Fuse burn out

Ok so a few years back (about ten years)I kept burning out fuses so I put bigger ones in... thinking back not the best idea but the bike ran. I am now about to replace all the wiring and would like to know what could cause the fuses to burn out, well that is until I put in bigger fuses (20 vs 30).

Anything I should check that these bigger fuse might have damaged?

With the factory electrical wiring, the wire size (gauge) used was right at the edge of its current carrying capacity, and often below it. This condition creates a fair amount of heat, as evidenced by the wires becoming warped or even burned, as seen in many pictures on this site and likely on your own fusebox. A little bit of corrosion somewhere/everywhere and things start to get hot (or really hot) very quickly. High wattage headlights and/or extra lights don't help matters either. Sometimes you CAN help to reduce the heat by going over ALL your connections, cleaning them up and then coating them with dielectric grease.....including ALL your ground connections on the frame.

SATSFYD,
Here's one idea. I didn't see what type of bike you are refering to, but if you have the old style glass tube fuses, this is a common problem on the older Kaws. The fuse holders get weak and don't make good contact to the fuses any more. This causes the fuses to get hot and burn out. A lot of us have switched over to mini blade fuses which takes care of this problem. Use the FORUM SEARCH feature on this website for 'mini blade'. It will give you some ideas. If your problem is caused by other problems such as a short in the wiring, you will need to find this problem and fix it.

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 using a multimeter to check for voltage going through the fuse, or when the fuse is removed for physical inspection for tight end caps & continuity checks,can it be determined if it’s serviceable.

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

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

7. 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.

8. 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/store/6!way-fuse-blocks/p_10822.a_1

www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec__Product...ers/fuseholders.html

www.autowiringsolutions.com/item.php?item_id=251&category_id=89 (ATO/ATC Fuse Holder)


9. A source for the glass tubed AGX fuses:

www.boatownerswarehouse.com/browse.cfm/2,4986.html

www.napaonline.com/Catalog/Result.aspx?N...&D=AGX&Dk=1&Dp=3&N=0

Thanks for all the help.

Excessive current being drawn through the fuse... Sure you can go deeper into theory of heat generation, electron flow etc... bottom line, excessive current due to shorted or partial shorted circuit on the load side of the fuse...

Maybe this will add some additional help.
KZ-Electrical Theory

Just to speak from experience, my bike used to occasionally burn out the main fuse while riding. After it happend the second time, I found out that the wire going to my handlebar controls had been damaged and was shorting on my handlebar.

I did notice a spark awhile back on the right (drivers)handle bars...