Melted wiring harness!

[terrylee]

getting worse!

Went out to bike and lights came on and didn't blow fuse.
so hooked up headlight and left on a while, turned key off and on, switched between low and high. Thought maybe some of the contact spray I used to clean switch and wires might have not dried completely and now was. Grouped wires back together to put back in headlight bucket and blew fuse! Took all wires and spread them back out and again tried to find a short or bad wire, still see nothing! But now when you turn the headlight on it is not blowing the fuse to the lights, it's now blowing the main fuse. Also I noticed, although I have no idea if it is connected, but one of the coils is getting hot on the end of one of the posts if I leave the key on very long. Unplugged it for now, but made no difference in blowing fuses. terrylee

[GabrielGoes]

So soldered it back on and it worked! Then put all the wires back into headlight bucket and turned key on and the fuse to the lights blew.

first of all id just like to say i have gone through the SAME exact kind of situation + even more electrical disasters, look up some of my threads you'll see what i mean lol.

Now what exactly "worked"?? how and what did you test? what exactly did you see when you say it "worked"

after reading your posts it sounds like you have problems when you shove things back in the headlight housing.. Heres what i gotta say, Take a break from the bike and Think about it (each connection and etc.) Think about the problem and troubleshoot in your room or something, I think its VERY important to stay away from the bike for a while and just relax and THINK...

now when you see a connection is 1000000% good and clean, move on and look elsewhere!, also if you havent cut off the rubber or plastic layer that covers and holds your harness together, nows a good time to do so!, make sure you can see every wire and follow each one, this will save you a lot. The Test Light will be your weapon of choice, I think since you said the fuse doesnt blow as long as you leave the switch off, you should look at the 3 wires that come from your switch, make sure that when you soldered that the glob is NO WHERE near the other 2 connections.

Then since theres only 3 wires on the switch, Follow each one from start all the way to finish! if they branch off some how follow each one of those as well, You will solve your current problem by following each wire from start to finish, ONE of the switch Wires has a faulty connection or is making contact, sounds like a bad ground or a ground is touching a live wire and shorting out... Check Each wire that goes to the Switch because SURELY one of them is bad,

After your done doing that, try turning it on, BTW what amp fuse are you using? what used to work may not work anymore because of certain circumstance and changes, you may need a bigger fuse (this doesnt seem likely by the way u explain things) If the fuse blows and continues to Check every wire especially the ones that come from your coils (you say its getting hot? very bad) and follow each one of those, Make Sure Each Ground is fully Grounded,

The Test light should be with you at all times.. Remember When you see a connection is good MOVE ON, process of elimination, There are only so many wires on the bike remember that! i really hope you get out of this electrical mess soon, I know you will eventually but i hope you fix it the next time you go check it out. Seriously Slow and Steady + Process of elimination with the Test Light is how your bikes gonna work again

[terrylee]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I did what you said last night, got away from it. I can't work on it this morning till and get more fuses. I will take the switch apart again and also going to take ign. switch apart and have a look there. I checked the ground wires last night, but will take another look. Then if none of that works it time to take harness back off and rip it apart and as you said check every wire. terrylee

[terrylee]

Took ign. switch apart and cleaned it and replaced the old connection. Soon as I turned on the key after plugging back in it did not blow fuse and lights worked. Had already taken switch apart and couldn't see anything wrong but did clean with some contact cleaner. Was shutting key off and on a few times and shut off lights with switch and no problems. Then I noticed the blue(bright) light on dash flickered if I pushed on it a little. So tried plugging in headlight and it blew fuse instantly. Had old plug so replaced one on bike with that one. And also took switch apart again and cleaned connects on the inside of the on/off part of switch. Made no difference. I just won a new switch on ebay, as I want to at least make sure that's not the problem. Did want to ask how I hook it up since everything is the same except doesn't have off/on part. I pretty sure I can handle hooking up everything else, but what or how do I hook it up so it has power at all times when key is on? Thanks for all and any help. terrylee

[Matchless]

So tried plugging in headlight and it blew fuse instantly.

Have you had a look at the bulb or tried another? Does it blow the fuse when on High or Low beam?

[terrylee]

It blows if on low or high and even when bulb is not plugged in. I'm at my wits end, have done everything but take harness back off and uncover everything and taking a look.
I did uncover the wires connecting to the coils and saw nothing wrong there, did coil relay mod. while I was in there. Still having left coil getting hot when key is on for very long, the coil itself is not hot or the the wires going to it, but the posts that hold it on frame. I have know idea if this has anything to do with the headlight problem. Anyway to bypass the on/off switch to see if the switch is the problem? terrylee

[GabrielGoes]

I think your gonna have to get inside the harness and take a look at each wire associated! while your at it get some spade connectors for each wire u cut... I had a problem just like yours with blowing fuses and i found atleast 3-4 problems when i took my harness out, (one major problem was my Headlight Ground Was not Grounded at ALL!!! i think the only reason it was working in the first place was because the loose end was rubbing against the frame or something therefore grounding it!! I properly grounded my headlamp ground and felt really good about it afterwards) im telling you, you'd be suprised what you'll find when you take your harness out/expose it!... I Put The Harness back in with the 3-4 problems fixed and it worked like a charm! i would say just take your time and address the problem with your harness, get it all exposed and make it all really neat! P

P.S. Mine took about 12 Hours but i REALLY took my time, i pulled an all nighter with mine but i think you can get it done much quicker since you seem to have some electrical experience with your bike unlike i did at the time i did mine.. You Got It Man ! Gotta get Motivated!!

