Headlight Wiring (?) Problem

[hurricanebrax]

Hey y'all, I bought an Aris style light from TC Bros and it looks good but when I go to wire it up it consistently pops my fuse. I moved up to 25A and still as soon as I turned the ignition on *POP*. I know that fuse is for all the lights but I wired in an LED flood to my high beam and it wasn't tripping anything. I've got a gypsy curse when it comes to electrical thing, or I'm just a dumb ass or both, so forgive me if there is some obvious thing I fucked up.

The current set up is the white soldered to the hot from the LED and the ground and white not connected. When I tested the LED by just hand tying the grounds together everything went great. Then I tried to do just the headlight, *POP*. Then headlight with the LED grounded in as well *POP*. (it may be clear now that I'm an idiot with electrical) Go to auto store get 25A minis, rinse, repeat.

I've just cobbled the LED for a just in case light but still have some work to do before I can get on the road this weekend. If anyone out there knows what the fuck I'm doing wrong please enlighten me. Thanks in advance

Here is a photo of the lights right now.

[chopprs]

I hate to tell ya this but I have taken several of those lights off of bikes. They like to fall apart...
In any case, do you have a multi-meter? It sounds like you may have a short to ground somewhere.

[FatChibs]

i agree sounds lke a bad ground. how is that headlight grounded? dont assume its grounded thru the mount on the triple tree.

[hurricanebrax]

I’m just relying on the original headlight ground. Should I try and ground the light independent of the LED?

Also not excited to hear they crap out because with my luck mine certainly will.

[hurricanebrax]

Just double checked the info on the light and turns out the black is Pos and the White is Neg. Basically the reverse of HD stock wires. So again I'm an idiot.

[TriNortchopz]

The timing of your post this morning got me laughin'...just as i was grabbin' a coffee, I said to my self, hhmmm, haven't had any electrical issues for a while, sat back down and *POP*.

Do you have a manual for your bike? Surprising how a bit of reading can help (black is Pos).
What size fuse originally for the headlight? Do you know the gauge of wire that connects to your headlight?
When you said, "...moved up to 25A and still as soon as I turned the ignition on *POP*.", ya had me worried for your wiring system.
Each size of fuse is rated for a size of wire - the fuse should be the weakest part of the electrical circuit.

A 16ga wire should have a max. of 7.5A fuse; a 14ga wire, a 15A fuse;
a 12ga wire, a 20A fuse, and a 10ga wire, a 30A fuse.

Now that you have a 25A fuse in the headlight circuit, with maybe a 14ga wire, the wire will be weaker than the 25A fuse.
You should remove the 25A fuse, make sure you know what size of fuse is recommended (refer to your manual) and put that size back in. Breakers may be a better option than replaceable fuses.

A bit of info here to help:

Wire Sizes and Fuses

http://bdfuses.com/fusesnwires.php

and

4 Custom Chopper Wiring Tips (with videos)

https://www.custom-choppers-guide.com/custom-chopper-wiring.html

and

Vintage Tech — Wiring Your Chopper
Updated: April 19, 2018

https://www.streetchopperweb.com/wiring-your-chopper-get-wired-vintage-tech

[hurricanebrax]

Thanks for the links, also you're absolutely correct about reading before you jump in. All of my eletrical experience has been running romex in houses and the black always hot but on a battery black is negative so I just assumed, and look where that got me.

I'm back on a 15A now and got the light working by just putting the right wires together, who'd have thought. But I still clearly don't know how to read because the high and low beam alternate rather than work in tandem when the high beams are on. So I still have more investigating to do, so thanks for some extra info.

[DoomBuggy]

Thanks for the links, also you're absolutely correct about reading before you jump in. All of my eletrical experience has been running romex in houses and the black always hot but on a battery black is negative so I just assumed, and look where that got me.

I'm back on a 15A now and got the light working by just putting the right wires together, who'd have thought. But I still clearly don't know how to read because the high and low beam alternate rather than work in tandem when the high beams are on. So I still have more investigating to do, so thanks for some extra info.

I believe they should alternate, if both came on the draw would be too much for most wiring. LEDs are a lot lower draw so I could be wrong there.

[farmall]

Assumption is the mother of all fuckups.

Find or trace and draw a correct schematic for your machine.

[Pliers]

Thanks for the links, also you're absolutely correct about reading before you jump in. All of my eletrical experience has been running romex in houses and the black always hot but on a battery black is negative so I just assumed, and look where that got me.

I'm back on a 15A now and got the light working by just putting the right wires together, who'd have thought. But I still clearly don't know how to read because the high and low beam alternate rather than work in tandem when the high beams are on. So I still have more investigating to do, so thanks for some extra info.

Wiring a house (ac) has nothing to do with motorcycle wiring (dc). As well, the ampacity of a conductor is directly related to both the size and material of the conductor, but also the type of insulation. How is your hi beam switched? Seperate toggles is fine but you can easily wire a relay to a momentary switch....as noted above, a drawn diagram will prove beneficial for you to have

[hurricanebrax]

Yea - I'm gonna dig into some proper research and install a relay when I get more time. High beam is switched, but I still haven't done enough research to mess with it again. Low beam works which will work for me for now. Just hoping it doesn't rattle to pieces before I get a chance to fix it properly.