Working on Jamies 1st gen............

[DragonRider]

Today Jamie and I spent time working on his 1st gen, which was mine for 8 years. His radio was only playing out of 1 channel. I had a couple of spare parts here so we did some trouble shooting and finally replaced the amplifier portion of the radio. All was fine there. His cig. lighter was not hooked up so we proceeded to hook it up, tried it out, it promptly blew a fuse. We thought it blew the fuse to which we connected to in the fuse block, but no, all the fuses were good. Only one other fuse I knew of and that was the main fuse mounted atop the battery, its 40 amp and is really a fuseable link encased in a large plastic case. So we ran over the the Yama Stealer to try and get one. They pulled up every year of the 1st gen and guess what. That part has been discontinued. We were up a creek, so one of the parts guys suggested we go to NAPA, they have everything. Showed the NAPA guy what we were looking for, no go, we walked over to the fuse section and he showed us a 40 amp circuit breaker, a small box encase in steel with 2 threaded post sticking out the bottom.

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So we cannibalized the old one for the pigtails and what we needed to hook it up to the stock connectors then tried it out and it worked perfectly. Now the cost at Yammy was 35.00 plus tax. The price at Napa was $3.69. And this one will trip if something makes it and will reset itself when you fix the circuit.

 

[Venturous Randy]

When I blew my main fuse, I went to the auto store and the guy says, that looks like a Honda car fuse and sure enough they had a very similar strip. I bought several and have some spares that I carry.

RandyA

[DragonRider]

Do you have a part number for it............?

 

When I blew my main fuse, I went to the auto store and the guy says, that looks like a Honda car fuse and sure enough they had a very similar strip. I bought several and have some spares that I carry.

RandyA

[Venturous Randy]

Do you have a part number for it............?

 

No, that was about 40,000 miles ago. Just ask for some strip fuses and you can get them in different amps. I don't remember having to modify it much to fit the fuse holder. I may have gotten them at O'Rillies Auto.

RandyA

[DragonRider]

OK, so we got Jamie's bike going with a universal 40 amp circuit breaker, and while I was at it I added one to my stash of emergency back up parts, I went shopping online this morning in search of an OEM, well can't be had at the dealers, discontinued, why? There are still plenty of bikes out there that use them and sooner or later everyone is gonna need one. I found some on eBay, most were used, but found a couple of new ones but the prices were all over the place. I found a few good used ones for under $10.00 including shipping, but the prices were ridiculous. Anywhere from $2.95 to $59.29 before shipping, now a couple did have free shipping but they were the highest priced ones. I should have taken pictures of how we adapted the Buss breaker, but it was getting late and we needed to get Jamie's bike going, and if this fix didn't work, we were going to pull the one off of my trike. Basically what we did was cut the pigtail with the plug off of one end and attach it to one of the post and then opened up the fuse, which will open up very easily after you remove the rubber band from it, and took the blade from that end and attached it to the other post. Then we insulated it with some foam and taped it all up so it couldn't short out.

 

I also found that there is a replacement link that can be put in the original holder, it wasn't obvious at the time, but I saw just the metal link on eBay. It is amazing how many automotive parts can be adapted to our vintage bikes, it just takes a little research and a little time. I have used an automotive starter solenoid on my Yamaha Seca when it went out and it was much cheaper than the Yammy stealer. All I did was take it to Auto Zone and they matched it up for me at about 1/10th the cost.

[Flyinfool]

Did you look in the fuse holder for a spare?

On my 88 there are 2 spare main fuse links in a corner of the fuse holder.

 

The self resetting circuit breakers are great for trouble shooting. With very few exceptions, I would not use one for permanent replacement unless the protected circuit was designed to have one.

The reason being, if it was say a 16ga wire (most of the wires are 16ga) that was shorting out to pop that 40 amp breaker, then you are pulling the full 40 amps + thru that skinny wire. That skinny wire will get HOT. The breaker will keep resetting and let it get hotter and hotter till it melts something. The best replacement for the stock main fuse is to go to the auto parts store and get an in line Maxi Fuse holder and put in a 40Amp fuse.

[DragonRider]

When we opened it up, there was not a spare link in it. I will take your advice and we will change out and save it for emergencies. Want to make sure we are talking about the same fuse. The slot on the side where the spare would have been was empty.

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Did you look in the fuse holder for a spare?

On my 88 there are 2 spare main fuse links in a corner of the fuse holder.

 

The self resetting circuit breakers are great for trouble shooting. With very few exceptions, I would not use one for permanent replacement unless the protected circuit was designed to have one.

The reason being, if it was say a 16ga wire (most of the wires are 16ga) that was shorting out to pop that 40 amp breaker, then you are pulling the full 40 amps + thru that skinny wire. That skinny wire will get HOT. The breaker will keep resetting and let it get hotter and hotter till it melts something. The best replacement for the stock main fuse is to go to the auto parts store and get an in line Maxi Fuse holder and put in a 40Amp fuse.

[Flyinfool]

I think thats the slot. (pics are kind of blurry, or is it me thats kind of blurry?)

It only took me 5 years to find those spares.

 

I just got a set of Dingys battery cables, I am planning to change out my stock main fuse to a Maxi fuse when I do the cables and stator/RR this winter. (IF it ever warms up enough to go work outside)

[Snaggletooth]

Yep on the Maxi fuse. Changed mine out with a Maxi fuse holder a few years ago. Ran the leads so it sat just forward of the battery. Pop off the false tank cover and it is right at your fingertips. Keep the fuse holder cover closed with fine zip tie. Cheap and easy.

 

From my Droid wherever I may happen to be at any given moment.

[dingy]

For what it's worth, link below is what I got to use on battery cable sets I am selling now. They are 40 amp rated, 12 gauge wires. 10 pack for 13.95 & free shipping. You could probably sell extras on here and get your money back fairly easy.

 

I used 12 gauge wires because a pair of 10 gauge wires would not fit into 4 gauge terminals I used.

 

12 gauge is rated at 44 amps, this includes probably a 20% safety factor, so they are adequate for 1st gens.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281098229111?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

Gary