Fuses De-soldering and bike killing over randomly

Ok.. i have been riding around with my dad for the past week. About half way through the summer, I had some bad issues with fuses blowing one day. I re-seated all the connectors i could get my hands on with contact cleaner. I believe it had an original fuse in the main fuse slot on the fuse box. This had blown and now im using fuses out of a pack from harbor freight tools. These fuses are slightly too big so the sides stick out a little bit but they snap in on the metal contacts and not on the glass so i know i have a fairly good contact. Sometimes, when i shut the bike off, I'll go in for a while and when i come back out and put the key in, ill have no lights.. So ill have to open up the seat and wiggle the main fuse and the lights will come back on and ill have ignition and everything. The other day though, any fuse that i put in the main slot would de-solder after a while.. I was on the interstate yesterday and my bike just totally shut off. No throttle response, no lights, no nothing. luckily, i did this before i hit all the road construction on I-29 where there are cement barriers on either side of one lane:D so i could pull off and swap the fuse without having cars zip by only a foot away from my ass.. i wiggled the fuse thinking it had just done its thing again where it lost connection. No luck. I popped the fuse out and one of the end caps came off revieling that it had desoldered on one side. The bike runs like a monster so im just wondering if i have dirty contacts or something? no sure. Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks guys,

KT

I'm not a big fan of electrical items from Harbor Freight as the stuff does not have a long record of use/life.

You'd be better off replacing your fuse panel with the glass tubed fuses with the newer types used in cars.

A forum member here "Otakar" has changed his bikes older fuse panel to the new one. Ask him about the problems(if any).

Fuse And Fuse Holder Designations

1. The older Kawasaki’s use a glass tubed fuse with the designation of AGX 1” long. Most good auto parts stores can get them for you. They are ¼” in diameter.

2. The more common AGC is 1 ¼” long and may not fit the smaller fuse clips. Again, ¼” in diameter.

3. To clean and polish the fuse clips, I use a cotton swab(Q- Tip) and some Brasso metal cleaner or Turtle Wax Chrome Polish. I suppose any good metal polish would work.

4. These fuses can fail internally but look good, only by removing them from the clip and electrically continuity checking with either a self powered test light, or a multimeter set on OHMS can they be determined to be in good shape.

5. A physical inspection of the metal end caps for tightness will tell you if the fuse is serviceable.

6. Most modern motorcycles are now using the automobile “Blade” style fuse with the designation of ATC or ATO.

7. The reduced sized “Mini” Blade style fuse holder uses the ATM size of fuses.

8. If the fuse and fuse holder overheat, it could soften or anneal the grip of the clip, it might require squeezing the clip to restore the tightness.

9. A list of where to purchase “Blade” style fuses and holders:

www.waytekwire.com order.waytekwire.com/productdetail2/M50/...20%20%20%208%20FUSE/

www.rallylights.com www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=765

www.delcity.net www.delcity.net/cartviewitem?item=73805&search=y

Bad fuse clips cause the fuse to overheat. Sometimes polishing the clips helps, sometimes not. By now the plastic surrounding the clips has melted and the clips no longer have pressure to the fuse for good contact. Last time I had this problem I used a zip ties to secure the fuse to the clips. This has worked for two years now. Better to change to blade fuses, but that's not something I want to do personally when a couple plastic ties does the job.

Since you sometimes need to wiggle the main fuse to get power working, and since you have fuses "desoldering" (which sounds like excessive heat) I would guess there is a loose connection or broken wire somewhere in or about the fuse holder or the new fuses themselve are faulty. Poor connections will drive up the resistance and cause excessive heat. If you turn on the lights and carefully wiggle the various connections, wires, and fuses at the fuse holder can you make the lights blink or go out? If you can, you might be able to track the problem that way. Ed