It is the FUSE...

[SteveR]

OK, I'm ready for a Sunday morning ride on my 81 850G. Key "ON" nothing! I think "Dead Battery"... Nope. Fuses look good. Recheck everything, 1 1/2 hours later I discover the MAIN FUSE is bad. It looked good, but the element had come loose in the end cover.
I just wanted to share this with you guys. I was ready to start replacing the hard stuff when all I needed was a $1.30 fuse.
I have replaced all the fuses with new.

[Steve]

Did you take an extra few moments and clean the fuse holders, too? It's nice to have clean connections, too. 8-[


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[BassCliff]

K. I. S. S.

Mr. SteveR,

Thanks for the reminder! It's always good to check the easy stuff first. I also carry a few extra fuses on the bike, just in case.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Redman]

SteveR,

Yah, sometimes these type of fuses (glass tube, metal end cap) fail due to fatique.
Is good to make a first check visually, and then look for other causes of the probelm, but before going too far is best to come back and check the fuses with a meter.

Good to hear that you did find the problem before doing something esle more drastic.

[snark]

Beleive it or not that happened to me on the way home from work one night. The fuse looked fine but it was still bad.

[SPARKSS]

Howdy SteveR. As Steve from Ohio pointed out, make sure to clean those fuse holders - I'll add to check to make sure that they put good tension onto the fuse ends.......AND to check for heating when in operation.

Glass fuses and ANY type of fuse new or old OR circuit breaker OR other connection that uses spring tensioned connections are subject to a failure from excessive resistance when they start to tarnish, corrode or get mechanically loose. This initial increase in connection resistance causes heating of the same connection which further relaxes and destroys the connection tension and it progresses further until performance of the circuit is noticed........or the connection fails entirely. Reason I mention this is that many times over the years I've found glass fuses failed inside the ends where they're often......soldered to the end cap! This doesn't present a problem in normal operation unless the above happens (not normal eh!).

In my work I regularly find anything with quick connect and other friction/spring terminals including modern fuses and plug in circuit breakers burned up with the cause being the connection itself.....which must be repaired first.

The other thing that I often chuckle about (not necessarily your case).....is when I hear the comment "it's just the fuse"........without much thought as to the reason it failed.

[bakalorz]

Did you take an extra few moments and clean the fuse holders, too? It's nice to have clean connections, too. 8-[
.

After I clean mine, I put dielectric grease on them before I put the fuse back in. \\/

[SPARKSS]

After I clean mine, I put dielectric grease on them before I put the fuse back in. \\/

I'll just offer that with a glass fuse in the type of holders that GS bikes use, it's possible that doing that can also cause resistance and problems (I've seen this happen) - installing 'em dry into cleaned holders and then spraying a light coating isn't the worst thing.

....and for those people out there who always get carried away with grease on connections.....if the connection could trap grease (blind sockets or even under battery lugs) then assemble dry and clean and coat afterwards.....remember that you're trying to make the lowest resistance connection possible first......and protecting it from corrosion second.