Passing Lamps and Popped Fuses

[Dave77459]

I just had the dealership install OEM passing lamps on my '06 RSTD. I got home and wanted to show some friends and none of the head lamps were on. An investigation found the headlamp fuse blown. There was a spare 15 amp fuse, and I put that on. The main headlamp came on, and I discovered the passing lamps were toggled off. When I toggled them on, the fuse blew immediately.

 

My question: should the combination of headlamp and passing lamps work with a 15A fuse? I have the halogen version ( STR-4NK35-10-01 ) of the passing lamps and the OEM headlight. Of course, the dealership didn't return any of the installation or operation information that came with the lamps so I don't know the current draw.

 

They were working at the dealership but were dead when I got home. Maybe something broke loose and is grounding?

[Dano]

Maybe something broke loose and is grounding?

 

Bingo!!!!!!

[sarges46]

Bingo is right. My short was found in the wires that go into the lamps along that really small tube that the lights sits on. It was just a pin hole and it caused all kinds of trouble....signal lights went crazy...4 ways when turn signal on..etc etc.

 

Took it apart and taped it up...it took Gambler a little luck to find it for me...he happened to run his nail over the spot and noticed it.

 

It was grounding out on the metal.

[bamico]

Dave,

 

Had a similar experience on my 05 RSTD. Had the passing lamps dealer installed. When it was done it was clear that they didn't have a lot of room to work with... wires were crimped, etc. I raised concerns but everything was told it was fine, all was working so off I went. Well... a little time goes by and the thin insulation starts to crack and before you know it... blown fuses... I originally had trouble with this when it got wet... then it became all the time. Had to rewire them completely.

 

BTW - at least on my setup - there is also a glass fuse in the main headlight that blows if the passing lamps themselves have trouble. There is no spare for it on the bike, so I carry one of those in the tool kit.

 

Hope this helps.

Bob

[Moped]

Dave, 15A fuse will supply 180W of power. Never want to use a fuse at max rating. I try to stay at 80% or less. Those H3 bulbs are rated at 55W. So those two bulbs plus headlight (55W) would be 165W. Would not blow fuse but to close to max fuse rating. Big problem is that it will blow when you use your high beam. You Never want to connect lights to same circuit because if passing lights or headlight shorts ALL the lights go out instead of only the shorted ones. Bad situation. Good Luck.

[SaltyDawg]

You need to get those passing lamps completely off the HL circuit. As you saw when the fuse blows you lose all lights. Not a good situation at night. Find and use an aux or ignition powered wire to power the relay and run a fused link off the battery through the relay and to the passing lamps.

[Dave77459]

Thanks for all the advice! I guess I should have anticipated this, and asked that the passing lamps be placed on a different circuit so that all lights won't go out when a fuse blows. I have to take the bike back in on Wednesday for a repair with a backordered part, so I guess I can ask them to rewire it then. In the meantime, I can turn off the passing lamps with the toggle.

 

They wired it such that the passing lamps come on with the headlamp, but go off when the highbeam is engaged. I suppose if I have them on a separate circuit, then that function will be disabled?

[Dave77459]

Problem uncovered. There was a short in the toggle switch. 30 minutes at the dealer and it was fixed.

 

I also talked to them about running the lamps on a separate circuit, but they didn't understand my fear nor did they think it possible. Might need to check out after-market techs for this one.

[SaltyDawg]

Problem uncovered. There was a short in the toggle switch. 30 minutes at the dealer and it was fixed.

 

I also talked to them about running the lamps on a separate circuit, but they didn't understand my fear nor did they think it possible. Might need to check out after-market techs for this one.

 

More than likely they didn't want to do it since in some states that's the "Legal" way to do it. Meaning the passing lamps go off when the High Beam is turned on. I could care less, I will take the chance with the Police before I have my wife hear some cager say "I didn't see him".

[MAINEAC]

Dave from what I've heard from others who had their passing lamps installed at a dealer... They most likely just tapped the low beam headlight circuit and now it's overloading your HL circuit and possibly your toggle switch and they probably didn't use a relay and that's what you want to do... Do your passing lamps go out with the high beam? You might end up cooking the toggle switch or the connectors to it... Don't ask how I know this... I wired mine up wrong and had the feed to the lights coming off the toggle switch with a smaller gauge wire powering the toggle and the connector corroded off.. I'm thinking this may have burnt out my stator at 68k miles..

 

Basically the way you want to wire it so that the toggle switch is only turning the relay off and on (Not the Lights) The relay will power the lights... And the toggle should only work with the key in the on position...

 

Lemme know if you want more info on how to wire them up properly... It's really not that hard... Not sure what I was thinking when I wired up mine the first time because I haven't got any new knowledge since then... I guess I just goofed.

[Dave77459]

More than likely they didn't want to do it since in some states that's the "Legal" way to do it. Meaning the passing lamps go off when the High Beam is turned on. I could care less, I will take the chance with the Police before I have my wife hear some cager say "I didn't see him".

