Why do I keep blowing the fuse for my signals, horn, rpm and brake light?

[Kdogone]

Hello my fellow Katriders. I am new to this forum and new to the Katana. My two previous bikes were: 89' ZX750 Ninja, and a 94' "Gixxer" 750. I have now a nice 96' GSX750F Katana with 9k original miles and in great condition for it's year. I was hit by a car 2 months ago (asshole hit-n-run). It was a low speed accident and the bike other than cosmetic damage, seemed to be fine, no leaks, etc. But now for the last two weeks I've been blowing the fuse that controls the signals, horn, brake light, and rpm gauge. I downloaded the schematic wiring diagram so that I can follow the wires to their destination on the bike in order to find the short but the problem is that each item on the schematic has a number as to what it is. (please see attachment) Most of the components in the diagram are obvious, but I don't know what the others are. Does anyone have a legend or key to this schematic or means of how I can access it?

[steves]

My guess would be a rubbed through wire on the part of the harness that's under the gas tank, or a short in one of the plugs somewhere

[Stumpy]

Also check the bulb holders - I've seen damaged ones where the bayonet socket had the wires cut into by the spring, causing a short and blown fuse.

[Kdogone]

Fuse still blows

Okay so I have taken all of the fairings off of my bike and attenpted to check every visible wire I could see including the connectors and I have yet to see any exposed wires being pinched anywhere. I put the bike back together and rode it for thirty minutes and the fuse blew again. Could it be something is getting hot and causing the fuse to blow? Or could it be somewhere near the bottom of the bike, this is driving me crazy. Can someone help me out with any possible solutions please?

[dano68]

Honest I was affraid to open this thread just by the title, the way it shows in the portal page. .

Fuses blow when they draw more amperage than what they are rated for, heat alone generally does not affect tham. Make sure you put the proper fuse back in or that the proper fuse was installed prior. Have you made any mods to the wiring? check again follow the wiring closly and check all connections carefully. Sounds to me like you have a wire shorting out somewhere.

[Badfaerie]

I would look very closely at each of those components, so they work? Check your signals and brake lights and such off the bike to see if you can get the fuse to blow. If not, start checking your ground and for any insulation failures in/near any connections paying close attention to any that might be able to move.

Last time we saw this, it was an insulation failure on the connector to the rear turn signal up under the rear seat. It was shorting to the frame and popping the fuse.

[Kdogone]

Yes and yes! I am going to tear it down again and this time check the wires going to that fuse holder with a voltometer. There were aftermarket signals on the bike when I got it and the rear was wired kinda funny and the left signal was very weird. I would wiggle the wires leading to those signals in the rear or move them around and the fuse wouldn't blow right away, so I assumed that it was in the signals or the signal wiring so yesterday I went and bought new signals and completely rewired them and rode the bike for less than 30 minutes and it blew. It could be in that general area where the wires were affixed to the frame under the seat and shorts out again from the vibration of the bike while its moving, idk, I know it's driving me crazy. If i can't find anything when I tear it down on Saturday, then I will be forced to put it in the shop! smdh!

[dano68]

Just take your time and don't get frustrated. If that happens walk away have a cold one(of your choice depnding on your age) a few deep breaths. You will find the problem

[Kdogone]

I will. Thanks for that, however I don't drink beer so I will just have to have a smoke of "that good-good" and then I will be okay. I just came from outside looking at the bike and focusing under the tank and from what I could tell, I saw a partially burned wire and it was orange. Ironic that the same fuse that keeps blowing has three orange wires running from it so I guess I found a good place to start looking. I think it burned cuz I temporarily put a larger fuse in (25amp instead of 10amp, which was all I had left) just to ride to the store to buy the correct one yesterday. I hope that is it. Thanks to everyone on this post for providing your insight

[Stumpy]

Please don't replace blown fuses with a LARGER amperage fuse! You'll only go and create more problems!!!

It's perfectly ok to temporarily replace a 10 amp with a 7.5 for example, but going the other way will ruin even more stuff you will have to fix

[Kdogone]

Thanks Stumpy. I knew that from building my first bike and I knew it was not ideal to do, but I was in a high traffice area and needed my signals and brake light to get home and it's the only fuse I had on me at the time. And you are right, it did cause another problem albeit it minor, but still needs repairing. By temporarily installing the larger fuse, it burned out the wire that controls my fuel gauge, so I am replacing that tomorrow. BTW, two days of riding and ironically the fuse has yet to blow and I haven't done anything since swapping out the rear signals and rewiring them. (Fuse still blew after that but not since that last time, which was Monday)

[hardlydangerous]

On mine the wiring had worn and shorted on the frame down near the rear brake switch.

[crazycraven420]

first two days I had my kat I kept havin the same issue. The issue for me was the front right turn signal plugs had a tiny bit exposed from the rubber sleeves an would swing over an hit the fork tube an bam blown fuse

[Kdogone]

Hey Guys, First I would like to thank all my fellow KatRidas who weighed in on this subject and fingers crossed, I haven't blown a fuse yet after doing some serious re-wiring over the weekend. The problem that I found was not just a wire shorting out but a series of burned wires shorting out to each other. For the life of me, I can't understand why this bike was running at all and other things on it not working. I say this because of the carnage I found inside the wire tubing that housed all of the wires, which is the reason I didn't see the issue the first time I checked, obviously I didn't look thorough enough. I will let the before and after pics illustrate to you all what I saw and was faced with, luckily this wasn't my first rodeo, so it was a relative easy fix albeit a tedious one. Once again thanks guys and I hope I found the issue, will know soon if the fuse doesn't blow again.

[dano68]

Time and patience