| Author | Message | ||
     Birdy |
Hot enough to melt a fuse! I added driving lights to the beast and today I noticed they weren't working. After years of putting in stereo system I learned to ALWAYS fuse the main line AT the battery, if that line shorts out without a fuse it gets ugly fast, best case dead battery and stops at car burned up!  Well THAT fuse was melted NOT blown, the tin had melted and run out! THAT'S hot! BUT my KLR-650 is almost as hot as my Buell but nowhere near as fast or fun on the road...in the dirt it's another matter!  has this happened to anyone else...the fuse that is? Birdy | ||
| Iamike |
Well my son's '97 Blackbird burned up the leads at the starter relay Wed. We were riding down to Eureka Springs AR and after 2 days of 95degF and a torrential downpour in Springfield MO we stopped to check the map. Key on, dead, nada, nothing, not even the clock. I had thrown in my digital meter at the last second since I had plenty of room in my bags. Battery checked ok, power to relay ok, no power out. I pulled the harness off with the 4 low power leads and it was all burned up. No telling how long it had been cooking like that but the plastic cover had even melted. We cleaned up the terminals enough to get us the last 60mi. into our destination then a trip to Wal-Mart for a terminal kit. Since it was under a rubber boot I had never thought of looking at it to see the condition. The repair worked well enough to get a 220mi. ride in Thu. and the 550mi. ride home Fri. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
I'm thinking the fuse got hot because it was acting like a heating element. The amp size was OK,but the contact area to the fuse end caps was loose,too small or dirty...........resistance make heat. Seen a lot of automotive AC fuses do that years ago when the fuse clips in the fuse box had weak tension on the fuse. | ||
| Iamike |
Yep, that contact patch (sound familiar?) is important on electrical connections too. Being in the electric utility business I see a lot of burned up connectors due to poor crimps, contamination, etc. Those fuse holders that use the springs fail because the springs get bad after getting wet many times. When I bought my heated jacket liner this spring one of the first things I did was to grease the fuse holder. The jacket didn't work out of the box so I took it back. The guy at the shop tried to tell me the grease caused the problem (not the mis-marked power leads). I told him in my 30 years of electrical work (electronic, automotive and cycle) that I never had a problem with a greased connection but many on ungreased ones. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Sounds like a bad connection to me too. Loose connections cause an arc; an arc is a little tiny bolt of lightning. They're hot. If it was your Buell getting that hot, *every* fuse would have melted. One trick I learned over the years, if you suspect a loose fuseholder - give each leg of the fuse (assuming a flat, OEM style fuse) a slight twist, so they don't look like -- anymore, but are almost like /\ (but not nearly that extreme). A slight angle is enough to wedge it into even the loosest holder. |
