Turn signal fuse keeps blowing.

Well...there's two kind of wiring problems...opens and shorts. When a connection is not being made, it's an open circuit...no fuse is blown. That's the most common failure by far.

Then there's the short circuit...when a connection is made that's not supposed to be there. Let's say a positive headlight wire wears through the insulation and touches a frame ground...instead of lighting your headlight, there's a direct path to ground which causes a huge surge in current and should blow your headlight fuse, sometimes referred to as a "dead short". Suppose two wires in a bundle wear through insulation and touch each other...let's say positive leads to high beam and the right turnsignal. May not be enough excess current to blow a fuse, but when you flicked your high beam...your right turnsignal would light as well. Still a short circuit though.

Either short or open could be intermittent...and usually are. Sounds like you got an open ciruit.

Whew...hope that makes sense

 

I usually replace the blowing fuse with a .22 bullet. You can tell by the "BANG" if you have a short.:bs:

 

Diz, thanks, that does make a lot of sense. And now I wonder if that's why I'm not seeing the problem at all today. I haven't turned the brights on today. I've had the bike on and everything has been fine, but last night I had the brights on quite a bit. So there's a good chance your example may be pretty close to dead on. Thanks for the input.

Eddie, that's hilarious! I usually replace the blowing fuse with an anchovy, that way when it goes I have to smell fried fish.

 

I didn't mean to infer that's the problem with your turnsignals...in fact it's highly unlikely...I was just using it as an example.

I like the bullet idea...but for the safety of my coworkers, think I'll stick to the firecrackers.

 

Dizzy, I realize that, but it does make a lot of sense. And luckily it didn't work out that way. No problems on last nights ride.

 

Hi all. Just wanted to input my experience with this issue as well. I have a '98 and I had the same issue with the turn signals as S.U.A.R. Doing a quick Google search lead me straight to this thread. Prior to looking it up I replaced the fuse for the turn signal and it seemed to be working fine. My mistake was that I didn't start the bike, only turned the ignition to "on" and checked the turn signals. Anyways, after starting the bike and riding away I noticed that the turn signals weren't working again.

I read around and it seemed that the problem is located in the switch housing. I took it off and cleaned up the grease. I noticed that there was grease on the handle bar as well so that's probably where the short was coming from. Anyways, wiped off the extra grease from the top of the switch and around it, put it back together and tested. Voila, problem solved. I probably should have put a little electrical tape around the bar where the grease was just for a preventative measure but oh well. Maybe next time it goes out!

This is a great site with tons of good information. Keep up the good work!

 

I thought I had solved the problem but it's not that easy! I finally figured out what's causing the fuse to blow. It happens when I hit the brakes. I tried both the front and rear brake independently and they both cause the fuse to blow. I also tried disconnecting the brake light bulbs and it still blew. So, time to check the diagram and go through all the wires. It seems I have two options:

1) find the short
2) don't use the brakes :wink:

I'll post again when I find more information.

 

It would be easier to just not use the brakes:sportbikesmile:

 

I found out what was causing the short. I had recently rotated my front brake lever down to get a more comfortable position. Of course more is better so I rotated it until it couldn't go anymore. By doing this the wire coming out of the front brake light switch was getting bent by the clip on. Eventually the rubber insulator got pushed away and the metal connector grounded out on the clip on. I rotated the brake lever up a little and also put some electrical tape on the clip on just for added insurance. Problem solved. Now I just need to put all the fairings back on. Doh!

 

Old thread, but most excellent answer to the problem I was having today on my new to me 2000. I had rotated my levers down a little last night and today, no flashers, brake lights and horn. Looking into it tonight the fuse kept on blowing. So I googled my problem and found this. Of course before checking the levers I removed a couple of unwanted electrical accessories off the bike (lighter plug, alarm system) thinking the issue might come from bad wiring there...but the levers were indeed the issue. Thanks to the poster above!

 

Well, some twelve years later, a random dude has the exact same error and fix.

I've spent three evenings now searching for the short, removed all plastic, gauges, disconnected everything on that circuit. I was about to start splitting the cables with all that comes along with that and it was just a adjustment of the brake lever that caused all the fuzz. So thank you for writing after you did your little discovery.


So with that, I signed up for this forum. Since my very vell kept 00'mod vfr800 is after alll, still an old lady.


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As an electrician, when someone describes a problem to me, my first question is" have you done any work or removed anything?". That being said, most electrical problems are actually going to be mechanical by nature...i.e. - cutting, flexing, rubbing, loose connections, screw going through wiring, contact pitting, relay not pulling in, open circuits and number one answer for bike won't start.....Kill switch set to OFF!