[terrylee]

Thanks man, I about had myself talked into just that. I have replaced most of the connectors with spade type, but obviously there must be a problem in there somewhere. Guess that's what I get for getting one off ebay. I still hope the new switch I ordered will help, at least I guess it won't hurt. When I get done with all this my wife will have the nicest bike with all most all new parts. But I want to make sure she's riding something dependable. terrylee

[GabrielGoes]

Thanks man, I about had myself talked into just that. I have replaced most of the connectors with spade type, but obviously there must be a problem in there somewhere. Guess that's what I get for getting one off ebay. I still hope the new switch I ordered will help, at least I guess it won't hurt. When I get done with all this my wife will have the nicest bike with all most all new parts. But I want to make sure she's riding something dependable. terrylee

awesome it sounds like a really good bike, although i dont think the problem is your switch it definitly cannot hurt to have 2! make sure your headlight ground is properly grounded.. make sure all the grounds make sense also! i did a single point ground as POSPLAYER explains in his tutorials he and many others helped me get through my dilemma

[Matchless]

Blowing a fuse is caused by either a power wire that is short circuit to ground or a by component connected to it. It could also be caused by a faulty component that is drawing to much current. Finally it may also be caused by a wire incorrectly terminated or plugged to a wrong wire of a component in error.

1) Get a handfull of fuses.

2) Make sure you can access all the wires with, tank off, headlight open, sidecovers off, igniter, coils brakelight etc.

3) Have your wiring diagram at hand

4) Inspect the black/white, red, orange/xx (xx any other colour) for any indication that they may have overheated and melted the insulation at any time. If so remove insulation tape and inspect wires under the wrapping as they may have melted through to another.

5) Make sure your ground wires are terminated in the correct places.

6) Inspect you fusebox connections

7) If nothing suspicious shows up, pull all the connectors from the wires, but keep the battery and the grounds connected, including the fusebox and the wires on the solenoid.

8) Insert a fuse and see if it blows, if so then your problem should be in the harnass. You may need to bend and move the harnass a bit in case its intermittant.

9) Next connect up the ignition switch plug and switch on - does the fuse blow? Switch on all switches. Move and juggle all wires.

10) Carry on connection up one at a time until the fuse blows, then start disconnecting any other components/connectors you may have connected up to that point and ensure the fuse only blows when a specific item like R/H control switch is connected.

This allows you to systematically attempt to reproduce the fault and thus localise it. I recently found a blowing fuse was caused by a rear brake switch that was faulty, as soon as one touched the brake pedal it blew, mostly while your foot was still on the ground. Sometimes it worked perfectly for a couple of days.

I am not sure if this could be your original fault also showing up with the harness replaced or if this is a another fault in the new harness.
Hope this helps.

[terrylee]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will try what you wrote. I did try this on everything up frt., unplugging each connection and then turning on headlight switch and fuse blew each time. But I'll try it the other way as you said unplug everything and then plug back in one at a time. I'll try any and all things at this point. terrylee

[terrylee]

Thanks guys for all the help! I did what suggested and unplugged everything and sure enough as soon as I plug in the wire in the back to the tail light the fuse would blow. Found that a aux. light I installed on the back for extra tail and brake lights had melted wires touching each other. Probably happen when the harness melted. Replaced the socket hooked it back up and no more blowing fuses!! I still have the left coil getting hot (posts only). I assume this means it time for a new coil. It is only the left one that is doing it. terrylee

[Matchless]

Terry,
Glad you found it, as it can become quite a tail chaser.

Check you coils resistances and swop them around just to be sure.
If its only happening when the motor is not running with the ignition on, it means it is getting a ground from the igniter/points while the motor is not turning. Should not really be happening with an ignitor, but can happen if points are closed in that position........?

Maybe your coil is not faulty.

[terrylee]

thanks will do, I'll check connections to ignitor to make sure I did hook one up wrong. Haven't really ran bike since this wiring problem happen, but will do so. terrylee

[terrylee]

Ok, checked and all connections are correct. Checked and getting 4.6 ohms at both coils, and the coil doesn't seem to get as near as hot when running. A little warm when running, but after 5-10 mins. with just key on and not running and the posts that hold it on get very hot, almost enough that you don't want to keep holding on to it. Bike seems to idle pretty well and revs. easily once the bike gets warmed up. Also swapped wires and still left coil getting hot. Oh yeah bike doesn't have points. terrylee