Another Headlight / Electrical Demon

It seems there has been a cluster of headlight / electrical posts lately. Here is another.

My headlight fuse blows instantly as soon as the starter is pressed. This occurs whether I have the headlight connected or not. Traced the wiring and do not see evidence of any cuts/ nicks. Before anyone asks, yes, I still have the original fuse box, but it seems to be in very good condition.

I have gone through all of the connections and cleaned where dirty and then used di-electric before reassembly. All indicators on dash work, blinkers work, tail light works, starter works. Best way to pinpoint problem? Also, I have blue wire with both a female and male connectors that is not hooked up.

This is coming out of the fairing wiring harness. Does this go to anything? There are also an orange and a brown wire in this harness that doesn't seem to be attached to anything at either end nor do they appear like they ever have, so not worrying about it

Note, some of the wiring was modified for the fairing harness; it came that way. Also, I have had the headlight working in the past will full functionality of hi/lo beam and auxiliary light.

 

The headlight relay will engage and apply power to the headlight circuit as soon as the AC Generator spins fast enough to produce enough voltage to the relay coil to energize the coil. The headlight relay will then latch and keep power applied to the headlight circuit until the bike is stopped and the key turned to off.

Can't speak for the extra wires from above, but additional wiring should not cause a fuse to blow unless it comes into contact with ground.

You could get closer to the problem if you knew if the fuse blew in high beam only, low beam only, or aux light only, or maybe all.
I would do the below ohm checks to troubleshoot.

Disconnect the headlight and Auxiliary light.

Remove the headlight relay located under the left side panel.

Attach an ohmmeter to the headlight relay socket (L/B) wire, this is the output of the relay.

Attach the other lead to chassis ground

Look for a short to chassis ground, check switch positions for aux on, high beam, and low beam for variances, none of the conditions should go to chassis.

If a short is found, disconnect the 6 pin plug to the Atari to further isolate if the problem is in the main harness or switch controls. If a short exists with the Atari disconnected, look at both the left and right controls and the L/B wire depending on the results from above for a possible pinched wire where the wires route between the lower and upper shells, or the L/B wire near the relay itself.

If the short goes away with the Atari disconnected, then look for an issue on the output side, such as the fairing wiring that was added.

If no shorts are present there is a chance the headlight relay could be the issue. You can remove it and short R/Y to L/B and the headlight should come on when the key is on. No need to start the bike.

 

Thank you @Rooster53 ! That helps and gives me some direction.

I thought for a bit I may have found the problem when I found the wiring group for the hi/low beam switch pinched between the Atari and the mount. Cut open the sleeve to inspect and it looked OK. When I attempted to start, the fuse didn't blow instantly; but did within a few seconds as soon as the engine began to fire. Have gone through about 7 fuses so far.

I have had the headlight and auxiliary light disconnected during this time trying to isolate.

You know the part above where I said my fuse box was fine? Well, in replacing fuses, the tabs of the fuse holder for the signals broke. Sigh. Guess I will be replacing fuse box earlier than I thought.

This is frustrating because it seems the closer I get to getting everything road-ready, the further away I get. I must have messed something up as I was shoving wires aside to work on other parts.

 

Thank you! I located the problem. I was getting continuity between the L/B wire to the headlight relay and ground. I was going to check the ignition switch first, but had a screw I could not loosen (and it was already stripped) so I went to the left handlebar with the hi/low switch. Sandwiched between the upper and lower handlebar covers, was the pinched wiring harness from the switch. Opened the harness sheath and found the green wire to have been damaged from being pinched. Repaired that -- no more blowing fuse!!

I now have functioning headlight in my fairing. Now to put everything back together and repair/replace my broken fuse block.

With the help of this forum, I WILL get this bike on the road. I am very appreciative of everyone's help, and perhaps I can contribute some help to others in the future.