Driving lights?

Looking for a little advice here. I have some driving lights now, halogen, I guess, not sure of wattage, PO had them installed. Mine are located under the headlight, in between the fender and fairing.
A few weeks ago I had a fuse blown on it and they went out. So, when I got home, I searched and never found the issue, I added a new fuse, 5 amps higher, smoke tested it yes, we'll it blew the fuse again yesterday on the way in, it was the 1st time I ran it with them on.
Not sure what the issue is, thinking I may just replace them and start from scratch.
What are yall running and recommending, and the lower the price the better.
I would love to have the best of the best, but, can't right now!
BTW it's a 98 with alternator upgraded (I'm told).
Thanks for help!

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Are those Electrical Connections lights? I have had them and liked them. Also had the EC harness. Never a problem.
I have LEDs in that location now.
Lots of choices out there.

I have no clue. They were on it when I bought it. Not sure what wattage they are to have a guideline to go by.
What leds are you running?

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Coop, those are fine aux lights. Time to get the multimeter out and check the leads. Easy enough to track the short down and replace a wire and/or connector. JMHO

John
via iPhone 6

Coop those are nice lights, I would run them.
Check the wiring, clean or replace as needed, remember most the time the grounds are the problem.
You don?t need new lights spend the money on tires, brakes, gas and ride more.:biker:

Thanks, maybe this weekend I'll find some free time and figure it out. I didn't know anything about them, but if yall say they are good, I'll replace all wires and start fresh. That will remedy it all, well, I'll save the cute little switch, other than that it will be new.
Thanks,
Any idea what they are and output?

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As I said earlier, they are likely Electrical Connection lights. I don't have any specs and I believe they are no longer made. Don't know if you've traced the wiring, but mine have a relay in the harness with the EC name on it.
http://electricalconnection.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=20
Give them a call.

Thanks, sorry I guess I had a brain fart and didn't realize you already answered it. Yes I have traced it, did t see any problems before, but I will replace wires and give it a new fuse before I try anything else.
Thanks again.

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IINM, they're 35 watters, but I could be wrong. The bulbs may be marked. Have a look.

John
via iPhone 6

CoopST said:

So, when I got home, I searched and never found the issue, I added a new fuse, 5 amps higher, smoke tested it yes, we'll it blew the fuse again yesterday on the way in, it was the 1st time I ran it with them on.

Click to expand...

Never a good idea to replace a fuse with a higher amp rated fuse. The fuse protects the wiring from carrying too much current and overheating. If you put a bigger fuse in, small wires might heat up to the point that the insulation melts and then you have to replace the wires and maybe adjacent ones too. If these are 35 watt lights (each) and nothing else is on the circuit, you have a load of 70 watts. Divide by your voltage (12) and you get 5.83 amps*. Go to the next size larger fuse and a 10 amp should do it. Now 12 ga wire handles 20 amps, 14 ga, 15 amps, 16 ga, 10 amps, 18 ga around 5. These are rough rules of thumb - higher temperature insulation on the wires will allow more current and a bigger fuse - and are good numbers for standard building wires. The numbers might be (read probably are) low for high temp marine wire (rated at 105 C) or similar. So called 'primary wire' is rated a good bit lower and is probably ok with these numbers.

One problem trying to decide what wire to use is the lowest temp insulation rating in a bundle sets the rules for the whole bundle. You don't want one wire overheating and damaging adjacent wires. Honda has lots of engineers calculating loads and costs for various wires and I don't really know what they use (wire insulation type) or what loads they allow. My numbers come from residential electrical work and, as I said, are probably a bit conservative. When in doubt, go to the next larger size wire. There are more than a few websites that give allowable amps for various wire sizes in marine and automotive applications.

*For residential circuits we figure a 20% safety factor. For example, a 20 amp breaker (or circuit) can be loaded to 16 amps (or roughly 1900 watts). Fuses are much more precise than breakers, act more quickly, interrupt larger current flows without equipment damage and are a lot cheaper. They are also less convenient than flipping a switch (circuit breaker) and are designed to blow when you don't have a spare one in your tool box. Carry a good assortment of fuses and you will never blow one.

John OoSTerhuis said:

IINM, they're 35 watters, but I could be wrong. The bulbs may be marked. Have a look.

John
via iPhone 6

Click to expand...

H3, 55 watts John. If they are indeed the EC light set.

BTW, if your bike is a '98 the alternator hasn't been upgraded. It already had the 40 Amp alternator from day 1.

Side question on this - is there a better placement location for visibility for add-on lights - both in light down the road, and being seen by others. Under the headlight, or under the mirrors - is one better than the other?

I rewired the lights yesterday and cleaned up some other wiring from PO's pitiful add ons. Grips and 12 volt outlet. Went down to proper fuse size, it held all afternoon when checking it. I unfortunately didn't see any issues though, hopefully I corrected the issue.
I didn't know that about the 40 amp, that's great to know.
I like the current location, but could see benefits from other locations too.
Thanks for the help!
Side note, just realized my Corbin seat could be lowered, so I did! Now the bike is low enough for my wife to ride it with no other mods. She has already said this ST is her next bike....

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A Corbin saddle for an ST1100 that can be lowered? That I've got to see... Pictures please.
Edit: did you mean rebuilt?

@dkruitz - I think for optimum conspicuity aux lights on the forks work best. Something about the triangle of lights approximating the front of a locomotive. After riding with my friend Bill for many thousands of miles I'd have to agree that the arrangement is more noticeable/attention grabbing.

John
via iPhone 6

Top pic shows the little tab thingys flipped out, this lowers the seat. Bottom pic shows it how it was. With it folded up it made me slide forward too, so it's win win.



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The Corbin saddle pan fits tighter than the the OEM. It's a better look IMO, but the OEM wire bail flip outs were not a good fit to them. I know, I have and like my Corbin Rumble for the last 184K, even sent it back for a rebuild when I wore it out. In my case I couldn't use my OEM saddle's wire bails on my Corbin at all - the Corbin pan didn't leave enough room between it and the Side Covers to deploy them.
The Corbin pans are very rigid. I'm surprised that in your case the wire bails apparently contacted something underneath such that the saddle was elevated, AND you could still get the saddle to latch down into its lock on the frame.

Interesting.

John
via iPhone 6

I did not know that's what it did, raise it up, but it definitely lowered it. It snaps down in place just as it did before. And there definitely is a difference in seating position, no more sliding forward and squishing the fellas!!!!!


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CoopST said:

And there definitely is a difference in seating position, no more sliding forward and squishing the fellas!!

Click to expand...

Possible that the front previously never latched into the stub on the tank's filler neck?
Would explain that you found it "elevated" before...

Idunno, it seemed secure, but, not positive it was under stub.

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