electrical question

OK, Santa is getting me heated grips for my XJ 550 for Christmas , Where is the best place to get the current from. I want it only hot when the key is on, but dont want to be stealing pwr from anything important or that may overload the stock wiring. They are the Dual Star heated grips, and according to the web site "draw 36 watts " (at 12 vdc) http://www.dual-star.com/index2/Rider/h ... p_kit1.htm I was looking at my Clymer manual, but there isnt a whole lot in it about the electrical system that pertains to adding accessories.

 

Lucky you Tom, glad you were a good boy this year. Now that you have the toys, do you have any information on what your alternator output is? I'm not familiar with the 550's so please bear with. Your alternator has a maximum output and each of your users "load" up the system (blinkers, lights, ignition etc) with a cumulative balance of demand. In simpler terms, you have a water hose that can only flow X amount of water at a time. If the demands on the water hose are low, there is sufficient flow to supply all of the demands. Add more demands, to the point of exceeding the available supply and your going to end up with little or no water. Now apply that to the alternator and instead of a lack of electricity, your alternator can burn out! Not a good thing. So do a little research on your bike and get back to us. If you can, find out the wattage that your alternator can provide and add up all of the electrical demands on your system. A simple way to do that is pull the fuse panel and look at the amperage ratings on your fuses. Then add them up. Multiply the total against 12.5 (assumed operating voltage) and you will have the total, worst case power demand of your bike. Compare this against the rated output of the alternator. This should get you in the ball park. If there isn't enough wattage left over from your computation to cover the 36 watts you want to add to the system, your going to have to go on an energy diet. This could include using LED's for your lighting system, rewiring the bike with new (thus low resistance) wire and sealed connectors (to prevent corrosion from raising the line resistance, thus sucking more power), and/or having your alternator rewound to produce greater power (expensive). Lots of homework for you, let us know what you find out.

 

Just pop then headlight off, and probe with your meter or test light to find a switched 12V source. My 650 Seca had an unused hot lead and two grounds, you may find the same.

Power consumption will not be an issue as long as the rest of the electrical system is healthy.

Start at #11

 

Do yourself a favour and run new dedicated wires directly back to the battery. No worries about over-taxing the existing wires, or stealing current from any of the bike's circuits.
If you've replaced the fusebox with an updated one with more circuits, this is a good use for one of those spares! Otherwise, make sure you put a fuse in the positive line close to the battery.