small brake light problem has morphed into full on wiring gremlin.

[highspeedjelly]

The only thing stopping me finish a rebuild of my 80 gsx1100 was a brake light that did not want to work,everything else was good.I read the threads on here and after checking both brake light switches decided to clean up every earth on the bike.After that still no joy with the brake light but now the bike would not start.Then it started to blow the 15 amp main fuse?
Then I blew a main fuse as this bike has had many other mechanical issues which have all been fixed and I thought I was on the home run.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Steve]

Well, the obvious answer is that you have some wires conected where they shouldn't be. :shock:

One possible solution is to have another set of eyes go over it with you. Just like proofreading a document...you have looked over the same mistake several times and are now ignoring it. You need to have someone else look it over with you.

As good as I think I might be, my wife has caught a few things that could have been disasterous, if not simply embarrassing.


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[oldschoolorange]

This is going to suck and be boring as all hell but you are going to have to go through the harness wire by wire

[highspeedjelly]

Yes it looks that way.Keeping in mind all I did was clean the earth wire contact points,it seems strange that it developed this seemingly unrelated problem.Maybe it was just waiting to happen and really is unrelated ?

[oldschoolorange]

the short may have already existed, now that the grounds are clean the connection is good enough to allow back feeding. buy a breaker that is the same amp rating as the fuse you keep blowing and start unhooking
components once the breaker no longer trips you can narrow down your search to that circuit. The breakers are available at most transport/ heavy equipment repair shops

[highspeedjelly]

You gotta get lucky sometimes,I pulled the bodywork off and starting at the headlight rats nest armed with a multi meter and some heat shrink,the second wire I tested on the right switch block had a short!Just swapped a spare off the donor bike and all system are go \\/.Did the right thing and went through the whole loom to clean and tidy it up.Still no brake light though.