A good reason to hooking the amp meter direct to battery.

[GolfVenture]

When I was installing a digital amp meter I read one members reason to installing the meter directly to the battery by passing the ignition key. His reason was so he could check the meter reading occasionally during the non riding season, incase the battery was not charging he could get a replacement.

Well I did that also, but during yesterday's ride I came across another good reason. Rode for an hour and all was fine.

Then I noticed that my tack needle was flipping back and forth. Hmmm I thought a tack cable, no it has got to me an electronic gage.

Then I noticed that my amp meter was reading 12.4 so I shut my driving lights off. Went to 12.6. Now during the 1st hour I noticed that with out the driving lights my amp reading was 14.1 and with my driving lights it was 13.8. Also the OEM volt gave was down also.

Soon I was feeling the engine slightly cutting out but not too bad. I was about 5 miles from the next town.

The temp gage was fine. So I figured I would try to make it into town rather than making an emergency stop and take a chance the engine would die and then not get it started again.

Got into town and the slower my speed the rougher the engine ran. came about 20 feet from the parking spot and all electric went out and engine died.

Scratch my head. Now let me see, last night I added driving lights, rotor lights, front fender lights, and rear trunk guard lights, and the amp gage. Used relay for the driving lights, all the other lights were LEDs except the light that goes around the circumference of the roto, so I did not use relay for them. Used a lighted switch for all. 1 for amp meter, 1 for driving lights and one for all the other lights together.

So after calling some members it was thought that the battery might have just totally died. But the strange thing was that the amp meter keep showing 12.5. The 12.5 meant the battery is still good. So I went about check al the fuses, but the key thing was that everything except the amp meter was dead.

So then found the main fuse, and it was good.

Then there it was. I noticed that the positive terminal screw was loose. The main positive battery cable came off. Now how could that be. Being in a hurry to finish the accessories add ones I missed the hole in the cable and so the cable was wedged on tight. So after about 1 hour ride the cable came loose thus causing the tack fluctuate, the engine to miss, the battery to drain. As long as I was moving a 50 mph the shaking kept the cable bumping again the positive terminal/ When I came to a almost stop the cable was no longer being shaken against the terminal and thus a dead engine.

So had I not connected the amp meter directly to the battery, I probably would have tired to locate a Wal-Mart for a new battery.

The rest of the ride around Hoods Canel was marvelous. Never rode it before.

An after thought, maybe I should carry one of the those hugh main fuses. Under what situation would one of those blow? It looked like it might be a 50 amp to 100 amp fuse, just guessing.

[Flyinfool]

OK you had me cornfused for a bit.

You installed a digital volt meter, not a digital amp meter.

 

According to the wiring diagram that main fuse is a 40 Amp.

I carry more than 1 spare for ALL the fuses on the bike. You can blow several fuses while trouble shooting a problem on the side of the road.

 

The 2 most likely things that will blow the main fuse are;

1. A wire in the harness before the fuse panel get rubbed, or pinched and shorts to ground.

2. You add enough lights and accessories to actually pull more than 40 Amps to blow the main fuse.