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blowng headilght fuse
- mysticwolf
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- savedrider
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- 1975 Z1-B 900
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Get right or get left! <*{{{><
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- mysticwolf
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- savedrider
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Probably not your problem...just tossing out ideas at this point.
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- GargantuChet
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In short: A fuse will blow because something is letting too much electricity through.
Now, a switch isn't designed to slow down the flow of electrity; it's designed to stop it completely (off) or let it all through (on). There's no way a toggle (on/off) switch could fail and let through TOO MUCH electricity, since its job is essentially to let it all through during operation anyways.
What you do have is clues, though -- turning the switch to let juice through to the low beam must have done something to cause problems. One side of the switch is probably always wired directly to the power supply (battery). When you turn the switch on (the low beam portion) you're providing an electrical path through the switch to whatever is past it. Chances are good that something is grounded somewhere that shouldn't be -- you just need to find out where.
Start with a meter, and with the switch turned off of low beam start testing resistance between ground and the low-beam wire coming out of the switch. If it's not at least a few ohms you have a short somewhere between the switch and whatever accessories it powers.
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- wiredgeorge
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The starter problem is MOST likely to be dirty contacts in the button OR the main connector coming OUT of the right hand switch gear which runs back along the frame is getting slightly disconnected. Based on my personal experience, these two issues account for about 95 percent of all starter related problems. The button switch CAN be cleaned... use an emory board and don't get too enthusiastic or you will remove all contact material. Dielectic grease may not be a great answer in this switch as the grease catches dirt. The connector coming from the switchgear needs to be cleaned as I noted and then a wire tie put around it or even two and then get it AWAY from the tank by tying it to the frame. When the tank moves any, it seems to want to pull that connector loose!
As far as fuse blowing... too much juice? Maybe, but my experience is that fuses blow when there is a dead short. This means that a hot wire somehow makes contact with a ground. What is a ground? ANYTHING on the bike that is metal...so if there is a bare spot ANYWHERE along the voltage path that contacts metal, the fuse will go. When in high beam, you put it on low beam and it blew! Great info as the power to the headlight is common till it splits on the secondary wiring harness that the headlight connects into. Since you didn't blow on high beam, I suggest the short will be in the secondary harness. Unplug your headlight, pull the wires that it connected to out and find where these connect to the wiring harness. OK now you have located the secondary harness.... there will be a few other unplugs but take the thing off and go look at it by itself in some bright light and look for bare spots! There will likely be one there. If you don't see one, start unwrapping tape till you get to the wires underneath and you may find wires touching where they couldn't be seen under the tape. If a hot wire and a ground touch under the tape, it works the same as grounding to the frame. Bang... fuse is gone. Concentrate your search around the hot wire to the low beams and any other wire... good luck.
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- GargantuChet
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As far as fuse blowing... too much juice? Maybe, but my experience is that fuses blow when there is a dead short.
Dead short == no load == WAY too much juice travelling through the circuit! There are two ways to increase the amount of juice flowing through an electrical path:
- increase the amount in (like putting a 12V battery in a 6V system), or
- decrease the resistance to flow (like letting electricity bypass part of the circuit).
Thanks for clarifying, though. It helps to combine my comments about theory with information about the actual wiring layout, which I don't know offhand.
I just wanted to make sure he wasn't replacing switches in hopes of keeping the headlight from blowing. I was trying to make the point that fuses blow because circuits are overloaded (shorts DEFINITELY count), not because switches are bad.
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- mysticwolf
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- wiredgeorge
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I didn't consider a bad reg/rec since he was running on high beam and it didn't fry nor did his turn signals... That type situation where voltage is high will cause problems with all bulbs...hence I didn't think about it... only a short.
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- wireguy
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Post edited by: wireguy, at: 2005/12/14 23:37
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