SNap. Fizzle. PFFFFT ! SMOKE !!! Hole BLEEP !!! extinguisher !!! GAAH !!

[exdirtbiker]

Yup, my Beast (almost) went up in smoke and flame yesterday.
I was working on the KZ, and moved my GS a foot forward.
The add-on cigarette lighter ( for radar detector?) that someone else installed 5-25 years ago decided it was too cold, so it got really hot.
Melted a few other wires before -thankfully -- it melted it's own power source and broke the circuit.

A VERY exciting 30 seconds... I think I remained calm and no, I didn't dirty myself. But it was close...
Pics later tonight.

[roeme]

Yup, my Beast (almost) went up in smoke and flame yesterday.
I was working on the KZ, and moved my GS a foot forward.
The add-on cigarette lighter ( for radar detector?) that someone else installed 5-25 years ago decided it was too cold, so it got really hot.
Melted a few other wires before -thankfully -- it melted it's own power source and broke the circuit.

A VERY exciting 30 seconds... I think I remained calm and no, I didn't dirty myself. But it was close...
Pics later tonight.

Looking forward to it. Shouldn't a lighter be fused as well? Doesn't sound like it on the first take. Maybe check if there's some other circuit that's fused improperly...

[exdirtbiker]

I forgot to take pics before I removed the burnt wires.
But it just gets better. While I'm confidant it did not fry anything else on the bike, I did find another surprise.
Somehow, after owning the bike for 4+ years, and having the jugs and head off ( twice), 3 different racks of carbs....
and I never found this before:
+
+
Yup, my bike has wire nuts in the electrical system.

Since my garage is already overflowing with KZ parts everywhere, I can not take apart another bike, so I won't be able to do anything for a few weeks. By then the KZ should be up and running... and hopefully sold.
I'm kinda gettin tired of wrenching and not riding.

[exdirtbiker]

I finally had time to play.. it got better:

IMG_6785.jpg

[Redman]

I was going to say that the wire nuts bother me mostly if too big or too small. And maybe that is what happened with those where it is missing, it fell off.

[Wingsconsin]

Once you let the SMOKE out of the wires they are not usable any more and you can't put it back in.

Previous owners seem to be a source of many atrocities in the vintage bike community

I say - do not sell bikes to any previous owners !

[exdirtbiker]

soooo..... the above pic is both feeds for the coils were spliced together, 3" from the fuse area. Then that single wire was spliced back to 2 wires, one to each coil. 4" away.
a giant WTF??? to whoever.....

I also removed about 30" of excess wire from the headlight bucket, left from the LED turn signal install. He used wire nuts for that, too.

[Steve]

Once you let the SMOKE out of the wires they are not usable any more and you can't put it back in.

That USED to be true, Carl, but not any more.

http://www3.telus.net/bc_triumph_registry/smoke.htm

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