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Anybody good with lighting?

Bines

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Anybody good with lighting?

I've a 2013 Honda NC700X. It came from the dealer with Warn brand aux lights. The bulbs burned out. I bought new bulbs; Sylvania brand. I'm "pretty sure" I bought the right amp and watt bulbs. I no longer have the old bulbs. With everything wired up exactly as it was from the dealer, with two lights on, they blow a 20 amp fuse right away. With just the left on or just the right light on, it is fine.
 
The lights are remote control. For them to be turned on, the ignition has to be on. The engine can be off. The on/off toggle switch for the engine can be off. The headlight will be on, naturally. Without taking off all the front plastics to chase wires, the only thing I can think of being on that circuit is the headlight. This is exactly how it was wired from the dealer, and it worked fine before I changed bulbs.
 
lighting is my thing! what sylvania bulbs did you get?
how long does it take to blow the fuse when the lights are turned on? instantly or several seconds to minutes?

you would have to be pulling more than 250 watts to quickly blow the fuse.
 
It is a 20 amp 250 volt fuse.

When I hooked it all up this morning, I turned them on and off 4 times, and they were on for about a minute each time. No issues. I go to show my wife, and they blow the fuse instantly. With just the left or right on, I have to unplug one to do this, they do not blow the fuse.

Bulb is H3 12 volt 55 watt.
 
I wonder. I did add a length a wire because the long lead wire for this bulb is too short. Maybe I need bigger wire. No idea the gauge. It's wire I salvaged from a microwave oven. It is wired exactly like it was from the dealer, though. I didn't cross or omit any wires.
 
Okay. That was interesting. I unwired and re wired one light. Now they both work. Well, except for the sparks when I touch the bracket on the light to the bracket on my engine guard. I'm thinking bad ground.
 
I'd say a short somewhere inside the light housing , they have two wires going to them hot and ground so at some point your hot wire is shorted inside the housing so everything is fine till you touch the housing to the bike chassis .
 
Okay. That was interesting. I unwired and re wired one light. Now they both work. Well, except for the sparks when I touch the bracket on the light to the bracket on my engine guard. I'm thinking bad ground.

Yeah, that can cause fuses to blow. Paint, powder coating, anodizing can cause a bad ground. Just add a groung wire coming out of the lamp instead of relying on the housing and mounting bracket.
 
Got the instant fuse blowing stopped. Got the sparking stopped. Now it gets blazing hot. In three minutes, I could not touch the fuse housing for the aux light system. Good thing I checked all that before just buttoning it up and calling it good. It probably would've blown the fuse in another minute, anyway. Or set me on fire riding down the highway.

I dunno. I can't imagine adding a short length of wire did this. These are the lights I had abandoned a few moths ago because they wouldn't light when I changed the bulbs. Warn doesn't list them on their site anymore. Could be a reason for that.
 
If everything is getting hot, then your are drawing too much current (amps) through the size wiring (guage). Heat is generated by resistance. Either the bulbs are larger than the original, or the wiring is undersized, which may be why they weren't working at the start. As you add length to the wiring you add resistance, you must increase size (guage) of the wiring in order to offset the added resistance.

You should be able to look at the new bulbs, and find the watts or amps they draw. To convert watts to amps, you simply divide the watts by voltage. For example, a 100w 12 volt light bulb would be 100/12 = 8.33amps.
 
I hear ya. The few inches of wire I added look to be the same size and material as the original. It's not like I'm mixing speaker wire with high voltage power lines. With the instant blowing and sparking fixed; I redid all the connects and wrapped the ground wire in electrical tape to be sure it wasn't a small frayed spot, and now it getting hot- the only thing left, I guess, is too big a bulb. How I don't know. I brought the original bulb and matched the watt and volt. It has to be something, but it's just gonna be it because I'm done with these fire hazards. Don't like the long lead bulbs anyway. Thanks for the help.
 
do you have a good ammeter? Can you connect it in series with the 20 amp fuse? If so, remove 2 of the 3 lamps from their sockets, power lights up and read current. Replace lamp, continue until all 3 lamp's current has been read. Add up all 3 values. Or spot a reading way too high which is the culprit. Good luck, let us know how it turns out!
 
Have to give a shout out to Leon (focus frenzy). He diagnosed an electrical issue thru PMs and I was able to get my problem solved. Thanks Leon! :clap:
 
Hooking up control switch (hi/lo beam, horn, etc) to wiring from motor and getting it all sorted.
 
Original problem was blowing 20A fuse with some lights on. He credits you with the "fix". Since I'm only so-so with lectric stuff I was curious what the repair was:rider:

OH!! no, complete different issue different person.
FiddyK was installing a lighting system to a non illuminated pit bike so he can register and tag it and was having trouble with the headlight aspect of the kit and I walked him through it.
 
Sorry Leon and to all, I missed where the thread crossed over. Might have something to do with after major surgery[chest hernia repairS]
 
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