blowing fuses

Hello all

Haven't been on here for a long time. Probably a dumb question, but I can't figure out why I keep blowing fuses. I replaced the battery a day or so ago and am having trouble. Every time I turn the key, I blow a fuse. The original fuse panel has fallen apart so I am using in-line fuse holders for everything. Am I missing a ground perhaps? My hope is that this is an obvious fix and I'm just missing it.

Thanks very much

Justin

 

Were you having blown fuses before you changed battery?
Which fuses are blowing? Is it always the same one?
Tell us more how you replaced the old fuse block.
How did you determine which wire pairs to connect to the new in-line fuse holders?
A missing ground will not blow a fuse.
A ground where is does not belong will blow a fuse.

 

Hi

No, I wasn't blowing fuses before. When I did the inline fuse re-wire (also, just a day or so ago with the battery change...coincidence or maybe the problem?) I just took the wire from each side of the terminal and spliced it into the in-line holder, one inline fuse and holder for each...the main, the headlight, the ignition, etc.

Here's the real bonehead move - I've had the bike for a couple of years and never had to replace the battery. This summer, the old battery wouldn't hold a charge so I decided to replace it. When I wired the battery up, I failed to notice that my replacement battery had the positive and negative terminals on the opposite side...I immediately blew the main fuse and determined why after taking a closer look. After realizing my error, I flipped the positive and negative and was able to replace the main fuse without it blowing immediately. However, now when I turn the key, I blow what I believe is the ignition fuse.

Any ideas?

 

Ya – I was just about to ask you about the battery post orientation.
It’s possible you have damaged a circuit when you connected the battery backwards – although I’m guessing not – that’s fuses are for.

‘I just took the wire from each side of the terminal and spliced it into the in-line holder, one inline fuse and holder for each’

If I read this correctly, what you did is not good enough. The wires in old fuse block are pairs. One side of fuse block IS NOT all the same electrical point.
Next step is to verify the wire colors / tracer lines to each fuse circuit.

 

For the inline fuse wiring, I took the left and right side (matching the colors) and put them each into their own inline fuse. I just took a couple of quick pictures of the wiring.

 

It's wired wrong

 

I can see how intuition would lead you to believe that the wire pairs should match color and tracers both side of same fuse holder – but that’s not correct wiring.
Do you happen to have a pic of BEFORE you cut out the wires from fuse block (of course not J
What is the model and year of your bike?

 

It's an 81 XJ550

Thanks

 

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/p=224728.html

this is what it looked like (another post on xjbikes)

 

I have seen in an aftermarket repair manual (I was helping another I don’t have the book)
that the wiring on fuse block was different on 3 bikes of nearly the exact same model using same wire colors. Again, intuition would lead you to believe they would all be wired the same. Not so.

 

Interesting. Well, I have my work cut out for me I suppose.

Thanks for your help.

Justin

 

Some tings you can assume. The heavy gage (thick) wires go together
and so do the lighter (thinner) gage.
From my bike, Seca XJ750RJ 1982
Thick red - fuse - Thick red (neither has tracer)
Thick red w/yellow tracer - fuse – thick brown no tracer
But now I’m left with 4 wires: three thin brown and one thin red w/white tracer.
Not even a schematic helps at that point because I have 3 wires that appear identical existing the wiring harness.
When I installed my in-line fuse holders I made certain to track where they were before I cut the wires.
You need to start with a schematic to at least be able to WAG.