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WTF have i done ?

Sad Droid

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Installed Oxford heated grips, maybe a coincidence but I now have no tail light but the brake light works, no side lights but the head light works.
Indictors dont work either.

Checked the fuses and everything seems ok.

What could I have done ?
 
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Installed Oxford heated grips, maybe a coincidence but I now have no tail light but the brake light works, no side lights but the head light works.
Indictors dont work either.

Checked the fuses and everything seems ok.

What could I have done ?

It is probably not a concidence, but it's also probably not a real major deal either.

I'd guess you disturbed a ground connection that is common to those circuits. If the loop from the positive terminal of the battery back to the negative is opened, no current can flow. A fuse opening does this exact thing to prevent runaway currents, that melt and destroy things.

As you didn't pop a fuse, odds are good you haven't actually damaged anything.

1) Where did you pick up your voltage source for the grips? I assume they are being powered by a relay, with the relay contacts being fed directly off the battery (with an inline fuse), right?

2) What did you use as the control signal for the relay, to prevent leaving the grips on when the bike is off?

If everything was working before you added the grips, it's a good bet that the things you have moved or made connection to are the point of failure. Look at the areas you worked on in detail and see if you can spot anything amiss. You could have pulled a bullet connection apart, and have the vinyl over boots still holding the connections close together but not touching.
 
Thanks for the reply.

The voltage is picked up straight from the battery, the grips use an inline fuse.

The wiring is all hidden under the fairing so it is possible I have disturbed something...... more investigation required.
 
Thanks for the reply.

The voltage is picked up straight from the battery, the grips use an inline fuse.

The wiring is all hidden under the fairing so it is possible I have disturbed something...... more investigation required.


Nothing to do with your problem, but since you ran the heated grips directly to the battery, are you using a relay (or switched power)... If not and you accidently leave the grips on after you shut the bike off you will kill your battery...
 
Nothing to do with your problem, but since you ran the heated grips directly to the battery, are you using a relay (or switched power)... If not and you accidently leave the grips on after you shut the bike off you will kill your battery...


No relay and yeah, they make that quite clear in the instructions, luckily 2 bright lights on the control box warn you they are on.

Still no further in finding the problem though.
 
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Thanks for the reply.

The voltage is picked up straight from the battery, the grips use an inline fuse.

The wiring is all hidden under the fairing so it is possible I have disturbed something...... more investigation required.

It may seem a simple question... but do the grips work?
 
Not knowing how you checked the fuses, I'd say let's go back to the fuses and check with an ohm meter or if you have a test light or meter you can test right on one of the wires that are on the taillight/running light circuit. you should see voltage from the tail light (Blue wire) to ground, metal framework, engine, or negative lead on the battery. If you don't see voltage you have lost power to that circuit but haven't found the blown fuse or disconnected plug. If there is voltage then you may have somehow lost the entire ground path.

Generally it is a blue colored wire at any of the lamp assemblies that use running light voltage.

Tail lamp.
Right and left front directional stalks.
License plate lamp.

If you do find it is a fuse try to see why it blew. Fuses don't wear out. Very rare that it failed for any reason other than a direct short(Pinched wire?), circuit overload or sometimes a lamp failure where the filament broke and created a dead short internally..
 
Not knowing how you checked the fuses, I'd say let's go back to the fuses and check with an ohm meter or if you have a test light or meter you can test right on one of the wires that are on the taillight/running light circuit. you should see voltage from the tail light (Blue wire) to ground, metal framework, engine, or negative lead on the battery. If you don't see voltage you have lost power to that circuit but haven't found the blown fuse or disconnected plug. If there is voltage then you may have somehow lost the entire ground path.

Generally it is a blue colored wire at any of the lamp assemblies that use running light voltage.

Tail lamp.
Right and left front directional stalks.
License plate lamp.

If you do find it is a fuse try to see why it blew. Fuses don't wear out. Very rare that it failed for any reason other than a direct short(Pinched wire?), circuit overload or sometimes a lamp failure where the filament broke and created a dead short internally..


Forgot to mention that everything was ok when grips were installed, rode 34miles to work ok, only noticed it on the return journey.

Regardless of that your advice is still relevant and I thank you.

Not got time to check tonight, it's a job for tomorrow evening.,
 
Nothing to do with your problem, but since you ran the heated grips directly to the battery, are you using a relay (or switched power)... If not and you accidently leave the grips on after you shut the bike off you will kill your battery...

Used to do that every two months or so on my Ninja. Get to work, hop off the bike, return to said bike in the afternoon, and OH $%&@#*, did it again. Fortunately that bike was light enough (EX250) that I could bump start it solo.

That said, on my FZ, I added the relay as suggested by our buddy from the Great White North. Obviously, now the dead battery thing won't happen again unless I'm dumb enough to leave the key in it and turned on.

And here's an FYI on where to connect the switched positive lead for the relay coil, but a little background first. I've built about a dozen or so wiring harnesses for WR450's to make them street legal. Basically, they're an auxillary harness running next to the stock harness. I use a relay to isolate the aux harness when the main power switch is off. No key on the WR's. Anyway, there is a Blue/White wire on the main relay connector on those bikes so I thought, what the heck, might as well check that out on the FZ.

Sure enough, there it was. Hit it with the volt meter and voila! I popped the "socket" out of the connector body and carefully soldered a wire to it in a way that I could still put the socket back into the connector. This is a totally clean way to do it and is easily reversible. Don't forget to put a tie wrap around your new wire and the original harness about 1/2 inch or so back of the connector. This will provide strain relief for this auxillary wire.

This connector location on the FZ is on top of the battery cover right behind the headset (NOTE: I have a 2005, not sure if they're all exactly the same yet. Still a newb to the bike). In fact, there is a perfect spot on top of that cover for the relay as well. I used a 40A Omron relay with the "waterproof" skirt and a type of plug for it that has a neoprene seal to keep water and dirt out of the relay connection. I used a little super sticky 3M VHB tape to hold the relay down. That's the same stuff GoPro uses on their camera mounts so you know that stuff sticks! Total cost, minus wire, was about $10 or $15. When I get a chance, I'll take a few pics and post them and a parts list on the forum.

Oh yeah, and two other things. For the grip heaters, I wrapped the two wires with a piece of spiral wrap, 1/8 or 3/16 inch I think, and ran the wiring next to the stock harnesses through the hole in the left side of the frame right behind the headset. And I made a bracket for the switch that mounts to the upper triple clamp using the bolt for the throttle cable guide on the right front portion of the TC. I used some aluminum that was about .140 inch thick. The bolt for the cable guide was plenty long enough to use with the bracket I made.

BTW, one reason I went with a relay with that much current carrying capacity was because I also intend to run some other stuff off that power like a GPS or who knows what.

Hope that adds a little value!

trailhead :iconbeer:
 
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