Had power, now I dont

[Guest]

I was trying to wire in some LED turn signals last night, (I know it's not stock, sorry not sorry) and I have resistors but my friend told me to try them without first, knowing full well that I would follow his advice given that I absolutely hate wiring and he knows more than I do. First everything was kind of OK except the lights wouldn't blink, they just stayed on all the time. Then I hit the switch again, heard a small buzz and saw smoke from one of my wires. The power was still on so I shut off the key to disconnect the wire but when I turned the key again, I had no power anywhere on the bike. I checked the fuse and it isn't burned out. Any ideas on what to do or where to start looking?

[azr]

connections to battery. You sure you checked all the fuses?

[Who Dat?]

I believe the '77 750 only had one fuse?

LED signals will not blink with the standard thermal flasher unit. Installing resistors is one way to 'fix' that, but an electronic flasher is a better way to do it.

[R3lease1t]

There is only one fuse. I was thinking I need to check and make sure nothing grounded out or burnt a wire through somewhere else. I will look into the electric flasher, although I already bought resistors...

[R3lease1t]

Turns out the fuse was burnt in the end so it wasn't noticeable when you just looked at the fuse. Replaced fuse, power is back

[phydeauxmutt]

Did you get your LED blinkers because they looked "good" or did you get them to possibly save some electrical power?

If you got them to save power, installing the resistors is going to defeat that purpose. Also keep in mind that whatever power you "save" is just going to get wasted (literally) by being shunted back through the stator. The permanent magnet charging system on our bikes will put out as much power as it can, all the time. Anything that the bike does not need will be regulated (shunted) back through the stator, which is basically a direct short to ground.

One more thing, depending on how much you use your signals, those resistors are going to get WARM. Be careful where you mount them.

[R3lease1t]

I chopped the bike and lost the rear mounts for the stock lights. I also bought a headlight with integrated led turn signals as well. I wanted to streamline it and get rid if anything that was sticking out from the sides which is why I bought the LEDs. Like Who Dat? mentioned, the LEDs do not operate with the thermal flasher with the resistors and without. I will be buying an electronic LED flasher to use and hopefully it solves the issues I'm having.