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Hopefully this might save a ton of time and frustration for anyone out there with a Kisan's Pathblazer headlight modulator and the same problem as mine.
A while back my signal fuse started blowing when I would throw a right turn signal - most of the time at night.
I tested for shorts a bunch of different ways, but was never able to find one until this weekend when I finally decided to do a complete tear-down of the electrical system, visually inspect every wire, and find what caused the fuse to blow.
The first indication something was wrong was that, with the battery and bulbs removed, and the turn signal turned off, I was getting a pulsating short across the contacts for the blown fuse in the fusebox (image below):
When there is no battery installed, and a positive lead not touching anything, there should be absolutely no continuity across those two, but there it was, and it was pulsating at the rate of a turn signal.
I made an observation that if there was something closing those two leads, the fuse shouldn't be blowing since the connection would act as the bridge, taking the load off the fuse. But I had three dead fuses as evidence to the contrary.
Also, this was the only fuse with leads that would show continuity, and since it was also the only fuse that would blow, it was likely those two mutually-exclusive issues are somehow related.
Since the continuity was rhythmically pulsating on and off, it was suggested that the bad turn signal relay was to blame. So I pulled it out (as you can see in the pic) - but the continuity persisted with its now-maddening pulsating (wtf?).
To make a long story short, after two days of trying to eliminate this weirdness, so I could at least start testing for the original short, it occurred to me that my bike had another pulsating circuit that I completely forgot about - the headlight modulator.
So I removed it and behold - the pulsating stopped, the continuity across the fuse leads disappeared, and I could finally start testing for the short.
Sadly, the original short was never found, but I now believe there never was one there in a first place. I think that the headlight modulator master unit was somehow sending the extra power through the signal fuse (at the point it got too dark for the lights to modulate). All it needed was the extra load of the turn signal, and that would overload the fuse, causing it to blow.
Yes, the signal and the headlights are on separate fuses, so I'm still a little stumped about that. But removing the headlight modulator not only removed the weird readings, it seems to have stopped the barrage of blown signal fuses.
Also, I think the fact the fuse would blow at the point the headlight modulator wasn't registering the daylight is also a clue this was the culprit.
So, if you're having a phantom short that seems to blow your turn signal fuse, and with the battery removed you're also registering continuity across the fuse leads in the fuse box, AND have a Kisan Pathblazer Headlight Modulator installed on your bike - try unplugging the modulator and ride with your lights on stock.
See if that fixes the problem, and if so, please report below.
A while back my signal fuse started blowing when I would throw a right turn signal - most of the time at night.
I tested for shorts a bunch of different ways, but was never able to find one until this weekend when I finally decided to do a complete tear-down of the electrical system, visually inspect every wire, and find what caused the fuse to blow.
The first indication something was wrong was that, with the battery and bulbs removed, and the turn signal turned off, I was getting a pulsating short across the contacts for the blown fuse in the fusebox (image below):
When there is no battery installed, and a positive lead not touching anything, there should be absolutely no continuity across those two, but there it was, and it was pulsating at the rate of a turn signal.
I made an observation that if there was something closing those two leads, the fuse shouldn't be blowing since the connection would act as the bridge, taking the load off the fuse. But I had three dead fuses as evidence to the contrary.
Also, this was the only fuse with leads that would show continuity, and since it was also the only fuse that would blow, it was likely those two mutually-exclusive issues are somehow related.
Since the continuity was rhythmically pulsating on and off, it was suggested that the bad turn signal relay was to blame. So I pulled it out (as you can see in the pic) - but the continuity persisted with its now-maddening pulsating (wtf?).
To make a long story short, after two days of trying to eliminate this weirdness, so I could at least start testing for the original short, it occurred to me that my bike had another pulsating circuit that I completely forgot about - the headlight modulator.
So I removed it and behold - the pulsating stopped, the continuity across the fuse leads disappeared, and I could finally start testing for the short.
Sadly, the original short was never found, but I now believe there never was one there in a first place. I think that the headlight modulator master unit was somehow sending the extra power through the signal fuse (at the point it got too dark for the lights to modulate). All it needed was the extra load of the turn signal, and that would overload the fuse, causing it to blow.
Yes, the signal and the headlights are on separate fuses, so I'm still a little stumped about that. But removing the headlight modulator not only removed the weird readings, it seems to have stopped the barrage of blown signal fuses.
Also, I think the fact the fuse would blow at the point the headlight modulator wasn't registering the daylight is also a clue this was the culprit.
So, if you're having a phantom short that seems to blow your turn signal fuse, and with the battery removed you're also registering continuity across the fuse leads in the fuse box, AND have a Kisan Pathblazer Headlight Modulator installed on your bike - try unplugging the modulator and ride with your lights on stock.
See if that fixes the problem, and if so, please report below.
