Blowing Tail Lamp fuse

zx7Ryder · 05-04-2006, 12:55 PM

Has anyone had a problem with your tail lamp fuse blowing, especially if you have brake and turn integrated? This entire ordeal began last Friday. I have since taped chafed wires, installed clean grounds (2) directly to the battery, replaced a bulb that had a burned filament (dual filaments), and traced the tail lamp ground wire back to a splice that had no damage. I was pretty confident I had resistive short but now I am at a loss. The only components drawing current, per the schematics, are the tail lamp and cluster lamps through the ignition switch.

Basically, if I replace the fuse it does not blow immediately while idling. It does not blow when actuating either brake while idling. It's blows at some point into my ride enroute to whatever destination. Any suggestions you may have would be appreciated.

KMW ZX7R · 05-04-2006, 11:36 PM

Check the wiring for the intergrated tail light it might be drawing too much current, try using a bigger fuse see if that helps. ???

zx7Ryder · 05-05-2006, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KMW ZX7R

Check the wiring for the intergrated tail light it might be drawing too much current, try using a bigger fuse see if that helps. ???

Thanks for the suggestion but you should never put a bigger fuse in place of another fuse that is blowing. If anything, I may try a 10A circuit breaker. There is definitely a component drawing too much current. The only components on that circuit are the tail lamp and cluster illumination. I don't think the cluster bulbs are drawing excess current so that leaves the tail lamp.

Any other suggestions?

TagZX-7R · 05-05-2006, 03:57 PM

maybe a short or heavy current draw within the integrated light itself? Is it an LED light or standard filament bulb? you could have something loose and when it makes a connection again as it's vibrating with movement, it could draw current quickly and blow the fuse. just a thought...

KMW ZX7R · 05-05-2006, 08:12 PM

Sounds like a wiring problem. You seem confident and sounds like u went over everything I would let someone else try to figure it out maybe u missed something???

zx7Ryder · 05-06-2006, 12:10 AM

I've removed the integrator and replaced it with a converter. The fuse still blew. The tail lamp is not LED, it's dual filament bulbs. I'm going to remove the upper fairing to get a good look at (behind/underneath) the cluster. If I can't find anything, I'm going to run a new circuit from the ignition switch to the tail lamp. The difficulty in diagnosing this problem is the inability to duplicate it. The fuse only blows when I'm riding.

zx7Ryder · 05-06-2006, 06:00 PM

Problem fixed!!! There were two ignition circuits chafed thru to the copper strands grounding out on an engine mount.