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Keep blowing the same fuse

5K views 25 replies 9 participants last post by  greywolf 
#1 ·
My 15A fuse for the signal lights, instrument cluster etc. has blown 3 times in a short period of time. The first time it was just after I got off the highway. So I replaced, drove 4 miles and it went again.

I rooted through the wiring and thought a couple of wires for my topbox might be touching, so I disconnected the topbox, replaced the fuse and managed to get 2 blocks before it blew.

It doesn't blow immediately and starts up just fine. Any thoughts on what I should look for?

The only thing I have done recently is put on new handguards and disconnect my heated grips. I did lubricate my clutch cable as well. None of this should be causing the short.

Where should I begin to look for the short?

Thank you.
 
#2 ·
Were you using the OEM heated grips connector to power the heated grips? That runs off the signals fuse. If you left some of the wiring connected, check there. Nine times out of ten, the problem will be with wiring that was not factory installed.
 
#7 ·
It wasn't a recall but a TSB. It affected 2004 and early 2005 models.
 
#8 ·
Well I completely removed the wiring for the heated grips, changed the fuse and went for a ride. No problems at all (rode for 20 min or so), until I stopped.

When I restarted the bike after it sitting for 10 minutes or so, fuse blew about 30 seconds after it started.

Does this point to a frayed wire, kinked wire, bad wiring harness? Unfortunately it is my only mode of transportation and I can't afford to see a mechanic until next payday (the 15th). Hardly convenient when I need to get around.

HELP
 
#9 · (Edited)
Have you disconnected everything that isn't stock?

If you do or have ever done your own maintenance, have you checked for kinked or damaged wiring wherever you have worked?

If you bought the bike used and don't know what was done to it, have you taken the plastic, tank, and tail off and inspected the harness for any obvious malfeasance?

As a last resort, though a component failure is awfully rare, I would try disconnecting everything that isn't necessary for the bike to run (lights and instruments), and see if that changes the behavior. Check for water ingress or obvious damage as you go. If that makes the problem go away, reconnect one thing at a time until the problem returns. Alternatively, disconnect and run without one thing at a time until the problem goes away.
 
#10 · (Edited)
If you have a lot of stuff packed in the back tailight area you may have a problem there. there is a connecter block under the left rear side cover ,disconnect it and see if the problem goes away ... I had the same problem half way around the Trans-lab hwy ... :thumbup:... Opps My mistake its under the seat near the rear crossover rail ,a little tough to get at but can be done ... Even with a lot of blackflies up your #%#...
 
#12 ·
Thank you for the ideas. Once I have my morning coffee, I will be heading out to the garage and looking at the wiring connections you have suggested.

Of course I have blown so many fuses I have no spare 15A, so have to get to a store for replacements to see if my handiwork and your suggestions have fixed the problem.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I had an electrical short on my first '04 DL650 on a 3 week Alaska trip of all places and kept blowing that same fuse. It takes out a lot of stuff when it goes and basically all you have is a running bike and headlights and nothing else. I had hooked up a ton of electrical devices right before the trip which I originally thought was the issues, but it turned out to be two shorted wires in the main wiring harness, just a fluke with the bike that turned up on the trip. It was rubbing on a bolt near the rectifier. You can see my pics below. It took us a lot of digging to track mine down, but it was obvious once we found it. I ended up doing probably over 3k miles with no odometer, etc on mine. I was so glad when it was fixed.

I'm now on Vstrom #5. I just keep upgrading :D, but I've never had any other shorts except for that first one.

Here are the threads and pics
http://www.stromtrooper.com/v-strom.../5378-vstrom-electrical-short-my-ak-trip.html
http://www.stromtrooper.com/v-strom...ions/6284-vstrom-electrical-short-solved.html
 
#14 ·
Well I just spent 90 minutes examining all the wiring, checking connections, tape etc. and could find no places where the wire seemed bare or was touching.

