Stock Fuses

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Bill Conquest's trouble with his turn signals, and Kling Tut's reference to stock ceramic-type fuses our bikes use, inspired me to start this thread.

A couple of years ago all my lights were working fine.  Then I thought I would pull the fuses just to clean up the contacts.  I began having all kinds of problems, mostly with my taillight (and brake light? I forget) being intermittent.  So I continued to clean the terminals and fuse ends with emery paper, and applied dielectric grease, all to no avail.  The taillight would work fine for a few weeks, and then go out suddenly.
NOT a safe situation!

I finally found myself in a airhead friendly dealership, where I picked up a couple of new fuses.  I put one in the troubled socket, put the other one in my tool kit, and I haven't been troubled since.

Someday I hope to modify the fuse block to use blade-type fuses and be done with it.

[Bob_Roller]

The stock fuses are a pretty sorry excuse of fuses in my opinion. They could of at least used the glass tube type AGC fuses, I know I've ruined a few fuses just trying to get them out and back in again.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

I think they were a European standard of the period.

/2 owners were probably thrilled with them!

[Bob_Roller]

Yeah, I had a '76 Fiat X1/9 that had the same fuses, they were a pain in the a$$ back then too!

[Justin B.]

Volvo 240 series are full of them, along with a bushel of other electrical gremlins...

[airhead]

I've always been used to the European ceramic fuses, being standard on VW's. One regular bit of maintenance with them is to twist them in their holder whenever you are in their area, or at least a couple times a year. This will help to clean and wipe a new contact surface area, spraying with CRC will help clean and protect as well. You will also feel if the contacts are weakening or have heat damage due to poor contact. These fuses also age and require replacing every few years, just compare a brand newie and an old one if you don't believe me!! That alone will save heaps of problems for just a few cents outlay.

Now, just because I am used to them doesn't mean I'm a fan, far from it (and the same with the 3AG glass fuses). However the newer blade fuses I am a fan of, they have a more secure mounting, easier to see if blown, and good contact area on the blade. My '86 R65 has easily accessible fuses under the seat so I put up with them, but my '76 R90/6 project bike had me determined I wasn't going to put up with the abominable position hidden at the back of the headlight shell. I wasn't concerned with accessing a blown fuse (I've never had one blow on any vehicle I've ever had!!), but doing my usual fuse maintenance would be a real pain. So with that philosophy in mind made up the blade fuse mounts in the pics. The holders are rated at 20 amps, but have 7.5A fuses in them. The wires are soldered direct to the old fuse contacts (and I have also soldered all the previously riveted contacts on the board), and are distanced off the board so are easilly accessed if needs be, not hidden way back like the original. The holders were originally sold as waterproof and come with sealed covers that go over the fuses, further protecting from dust etc., so will be slipped on when installed. It's a simple fix, in the Airhead tradition, so should aid with electrical reliability. I was going to fit a proper fuse block, but couldn't find anywhere suitable to mount it, so when I saw these, I knew they were the ones.



Bill.........................;-)

[Justin B.]

Slick solution, Bill.  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[Ed Miller]

Bill, is that board part of your stock system, or did you add that too?  I'm not even sure at what I'm looking!     I like the blade type fuses, and added one for my older bike, but for the R65 I just did what Rob did that started his troubles.  Wow, that makes me feel better.  No problems so far.  

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Very nice, Bill.  Almost looks like a "professional" did it!    


Ed, the circuit board you are looking at is the standard meeting place for all important electrical connections in all of the bigger airheads.  It resided inside the headlight shell.  What we see in Bills photos is the side that faced out when you opened the headlight.  The fuses were on the back side!!!  

The R65 was the forerunner of "modern" circuit design, with the multi-pin socket connectors under the tank.

I am not sure when the rest of the line dumped this circuit board.

[Joan]

+4
Brilliant AND inspiring! Nice work.  8-)

[Chris_in_BC]

What we see in Bills photos is the side that faced out when you opened the headlight.  The fuses were on the back side!!!  

Actually Rob, the two fuses went across the board shown. Underneath the red heat shrink tubing in the same orientation as his new fuse holders.

Bill has done a very nice job of attaching to the same points the fuses clipped into.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Thanks Chris!  I misread Bill's statement of "hidden at the back of the headlight shell.  For some reason I made it harder than it really was.

I have only owned two of these type airheads.  The first was my conversion rig, which I don't think I ever opened it up after putting it together back in the mid-eighties.
The other was a non-runner that I sold off shortly after purchase so I could buy back my R65 after foolishly selling it.  [smiley=1drink.gif]

[Chris_in_BC]

Think Bill did a nice clean job on this. Hopefully, he had the board out to do it. Would have been tricky doing it in situ.

I did a much rougher job years ago on the RS, using the glass type fuses and push and twist fuse holders.  Ran the wires out of the headlight and up onto the dash of the fairing, where they are easily accessible. The RS was always really a pain to get into the headlight bucket to fix a fuse on the side of the road. The R65 is much more convenient, but spade type would still be an improvement.
Chris

[Semper Gumby]

I replaced one of the 8 amp fuses that has the turn signals +brake lights with two seperate of the mini-Blade type fuses.  At least I can buy them at any (U.S.A) service station or quicky mart!!!!   8-)