ST1300 is it cc is it aux lights is it ....?

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Milwaukie, Oregon
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My cruise control and aux lights weren't working on my last little trip so today I had some time to investigate courtesy of my wife watching the kids today.

I took off the left side lower and middle cowl, the cc wiring and vacuum apparatus is located there. I then traced wiring and found a green wire not attached, so I reattached it and tested thinking this is great I'm already done. Thought to soon.
No joy so I kept looking at wiring and followed power back to battery for the lights, making sure all attachments were solid and in good order. I found another wire that had wedged itself against the frame in front where the left side glove box attaches to the inner cowl. It was pinched in between pretty tightly and it was either broken or it broke when I wiggles it free. I reconnected that one and tested still no joy.
I checked fuses that I could find and also the connections to the fuze block in the back all good that I could see.
At this point I called Clearwater and Billy, who had helped to install the wiring for the lighting helped me run through troubleshooting the lights and relay and the switch by running power to them from the battery directly. All good not relay or lights or wiring for their volt light.

So I took off the right cowl to check the purple wire from the cruise and to check the wiring better to relay and also took off the dash and windscreen to follow some more wiring, as well as lifting the tank up to get at the entire wiring bunch running back towards battery.

I found the radar light wire sheared off so reattached that, checked anything I could see.

Back to the left side I stared for awhile and figured that a wire from the cc switch and the aux switch seemed to share some intersections. One connection was with a car splitter(?) and looked pretty severed inside. So I put a posiconnector on it to reattach the green wire and ran the red wire into the bottom thinking this has to be it. Nope.

It seemed to me there was a ground loose or a power wire not connecting somewhere in the green red wire juncture because that was the only place both those two things came together.

I saw this plastic tube thing that turns out to be a fuse. I had missed it before because I was dialed in to look for a more normal to me fuse. I didn't recognize it as a fuse and so it escaped my first run of fuse checks.
It pushes in and twists to revel a fuse, very small thread of wire and for my old eyes to hard to read. It had f2a250vl
Written on it and was clearly blown. I ran to the auto parts store nearest me and had a kid read it. They had a package of replacements and as soon as I maneuvered the fuse back in place everything worked just fine.
I was very happy to have figured it out, and glad to have fixed some wiring while looking around. EBD77181-6077-4AFC-A96E-F650C396FE00.jpg

03CB42E9-E217-462F-9AB4-782C15C6DF10.jpg

DB461A40-6A14-4541-950E-B7CB304A0784.jpg
 

SupraSabre

48 Years of SoCal Lane Splitting/Commuting-Retired
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That's a lot of LOOSE wires! That would be enough to give anybody a heart attack! :eek:4:
 
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rdmsttrav
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It’s way to many, although they were loose from searching through them. I’m going to cover them up with a loom cover and ad more electrical tape in strategic areas. Just the wire alone makes me nervous.
 

ToddC

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Nice job. Shows that if you start looking....every bike needs a little love now and then.

ToddC
 

SupraSabre

48 Years of SoCal Lane Splitting/Commuting-Retired
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It’s getting there ha ha:
31FF1EE7-0AAA-48E0-B5C5-F2C564E0FF5C.jpg
Much better, just know in a few years you'll need to replace that plastic loom!

When I set my bikes up, I create a wiring harness that I run along the rightside of the bike from my Bluesea fuseblock, to the front of the bike where I can power up whatever I need to. While I'm making the harness, I use a nylon web tubing, which keeps everything nice and covered and doesn't deteriorate like that plastic loom stuff does. (I know, a little hard to do when the wires are already there).

Braided Sleeving

Some self-closing stuff I just found, perfect for what you are doing:
economical-self-wrapping-sleeving
 
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rdmsttrav
Joined
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Thanks! I’m going to order some, I’d much rather have the flexibility too that those look like they provide. I didn’t know the plastic ones deteriorated. I think this winter I’m going to tackle Re routing some of the aux wiring like you mention. And loom some of the aux brake wiring in the seat area. I really love the extra brake and blinker lighting but would feel better looking back there with some coverage even though it’s all safe.
image.jpg

Right now I’m going to get it back together with the plastic and take advantage of the lingering sun we are having in the area.
I’ve got a fuzeblock that came with the bike so that should help. Thanks again for the suggestion, much appreciated!
 

ST_Jim

In the Hotel California...
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Now I remember why I never put cruise control on my bike! :rolleyes:

Seriously, does that plastic loom give you enough space to mount the fairing over the frame? I've routed wires inside the frame until they reach the cylinder head & coil area.
 
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rdmsttrav
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No that plastic loom didn't work out, to big to fit like you mention above. I ended up taking it off in places to help fit. It wasn't ideal but I'm definitely going to get a better fit and covering this winter. I'm most likely also going to take about fifty percent of that wiring out. It's wired for two gps and a radar detector. I really don't need the radar (I usually only go about 5-7mph over the limit)nor an extra gps so those can go along with some additional wiring for aux lighting that's not being used.
 

SupraSabre

48 Years of SoCal Lane Splitting/Commuting-Retired
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5901
Here's a shot of one of my harnesses, along with my bluesea, main 50A fuse and 50amp relay.

Wire-harness.jpg

I'll run 4 hot wires and one ground to the front and then connect to my FARKLEs as needed.
 
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rdmsttrav
Joined
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Milwaukie, Oregon
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The saga continues. Though the cruise control and auxiliary lights work perfectly, something is causing what I think is a drain. I have a clearwater voltage sentry, and the light is red then amber after shutting off the motor. I called clearwater lights to talk with the guy who was helping trouble shoot the lights and he said it could be from working on the bike turning the ignition on and off etc while testing stuff. Once started the light goes to green with an intermittent flash which indicates all good. He said to going for a ride should tell me with the lights whats going on. If its yellow or red it could be an alternator or something draining the battery. I went for a ride this afternoon/evening, and the bike seemed fine. But when I stopped mid way through and turned off the bike the red light came back on then turned to yellow or amber. When starting the bike it went back to green. A little further down the road I plugged in my sena head set to see if it would charge and it would not. My heated gear would fire up but at an idle the lights would go amber or red. So I left without the gear plugged in and made it home fine. Tomorrow I guess I'll start to dig into the bike again.
I don't know how to use a multi meter well but before I put the bike back together I put a multi meter on 12 dc and tested the battery. It was at a solid number and with the ignition turned on and the light red the number did not change. I think it was 13.19 and stayed that number. Is this the way to tell if the battery is being drained ?
I'm going to start tomorrow by going through one item of aux kit at a time that is wired into a fuze block and take out the fuze one a time to see if anything there changes the light. Is this the right tack to take ? Or should I start by taking the battery to an auto parts store and having it tested first ?
Thanks
 
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