Marcarl Posted July 30, 2014 #1 Posted July 30, 2014 Sold my 85 to my brother's brother-in-law's son-in law,,,,, ya I know,,,, but in a way he's family,,, right,, so I need to help out,,, well I would anyways. Everything worked perfect the day he picked it up,, but on the way home the taillights quit working. Dug into it and found the headlight fuse was cooked,,, yep, melted!, not blown,,, just melted, somebody had stuck a 15amp in there. Me??? would I??? Did an amp draw on that circuit with the headlight in, 6amps, but no taillight. Took the headlight out and it's 1 amp. Took out the CPU and found a cooked coil so replaced the CPU with a good looking one,,,, nothing different. Took the connector at the CPU apart and powered the blue\white wire, draw was 2amps and everything works. Lots of lights back there. Found a plastic 'relay' on the relay bank in front of the dash getting warm. It works (clicks) but what is it for? pink\red\rose connector. I think its the one on the far left of the bank as you sit on the bike, maybe the second from the left. I will read any info posted, but only if you're nice to me.
Flyinfool Posted July 30, 2014 #2 Posted July 30, 2014 Nice,,,,,, :rotf:Aint gonna happen....... The tail lights should be on the signal fuse and the headlight should be on the head fuse. Did the PO do some creative wiring and put all the running lights on the headlight circuit. Is it possible that somehow the headlight had both the hi and lo beams on at the same time? Bad RLU? Bad headlight bulb? Depending on how it is melted, did the heat come up from the contacts or was it the element that got hot and melted the fuse plastic. If the heat came up from the contacts you likely have a bad connection. It could be a weak grip of the female contact to the fuse blade, or a weak connection of the wire connector to the fuse block or a weak connection at the crimp of the wire to the connector. In any of these cases there will usually be one side of the fuse alot more melted than the other, unless you have bad connections on both sides of the fuse. It has been documented that in some cheap fuses, the element will get hot enough and will melt the plastic instead of blow when run at just a little overload. What color are the wires going into the warm relay?
Marcarl Posted July 30, 2014 Author #3 Posted July 30, 2014 Nice,,,,,, :rotf:Aint gonna happen....... The tail lights should be on the signal fuse and the headlight should be on the head fuse. Did the PO do some creative wiring and put all the running lights on the headlight circuit. Is it possible that somehow the headlight had both the hi and lo beams on at the same time? Bad RLU? Bad headlight bulb? Depending on how it is melted, did the heat come up from the contacts or was it the element that got hot and melted the fuse plastic. If the heat came up from the contacts you likely have a bad connection. It could be a weak grip of the female contact to the fuse blade, or a weak connection of the wire connector to the fuse block or a weak connection at the crimp of the wire to the connector. In any of these cases there will usually be one side of the fuse alot more melted than the other, unless you have bad connections on both sides of the fuse. It has been documented that in some cheap fuses, the element will get hot enough and will melt the plastic instead of blow when run at just a little overload. What color are the wires going into the warm relay? Good questions and thoughts. Fuse was melted but no sign of bad connections. I did replace the fuse panel with blade fuses. Don't know really which fuse runs the tail lights, I was assuming the headlight fuse, but I could be wrong, maybe it is the signal light fuse. All wiring is as original, I added more LED taillights, but they are wired from jumpers in the back and have been working that way for a long time, although I did have a short show up last year and fixed that problem. Colors going into the relay????? One was a red/white, that much I remember. The bike is an hour away right now,,, I am digging for some info,,,, so far so good!
Neil86 Posted July 30, 2014 #4 Posted July 30, 2014 On a 85, I think the front running lights and tailight are on the Tailight fuse.... blue wire in, blue out.
Neil86 Posted July 31, 2014 #5 Posted July 31, 2014 Marcarl... If you check at the fuse first....check both sides. If you have no power on the blue on the power side, that is supplied by its own wire from the ignition switch. This is so the bike can be left with switch in Park position and key out, with front and rear running/tailights on. Power for front running lights tapped off after fuse and before CMS. You didn't mention if front running lights are operational.
dna9656 Posted July 31, 2014 #6 Posted July 31, 2014 (edited) Marcarl... If you check at the fuse first....check both sides. If you have no power on the blue on the power side, that is supplied by its own wire from the ignition switch. This is so the bike can be left with switch in Park position and key out, with front and rear running/tailights on. Power for front running lights tapped off after fuse and before CMS. You didn't mention if front running lights are operational. I left the 83.5 in "park" position took out the key and went to work; the battery was grave yard dead when I got back to her, the switch was running the "parking lights". Edited July 31, 2014 by dna9656
Marcarl Posted July 31, 2014 Author #7 Posted July 31, 2014 Plan is to bring her back here next Tuesday, then I can see and work on it better. keep the thoughts coming, I might need all the help I can get.
Marcarl Posted August 6, 2014 Author #8 Posted August 6, 2014 Time for an update. Scamper is back and through many trials and temptations, I discovered what might be getting in the way of the taillight juice. It wasn't easy to slowly progress through all the different sections, thinking about where the 'leak' might be or if the smoke had actually left through some unbeknownst exit. Hey, it was easy once I discovered the culprit, but as you may all understand, well maybe most of you\us, sometimes it's hard to check the obvious first, so in the end I checked the fuse,,, like I said,,, in the end,, so hopefully end of that story. The other issue that might be a problem in the future is the side stand relay,, it get's warm, and I need to discover if that would be a natural thing,, and if it is not a thing that would be inherent to a Venture, then I need to know what the cause of this is. Also, the headlight fuse,, the one that roasted, draws 1.28amps with the headlight de-plugged,, is that a natural occurrence? With the headlight plugged in the draw is 5amps.
mother Posted August 6, 2014 #9 Posted August 6, 2014 That electrical draw is from the reserve headlight relay. If low beam burns out it switches to high beam.
Neil86 Posted August 6, 2014 #10 Posted August 6, 2014 You have I think 4 small meter lights in the dash on the same fuse circuit....they could account for the 15 W (1.2A X 12V) you are seeing.
Marcarl Posted August 6, 2014 Author #11 Posted August 6, 2014 Checked it all out with an amp meter, seems to be alright, nothing is over powered or overdrawn, so I guess it's time to do the buttons. Thanks guys.
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