Battery help..

[kkruetzkamp]

I have an 08 1600 and am having some issues with the electrical side. I added a set of Chucksters light bar on the front and Triple whammy for the rear lights. Ever since I did this, you can see the headlight and light bar dim every time the brake is applied. It doesn't matter how long I have been riding the bike for the day charging it, it still does it every time. My question is..are all batteries created equal? Is there a batter with a little more umph then others that would solve this issue? Thanks in advance if anyone can answer this.

[ringadingh]

To me thats a sign that you have a circuit with a heavy load on it.
Did you use a relay on the driving lights? How much do you have added to some of the circuits? It can also be a sign of a poor ground as well.

[kkruetzkamp]

I used the relay that came with the lights. The only other thing that I added was an additional set of bullet lights that only come on when the brakes are applied but I eliminated them as being the problem by testing it with out the extra brake lights and still have the same problem

[Bull Durham]

I agree with Ring, don't believe it would be because of the battery it's dimming, but the load, ground or something with the way you wired it.

[macmac]

This pretty classic for a bad ground and when you see the wrong lights glow the bad ground is by passing thru theese other wrong circuits.

Having no idea how you wired or what was used as a ground make a better ground.

I don't know what a Triple whammy is. I think it is a modual to make brake lights act like sigs or sigs, like brakes, but that's a guess.

Depending on the passing lamps wiring, it may be you need a ground strap from the forks to the frame. If the passing lamps are grounded to the ft forks and that is the ground, you for sure need a ground strap from the forks to the frame.

'IF' this is true, the ground is passing thru the goose neck bearings, and that will eat them up big time.

[kkruetzkamp]

MacMac, you may have hit it on the head. The ground for the driving lamp relay is grounded to one of the screws in the headlight bucket and the lamps themselves are grounded through the fork so maybe that is the problem. You are correct on the Triple whammy. All the lights on the bike function correctly they just dim while the brakes are flashing (5 times then they turn solid) when the brakes are applied which is how they are supposed to function minus the dimming of the headlights and driving lights. But I did notice tonight that there is a slight dimming of the lights when the bike is idleing but goes away when the throttle is applied. What would be the best way to get a better ground without going through the goose neck bearings?

[VulcanE]

Just get you a good heavy black wire, maybe a 16 awg (gauge) wire. Put one end on the same screw in your head light bucket, run it along with the other wires thru the triple tree and back under the gas tank, and mount the other end to one of the mounting studs for one of the coils. Mine used to do the same thing until I installed all braided stainless steel clutch and brake lines. Now the ground for the front end runs thru the SS clutch line and goes directly to the motor at the slave cylinder, no more dimming of the lights while at idle.

[macmac]

Originally Posted by kkruetzkamp

MacMac, you may have hit it on the head. The ground for the driving lamp relay is grounded to one of the screws in the headlight bucket and the lamps themselves are grounded through the fork so maybe that is the problem. You are correct on the Triple whammy. All the lights on the bike function correctly they just dim while the brakes are flashing (5 times then they turn solid) when the brakes are applied which is how they are supposed to function minus the dimming of the headlights and driving lights. But I did notice tonight that there is a slight dimming of the lights when the bike is idleing but goes away when the throttle is applied. What would be the best way to get a better ground without going through the goose neck bearings?

My way would be to install either a 14 ga wire rated for 40 amps which is standard, or a 12 ga wire which is rated at 60 amps. Most certainly no one can get over that amp rate.

Since black and yellow tracer wire isn't readily available I would just use a length of black insulated wire around 16 inches long fitted with eye connectors crimped on hard. Crimps will bite into wire that size pretty well. One end would be attatched to the forks on some exosting bolt pretty well hidden, and the other on or under the plactic frame cover just ahead of the tank on another existing bolt.

That will end the feed to ground thru the head bearings for sure.

I never know what style ground lamps have. I do if I can see them. If trhey have a wire for ground, which means they were made to be mounted on fiber glass or plastic then yiu don't need another strap, but if the ground is thru the lamp bucket, then you do.

I know for a fact your ground is seeking a path thru lamps un-intended.

ON EDIT: I see Vulcan offered the 16 Ga wire. That is rated for 20 amps, which could be enough, so long as it is clean. Clean is not a visual thing it's an electrical clean I mean.


I am sure every one here has seen a car with one or both head lights be dim. On a bet I would say any car you see that way, also has other lamps on that car glowing dim, unintended, becase there is a grouind but it's the wrong path, and the real grounds have gone bad due to dirty electrical connections, usually.

Another thing OT sort of, but with a VOM you can detect bad connections which work but are still bad.

Lets say you have a failure in part on a high draw motor. The motor acts like it has bad brushes and skips. It sort of works but not right.

You can test at the battery first placing th red test lead on the battery terminal of the + post and then on the clamp with the black test lead. If you get a reading of 0.2 you just found a cruddy connetion on the + post and it's main clamp. The same thing goes on the (-) post. The samething goes on either side of any connector. Any sign of a melting connector this is a test you would want to do.

[kkruetzkamp]

Thank you all for all the help and reccommendations. Im sure I will get it right with all the help.