Need some help please

[hfarley]

can anyone tell me what this wire goes to? LOL! And I have another question, how do you know whan a fuse is blown? I look at them and am not sure. Some look a little burnt in the middle and others look shiny. I plan on replacing all of them just to make sure but how can you tell? I know dumb question but hey you gang know all right? LOL! The wire in question is the one with the 50 amp fuse and has the yellow arrows pointing to it. I think one wire is brown and teh other is yellowish (it is kind of dirty). I don't know if it is something the original owner did or if it is standard. Thanks! -Heather (and yes I know I need to do the fuse box upgrade. LOL!

[Extent]

Ouch, that's supposed to be a 10 not a 50.

Looks like the connections corroded badly on the second one from the bottom (between the other two 10s) and they replaced it with a radio shack fuse holder.

[MotorPlow]

Heather,
It looks to me that the Previous Owner had a problem with the fuse holders crapping out. The fuses should be a 30 amp main fuse and then three 10 amp fuses. If I were you, I would replace the entire fuse box. Most likely, you're not getting a good connection from the other fuse holders as well.

The old barrel type fuses are still good if the filament is still connected inside. If the filament is broken, then the fuse is no good. They are made of glass so you can see the filament. You can test the fuse with your multimeter, just put it on Ohms (upside down horseshoe looking thing) and see if it has continuity from end to end.

[hfarley]

I think I am going to replace the fuse holder, but let me ask you gang this. I realy don't know why there was a 50 amp fuse in there. Can someone give me a very easy to uderstand rundown on fuses? Such as why a 50 amp verse a 10 amp, if in a pinch you can go higher lower etc.. and what to expect. That kind of stuff. Thanks!
-Heather

[Superfly]

I am no expert in this, but this is my basic understanding.   The voltage is not what kills things, it is the amps.  the fuses are made to break at a certain amperage.  so if you have a 30 amp main fuse, and 50 amps try to go thru, it will blow the fuse instead of frying your electrical equiptment (TCI, etc...). 

The problem with running different fuses is that you do not know what amperage will blow certain kind of equiptment.  A 50 amp fuse will let up to 50 amps go thru before the fuse blows.  The whole purpose of fuses is to save you electrical equiptment, sort of like a line of defense. 

[hfarley]

OK I can understand that. Then I wonder if that is why my bike is not charging. I wonder if it has something to do with 50amps being allowed through when only 30 is supposed to. Or am I getting that wrong? If yu are correcxt then the current from whatever ran through the 50 amp fuse and then whatever is on the other end of that wire might be fried since too much current was allowed through? But if this is correct then there is probably something wrong with my bike anyway since 50 amps of current went through that area instead of 30amps correct? (I hope i explained that right) Or am I all screwed up? LOL! Ok I know I am screwed up but.... :P Thanks for helping me clarify this.
-Heather

[Superfly]

Then I wonder if that is why my bike is not charging.

Probably not, more than likely you charging system needs attention!  But, Pep Boys or Autozone sell inline "blade" style fuses.  they are a couple of bucks each, that is what I use, and they work well.  Install them, then check your charging system.

[Brian Moffet]

Like Horsepower, amperage and fuses can get a little confusing.

A 50 amp fuse will handle 50 amps going through it (at the voltage rating on the fuse) before it melts.  There are other causes for the fuse to melt, including less amperage and a lot of shaking, but let's stick with the first possibilty.

Just because the fuse is rated at 50 amps does not mean that 50 amps has to go through it, you can run any amperage up to 50 amps through it and it will work fine.  If you run over 50 amps, the fuse will likely melt.  If the fuse has not melted, then *most likely* 50 amps has not gone through it.

Fuses and circuit breakers are meant to protect the wiring and equipment.  Putting in a larger fuse will only push a problem further down the line, so that either the wiring or the equipment will break once too much current is put through the wire.  Looking at the photo, it appears that that should be a 10 amp fuse, and whoever put this in put the in-line in and a fuse they had around (or bought at the store without really paying attention to what was supposed to be there.