 

I can really understand that. If I have it rewired, I think I'll do it that way.

 

Dave from what I've heard from others who had their passing lamps installed at a dealer... They most likely just tapped the low beam headlight circuit and now it's overloading your HL circuit and possibly your toggle switch and they probably didn't use a relay and that's what you want to do... Do your passing lamps go out with the high beam? You might end up cooking the toggle switch or the connectors to it... Don't ask how I know this... I wired mine up wrong and had the feed to the lights coming off the toggle switch with a smaller gauge wire powering the toggle and the connector corroded off.. I'm thinking this may have burnt out my stator at 68k miles..

 

Basically the way you want to wire it so that the toggle switch is only turning the relay off and on (Not the Lights) The relay will power the lights... And the toggle should only work with the key in the on position...

 

Lemme know if you want more info on how to wire them up properly... It's really not that hard... Not sure what I was thinking when I wired up mine the first time because I haven't got any new knowledge since then... I guess I just goofed.

 

I am not comfortable working with electric circuits. I'll use a wrench any day, but wire strippers... shudder! I feel something has to happen, because they didn't bother wrapping the wires coming out of the passing lamps, and you can see three wires out of the backside. It looks shoddy, amateurish, and a maintenance headache waiting to happen. I'm going to check around for independent shops to do it right.

 

Did you wire it off the headlight circuit, or off the auxiliary?

[V7Goose]

Dave, 15A fuse will supply 180W of power. Never want to use a fuse at max rating. I try to stay at 80% or less. Those H3 bulbs are rated at 55W. So those two bulbs plus headlight (55W) would be 165W. Would not blow fuse but to close to max fuse rating. Big problem is that it will blow when you use your high beam. You Never want to connect lights to same circuit because if passing lights or headlight shorts ALL the lights go out instead of only the shorted ones. Bad situation. Good Luck.

 

The Yamahaha instructions that come with their lights specifically instruct you to install them by tapping into the existing light circuits (they show options to have them on all the time, only with LB, or only with HB - your choice). I am NOT suggesting that this is correct, just that it proves that the existing fuse is large enough to handle all the lights as long as they are the factory supplied bulbs. I know their sealed beam bulbs are only 35W, but I have never personally looked at the H3 bulbs to verify the wattage on them.

 

I personally absolutely disagree with the mickey mouse way they want these lights wired in. Even though the fuse can handle it, the extra load on the ignition switch and chance of loosing all lights together is not wise. Strongly suggest powering them from a standard driving light relay on a new aux circuit that is triggered from whichever headlight circuit you desire.

Goose

[Carbon_One]

Dave too bad you're so far away or I'd say bring it over and I'd wire it up for you. Maybe one of our members here in your area could offer some help. I do think that if you can turn a wrench you can wire those lights up with a little guidance. I could walk you thru the process if you want to tackle the job. Drop me a e-mail if you do.

Secondly I totally agree with Goose on Yamaha's wiring methods. It not only taxes a marginal system to begin with but lose your spots and you lose low beam. And flipping to high beam cancels the spots out too. As noted I want and use all the lights I can to be seen so my spots are on whenever the lights are turned on, even high beam.

I do wire on a seperate fused relay system so that they're independant of the bike H/L beam lights. It's also wired thru a different switch than the one on the spot bucket. I use a 3 panel switch box mounted on my clutch resvoir. The switch there doesn't have power going thru it and simply opens/closes the ground circuit of the relay. Switches last a long time this way and also no danger of shorting out.

Anyhow it sounds more complicated than it is.

Larry

[MAINEAC]

I can really understand that. If I have it rewired, I think I'll do it that way.

 

 

 

I am not comfortable working with electric circuits. I'll use a wrench any day, but wire strippers... shudder! I feel something has to happen, because they didn't bother wrapping the wires coming out of the passing lamps, and you can see three wires out of the backside. It looks shoddy, amateurish, and a maintenance headache waiting to happen. I'm going to check around for independent shops to do it right.

 

Did you wire it off the headlight circuit, or off the auxiliary?

 

I wired my toggle switch to the parking lamps cuz I wanna see the sides of the road on Hi & Lo Beam... Maine is the most forested state in the country at 89% forest and I need all the help I can get dodging crittahs..

 

I'm with Goose and Larry the Factory Install is Mickey Mouse... I'm running V-Star type lights with H-3 Bulbs and they put out 55W each... If I grab power from the Low Beam circuit I'm tripling the Factory load for that circuit..

 

Like Larry said it's really not that hard to do properly.. Basically you want to run a heavy fused wire off your battery + side to the relay and then from the relay to your lights... Now you tap into either the parking lamps or LB circuit if you want to be 100% legal with a lighter wire to the toggle then from the toggle to the relay... Then Ground the toggle switch and the relay and you're done... Now your borrowed power with the toggle switch is only turning the relay off and on and not powering the lights themselves... The power to the lights is coming directly from the battery... I also used a lighted toggle switch that lights up when the passing lamps are being used..

