Release The Smoke.... Part XXVII

Yes!

I'm the latest in a long line of owners to enjoy the benefits of 'Releasing The Smoke' from my wiring harness.
Not much new here.... except I'd fitted a 35A fuse as supplied by my usual Norton Specialist.

Clearly they supplied a 35A continuous rating fuse :evil:

My understanding is that fuses and Circuit Breakers are there to protect the wiring. Evidently this one didn't!
A 15A fuse will go in once I've found the root cause and pulled out the shorted conductor...All this after being warned by Les, of course!

Please take this as a warning - I was 'going to get around to it' at the next opportunity, and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight I rather wish I'd taken immediate steps

Looking on the bright side it means I now have the perfect reason to get rid of:-
(a) all the extraneous wires which were either never used, or became redundant with Powerbox and Trispark upgrades, and
(b) that huge cluster of Joe Lucas' patent 'Space Filler' bullet connector receptacles, and replace them with modern bullets

The final irony (after I'd regained my sense of humour) is that the fuse won't come out of the holder because it melted the solder on the terminal, and will need a soldering iron to remove!

How I laughed....

The Prince of Darkness strikes again.

Dave
69S

B+Bogus said:

Yes!

I'm the latest in a long line of owners to enjoy the benefits of 'Releasing The Smoke' from my wiring harness.
Not much new here.... except I'd fitted a 35A fuse as supplied by my usual Norton Specialist.


Looking on the bright side it means I now have the perfect reason to get rid of:-
(a) all the extraneous wires which were either never used, or became redundant with Powerbox and Trispark upgrades, and
(b) that huge cluster of Joe Lucas' patent 'Space Filler' bullet connector receptacles, and replace them with modern bullets

The final irony (after I'd regained my sense of humour) is that the fuse won't come out of the holder because it melted the solder on the terminal, and will need a soldering iron to remove!

...

Click to expand...

Yes get rid of all the extra wiring, I was amazed at the amount of wiring that became redundant when I fitted the Powerbox and Trispark, I renewed the wiring and connectors, I also added a couple of fuses too, much neater and simplier wiring, I took written notes as I was going along, unfortunately it is NOT a good idea to inadvertantly put an old towel you have been using to wipe up some hydraulic fluid on top of your notes as it miraculously makes ink disappear!!!!!!!!!!, "NO idiot would do that", I hear you cry!!!, "oh yes they would ", says I, luckily it was a case of just going round the bike again checking and making notes. It was when I was doing it all that I realised that the elecrtical system can be broken down into different areas, lights , igniton etc., so I worked it that way, there are obviously cross overs at certain bits, once I started it I quite enjoyed doing it, maybe it's like basket weaving for therapy ?.
To go back to the fuse issue, I replaced the fuses with new style blade fuses using the blade style rubber waterproof fuse holder from Vehicle Wiring Products, they are a lot neater and being waterproof helps, in fact I fitted them to my BSA L/C too.

Good luck.... and keep any oily rag away from your notes!!!
Robert

Andy, When i was a wee lad, I was told to treat wiring as small pipes carrying water.Boy did i get a "shock "when i found this was not quite True :lol: Mind you the guy who told me that was ...Dead Short.........stop it Now John!!.and don't even mention the smoking jacket gag! Three bikers standing at a bar,,,which one had a Commando??...The one wearing a Smoking Jacket!....Back to the Home! :lol:

I've taken so many wires out I'm nervous that I'm getting a bit carried away!

In a previous life I was the Engineer responsible for Lucas generators on my company's aircraft, and the Chief Engineer 'accidentally' left a copy of the VMCC magazine on my desk for when they next visited. On the cover was a guy parading his classic wearing a T-shirt with the 'Off -Dim -Flicker' legend underneath a Lucas light switch.
It turned out one of the guys from Lucas had a Dommie, and we got on a whole lot better afterwards.
Would never had known otherwise

More victimisation here!
http://www.mez.co.uk/lucas.html

It is good to be able to remove the extra wires and bullet connectors but it's the bullets that are still used that I'd worry about. The sheetmetal female part of the connector can split and lose the tension needed for a decent contact. The plastic shell holds everything in place but it can bring on significant resistance if not intermittent dead shorts. They don't seem to age well.

bpatton said:

It is good to be able to remove the extra wires and bullet connectors but it's the bullets that are still used that I'd worry about. The sheetmetal female part of the connector can split and loose the tension needed for a decent contact. The plastic shell holds everything in place but it can bring on significant resistance if not intermittent dead shorts. They don't seem to age well.

Click to expand...

Bob,

You'll never guess what caused the short :mrgreen:
The four-way live (White) wire connector in the headlamp shell got dislodged from the bendy 'clamp' riveted to the shell and the degraded insulation exposed just enough of the connector to touch the clamp....
I'm now halfway through replacing the whole shooting match with Jap-type bullets with viable insulation.