You could purchase a 10 amp fuse and put it in the fuse-holder for testing. 

Brian

[Extent]

Both Voltage and Amps can damage things, we have a Voltage Regulator to keep the voltage under control and the fuses protect us from too many amps.

Amps are kind of like "how much" electricity something is using, and an electronic device will only use as many amps as it wants, you can't "force" amps through something.  So if you have a 50 amp fuse with just a little clock wired at the other end there will be very few amps flowing through that fuse.

Since each part will only use so many amps we can know how many amps any group of electric things will use, that's where the fuse comes in....

Say we have a problem, and one of the wires in the headlight bucket has worn through it's plastic cover and is now touching some metal part on the bike.  The bikes frame is connected to the negetive side of the battery so the electricity starts flowing through the broken wire and to the frame, there's nothing in it's way so a lot of electricity starts flowing through, this is called a "short" (which is short for "short circuit", heh) .  Since we knew that our headlight and everything connected to it was only using 8.3 amps (just for example) we put a 10 amp fuse on the wire.  This broken wire that's now shorting out wants to draw a lot more than 10 amps through the fuse, and when more than 10 amps is drawn the fuse burns up and blows out, thus cutting off power to the entire circuit. 

If we didn't have a fuse there the shorting wire would keep drawing power and the thinnest wire would start heating up in stead of a fuse and it would burn up and break instead (this is how heating elements work, they draw just enough power though a thin wire to make it warm, but not enough to burn it up) .  In a worst case scenario it could start a fire.

The visions electrical system has 4 fuses (in the main fuse box).  The 3 10 amp fuses are connected to the 1 30 amp fuse, so all power that goes through the 10 amp fuses goes through the 30 amp fuse first.  Consider this, if something went wrong.... what would be the first to burn up?  (remember the smallest fuse will burn up first)

That 50 amp fuse will never burn up.  Since everything goes thorugh the 30 amp fuse first as soon as 30 amps is flowing through (which isn't enough to break the 50 amp fuse) the 30 amp main fuse will blow and cut power to everything.  That's like sticking a penny in your fusebox for your house when one pops.

[kwells]

so what your saying is you would rather have massive amounts of torque instead of HP...

[hfarley]

Ok I think I understand it now. I will replace the fuse with a 10 amp one, recheck all the wires/connections, and then start over again doing the tests. Is it a good idea to put a little dielectric grease on each of the connectors to keep everything lubed and help conduct the electricity easier? Or id WD-40 better or is there something else? One only knows what all I have in my work bench drawers! I have collected so much stuff even I don't knnow what I have. LOL!
Thanks!
-Heather

[JakeC]

so what your saying is you would rather have massive amounts of torque instead of HP...

LOL....nah, it's better to have lots of stickers! ;D

[Extent]

Stickers are good but you've got to have Vtec, and it has to kick in... yo..

[QBS]

Remove all fuses and check each one for continuity.  It is very very easy for a blown fuse to look good.  Inside the fuse, the fuse eliment becomes desoldered from the end cap and looses contact.

Get a large diameter nail and wrap it in sandpaper.  Use the sandpaper wraped nail to clean the inside of each fuse holder prong and the ends of the fuses to bright and shiney condition.  Very lightly coat the ends of each fuse with grease and install the fuses.

[Extent]

Oh ya I forgot to mention that.  dielectric grease dosen't conduct electricity (dielectric actually means "insulator")  If it did it would short out all your pins when you used it in a multi-pin connector like the ECU harness (not a good thing)

What it does do is keep air away from the metal so they don't rust and corrode.  Corroded metal dosn't conduct as nicely as clean metal does, so dielectric grease just lets your electrical connections keep working at top efficiency for longer.

[hfarley]

DOH! I knew that about the Dielectric grease. Thats what I meant about making it easier. I am picking up hopefully this weekend the new fuse box so I won't need to clean out the connectors. If I can't get it then I will try your sandpaper trick. (I was kind of wondering how to do that) Thanks everyone and I will update you soon!
-Heather