 

Good luck and if you're gonna tackle this lemme know and I'll give you more detailed instructions... I just tried to put out there in plain english so you can understand the reason to use a relay.

[Dave77459]

I'm still not convinced that this is something I want to tackle myself, but I would like to confidently tell whoever can tackle this what to do.

 

When you run power, you don't run it from the auxiliary circuit? I guess I don't understand the function of the relay. Is it a powered switch that will only allow power when it is energized? So if the relay is not energized, then the lamps are off? Kinda like a pump in a water line? Water is always available at the supply side, but you have to energize the pump in order for water to flow? Thus, there is no need to run the lamps from the auxiliary circuit, because the power to the lamps is turned off when the relay is turned off?

 

So, you can power the relay (pump) from some source that turns on and off with the key. The hi-lo switch... can turn the lamps on with different headlight settings. The parking lamps, so that if the bike is on, the lamps are too. I suppose you could use the turn indicators if you wanted it to flash when you turn (just an example for illustration!). I'm planning on having them always on, because it seems that people are seeing me better. If I ever want them off, there's the toggle on the lamps themselves.

 

I realize that I am restating what y'all have been saying all along, but I do want to understand the issues.

 

Thanks for your help. I really do appreciate it.

[Carbon_One]

Dave you've got a pretty good grasph of it now.

Here's a run down for you.

1. Power coming from the battery thru a fuse to the #30 terminal on the relay.

2. Power to the # 86 terminal of the relay from either the parking lights or some other source when the key is turned on.

3. Wiring going from the #87 terminal of the relay to your spot lights.

4. #85 terminal is the grounding circuit of the relay. You can either go direct to ground or do like I Like to do and insert a switch between the terminal and ground.

Of course you can still use the switch on one of the spot light buckets to turn the lights off if desired even with the secondary switch. I put the fuse under the seat just in front of the battery and the relay under the front fairing, running a single 18 ga wire along the top frame and into the fairing. The rest of the wiring can be done under the fairing.

Like you say the relay is basicly shall we say the 'pump'. It's purpose is to supply electrical flow once activated. In this case to the spot lights. When adding in the Stebel air horns you do the same thing.

Larry

PS: Go ahead and try doing this. You can do no worse then the guy before you. If you run into problems then you can always call on us or still take it in to another wrench who, hopefully, understands what's to be done.

Edited September 9, 2008 by Carbon_One

[V7Goose]

Dave, just get on that darned thing and ride it up here - I'll show you how to wire it all up any way you want. We can get it all done over a beer or two (but you gotta bring the beer)!

Goose

[MAINEAC]

I'm still not convinced that this is something I want to tackle myself, but I would like to confidently tell whoever can tackle this what to do.

 

When you run power, you don't run it from the auxiliary circuit? I guess I don't understand the function of the relay. Is it a powered switch that will only allow power when it is energized? So if the relay is not energized, then the lamps are off? Kinda like a pump in a water line? Water is always available at the supply side, but you have to energize the pump in order for water to flow? Thus, there is no need to run the lamps from the auxiliary circuit, because the power to the lamps is turned off when the relay is turned off?

 

So, you can power the relay (pump) from some source that turns on and off with the key. The hi-lo switch... can turn the lamps on with different headlight settings. The parking lamps, so that if the bike is on, the lamps are too. I suppose you could use the turn indicators if you wanted it to flash when you turn (just an example for illustration!). I'm planning on having them always on, because it seems that people are seeing me better. If I ever want them off, there's the toggle on the lamps themselves.

 

I realize that I am restating what y'all have been saying all along, but I do want to understand the issues.

 

Thanks for your help. I really do appreciate it.

 

Using your water analogy with the water being voltage... The Pump is the Battery... The Relay is a valve that you can open and close to allow the water to run or not... The toggle switch is the valve's handle.. So you turn the handle (Toggle switch) which opens the valve (relay) and allows the water through voilla! Lights

 

So run a big pipe (heavy wire) from your battery to the lights... Cut the pipe where you want to install the valve and using fittings install the valve... etc. I think you get it now..

[GunnyButch]

Here's the way I installed mine and haven't had any issues. On the Yamaha directions I chose the "on at all times" and installed a lighted rocker switch next to the 12v outlet on the underside of the fairing. The lights are on their own circuit and can be turned on or off any time the ignition is on.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/gunnybutch/PassingLightInst.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/gunnybutch/WiringDiagram.jpg

Edited September 9, 2008 by GunnyButch

[Dave77459]

Here's the way I installed mine and haven't had any issues. On the Yamaha directions I chose the "on at all times" and installed a lighted rocker switch next to the 12v outlet on the underside of the fairing. The lights are on their own circuit and can be turned on or off any time the ignition is on.

 

 

 

Thanks for the diagrams! I'll have to study them to understand what they say. LOL Maybe I can print them and take them to the tech.