Blowing main fuses, electrical blues

[Guest]

I completed the SH-775 upgrade with a new stator, and the bike ran great for a few weeks. It solved my previous power issues, and showed good charging. Then, as I was pulling out of my neighborhood, the bike died completely. I was able to pull into a parking lot, and discovered the main 15A fuse had blown. I had a spare, so in an attempt to just get the bike back to my garage, I replaced it and it immediately popped again.

I think I must have a short somewhere, and I can only pray it's in my under-seat harness and not at the stator. Any tips on "it's probably ____" would be appreciated as I begin my hunt to put the magic smoke back in.

[posplayr]

Process of elimination.

start with detailed inspection for chaffing/ cut wires.

if you have a 4-5 position fuse box. Put 5 amp fuses in all but the main to see if you can trigger one of the subside rare circuits.

unplug the r/r also to eliminate that.

you successively unplug things to eliminate them. PLugs/ fuses are used to eliminate things

[Redman]

Blow immeaditly upon replacing the fuse...... or immeadaitly upon turning on the key?

If blows immeadiatly, with key off: disconnect the R/R, and then see if holds. (Bike will run with R/R disconnected).

If blows immeadluty when turn on key: pull the other three fuses, turn on key, then put fuses back in one at a time. That will help narrow it down.

Oh, the other fuses are 10 amps right?

[metalfab]

I have done a lot of electrical troubleshooting. If you cant find the short you need to replace the fuse with a resistor where in the direct short mode it will still draw power, but it wont draw enough power to melt anything. Then you need an inductive pickup ammeter to track down the draw. There is a kit that is pretty cheap and I cant over stress how time saving this method is. The kit comes with a resistor, and a small inductive pickup ammeter. Check out the link HERE, you can probably find one locally too.

[Redman]

I have done a lot of electrical troubleshooting. If you cant find the short you need to replace the fuse with a resistor where in the direct short mode it will still draw power, but it wont draw enough power to melt anything............

Or a light bulb, like a tail light. THen under short circuit conditions the current is limited to the amp draw of the bulb, and glows at full briteness. THis is also good if finding intermittent shorts.

Take an old blown fuse, break it apart, and solder each end onto a wire going to a light bulb. ... or take the wires from a light bulb and jamme them into the fuse block.

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[metalfab]

That would work, ideally a few more amps like an old sealed beam headlight bulb might be better. They are 55 watts @ 12 volts that would be a little over 4.5 amps. The small inductive ammeter that comes with that kit in the link is sweet, and makes the job a lot easier. The little ammeter is handy for other things too.

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