I made a stupid mistake and need some help fixing it.

I was testing a new headlight on my bike using the power from the high beam wiring. The new light has 3 connections. High beam, low beam, and ground. There are 2 wires going to the high beam. Power and ground.

So, with the way I was testing it, I connected ground to ground, and then I could connect power from the bike to either high or low beam on the new headlight. When I flip the high beam switch, the light comes on.

The problem is that at some point in the testing, the high and low beam wires both touched the power line at the same time (while the ground was connected and the high beam switch was on--sending power to the wire) At this point, I heard a pop or click kind of noise and instantly lost power to the light.

At this point flipping the high beam switch does not even light up the indicator on the dashboard. I should mention the light is rated at 3/5w draw so it is significantly less than the 55w stock and has a low amperage draw.

So, what happened and how do I fix it? Did I blow a fuse? Something more serious?

Thanks for all the help!
-Rob

 

You probably blew a fuse. That's what they are for, to pop before the wires get fried.

 

Thanks for the response. I was hoping that was all that happened. If that's the problem, I got off with a cheap lesson.

I've never replaced a motorcycle fuse before. Are they the same as auto fuses, or smaller? Can I find something at an auto zone type place or do I need to go somewhere like a cycle gear or other cycle specific shop? I supposed I would find out by opening the fuse box, but I won't be back to work on the bike for a few days and it would be nice to know before that.

Also, can someone please point me to a diagram of (or explain) which fuse location handles which function. I googled for 10 minutes with no luck. I could of course find a wiring diagram but I didn't see it on there. It doesn't help that I don't know how to read one of those. I seem to learn more about which wire does what function by blowing fuses. It definitely helps me remember more easily.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Also, why did this blow a fuse? It doesn't seem to be more power than the circuit is capable of handling.

 

It's not the voltage that blows the fuse, it's the amp load. When you touch power to ground, without doing any "work", the load is way more than the wiring can handle. The little 10, 15, or 20 amp fuses are designed to open the circuit and stop the load before the wiring smokes.

The fuses are just regular mini auto fuses. The legend is probably on the fuse cover itself and on the wiring diagram in the service manual. There is a key that says what the a-f labeled fuses are for. Other manuals should have them too.

 

Next to the battery, on the left side of it more than likely. You will have your main box which holds your 30 amp main. There is a cover on it, dark redish in color plastic. Then you will have another box which holds the rest of the fuses right around there. You can trace wiring back from battery. They come with some spares in there, they may or may not be there. Regular fuses. Needle nose them out and hold them up to light. Broken, blown. And as Demon said, on outside the legend tells you whats what. Very easy to check fuses.

-Poss

 

Thanks for the help guys!

I'll report back if it turns out to be something other than the fuse. But if it's the fuse then I can handle it from here.

I'm in the middle of turning the bike into a street fighter (only because an accident left me with a lot of broken fairings) so you'll hear more from me next time I run into an issue or once I have a final product to show.