Thanks for the suggestions Blue Lightning. Right now I don't have time to remove the tank and strip it down looking for the short in the main wiring harness. Guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow on my day off, instead of heading to Lake Elsinore on the Ortega :mad:
 
#15 ·
It may help to wire a headlight bulb in place of the fuse. A short will then light the bulb instead of blowing the fuse. You can push the wiring around and see where playing with an area lights the bulb.
 
#17 ·
If you are doing electrical troubleshooting, I hope you know how to solder. Hook up a pair of wires to a headlight bulb. Solder or crimp tabs on the ends of the two wires and plug them into the fuse box connections instead of the two tabs on a fuse.
 
#18 ·
What I would do is disconnect the connector from the gauges and test the wires with a digital multimeter to see if any of the signal or power wires are shorted to ground. If not, then there may be a short in the gauge pod itself. In which case it would probably run fine and not blow the fuse with the gauges disconnected. IF that is the case, it will be an expensive fix. Anyway, my problem with the light bulb method is that if you light the bulb, you are driving a ton of current through the wires which can cause them to overheat. The fuse protects the wiring by blowing when the current gets too high.

Obviously something is shorted to ground, so I would proceed as follows:

1) Open the service manual to the schematic page for your particular model and locate all the devices/plugs on that circuit.
2) verify the short with the meter at the fuse terminal where the fuse is usually located (the circuit side, not the battery side)
3) Disconnect all the connectors on that circuit and verify the short went away at the fuse. If it is still shorted, then the main harness has a short somewhere in it.
4) Reconnect connectors one at a time the check the fuse terminal again for the short to re-appear. Eventually one of the plugs will reintroduce the short and you know where it is coming from.
5) Once you know where the short is, disconnect that plug and test that plug's terminals (on the component side, not the main harness side) with respect to ground to see which wire is shorted, then trace that wire to it's termination point.

Don't waste money on fuses until you have it sorted. use that money to buy a meter so you can check the right way.
 
#19 ·
It's a handy and highly visible sign of when the short is active so is useful for an intermittent problem. The bulb will limit the current in the wires during a dead short with no other load (worst possible case) to around 5 amps. That's much less than the fuse would allow. If there is a fear of shorting the two test wires together, install an inline fuse on the wire to the hot when open side of the fuse connector.
 
#20 ·
Well I checked all the wires from the harness outward. Couldn't find anything. A couple of places the tape seemed a bit loose/frayed so I replaced it. I reseated the signal relay, cleaned up the way some wires were mounted, cleaned off a couple of connections and now wait and see.

Using a micrometer I didn't uncover the source of the problem - so weird. To see if the fuse would keep blowing again (always went right after re-starting the bike), I ran the bike, shut it off (rinse and repeat several times), and so far (knock on wood), it hasn't blown again.

Don't know if I solved the issue or if the V-Strom Gods are just waiting until I need to go somewhere before raining down in fury on my head.

Thank you for all the help. Time will tell if the issue is resolved.
 
#21 ·
Longshot: Once in the past I had managed to bend a pin in the main connector that goes to the instrument cluster. I forget the issue is caused but it might not hurt to take a look at the male pins in the connector.

..Tom
 
#23 ·
Well they found the problem. It had nothing to do with the various lights that kept going out, it was the ignition.

Apparently there was a short in the ignition and whenever the bike started vibrating, the wire would move and take out the lights etc.

If I hadn't of taken it in to them, I would probably be searching for years to come.

Thank you for your help.
 
#24 ·
What part of the ignition?...the switch?
 
#25 ·
No it was the return ground wire from the ignition. Somewhere under the gas tank it was pinched. That is bizarre as I hadn't lifted the tank in weeks before it first started blowing.

The vibration of riding pushed it up against something and it shorted out.

It is now fixed and that is what matters. Total bill was $100 - not too bad I suppose.
 
#26 ·
You can't short out a ground wire against the frame. It had to be a hot wire.
 
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