounded to me like the two were connected somehow.

I agree with running the extra ground wire.

Less so the fuse ... at least you changed it to 2 x 7.5 amps, so that the capacity is nominally the same.
However, that assumes that the resistance of the paths through the two fuses is equal. Given your issues in the fusebox, that may not be entirely true ...
If the paths are unequal, the lower resistance path will get a larger share of the current ... so instead of two legs at 7.5 amps, you now get one leg at 10 amps and one at 5 ... guess what happens then ...
After the fuse getting ten amps blows, you have 15 going through the one you have left ... for another second or so ... then you're stuck.

I would recommend fixing the fuse holders to work correctly and unparalleling the system

[bluewool]

So you have two 7.5A fuses in parallel? That is a bad Idea. replace the 15A of by pass the block and put in an inline 15A

[RHODESIA SMITH]

yes i am going to build in an extra fuse holder and put a 15amp in.

a frind of mine and i figured out the wiring for the switch .

seems like it works with having the signal control unit completely unplugged

i have not a chance to ride the bike yet so i will only know that is all is well on the weekend.