Deep fried battery......
- Thread starter JDouce83
- Start date
BWG56
Guru
I'm not an electrical guru by any means but the stator is rated at 32amps output on our bikes. If the VR flips out and reach's 40amps, the breaker will kick, if something shorts out, head light socket or VR, its like holding a screw driver over the terminals on the battery and will cause the battery to cook if there's not a fuse or breaker inline to blow/trip or an EHC to boil before the battery cooks.
The VR is controlling the voltage to 13-14 volts, if it goes bad the voltage is going to go up.
John you had a short and your VR caught on fire, didn't it?
The VR is controlling the voltage to 13-14 volts, if it goes bad the voltage is going to go up.
John you had a short and your VR caught on fire, didn't it?
TapioK
Well-Known Member
I remember from the old days when I had Bonneville with Lucas electronics. Heheheee, Lucas was a good priecher, but a lousy electrician they used to say.
Anyway I remember this fancy named part, zener diode, if bike was charcing too much it grounded the + wire to the ground. And got stupid hot while doing that, and being made by Lucas they also exploded by them self. But as far as I know that installed between VR and battery should safeguard bikes electronics from broken VR.
Very soon someone who actually understands electronics will chime in and call me an idiot
Anyway I remember this fancy named part, zener diode, if bike was charcing too much it grounded the + wire to the ground. And got stupid hot while doing that, and being made by Lucas they also exploded by them self. But as far as I know that installed between VR and battery should safeguard bikes electronics from broken VR.
Very soon someone who actually understands electronics will chime in and call me an idiot
BWG56
Guru
No worries, did you replace the circuit breaker with a fuse yet?
breaker
fuse
Bought it at Pep-Goys
cdogg556
Guru
Yeppers, it sure did! That was not fun at all,I'm not an electrical guru by any means but the stator is rated at 32amps output on our bikes. If the VR flips out and reach's 40amps, the breaker will kick, if something shorts out, head light socket or VR, its like holding a screw driver over the terminals on the battery and will cause the battery to cook if there's not a fuse or breaker inline to blow/trip or an EHC to boil before the battery cooks.
The VR is controlling the voltage to 13-14 volts, if it goes bad the voltage is going to go up.
John you had a short and your VR caught on fire, didn't it?
that's why I love the "Electrical fault light" that we have built in on our ESC's, 
as soon as it's either too low or too high our oil pressure light will come on telling us that we got a problem before the sucker burns up, and I mean it literally! It will burn up!
BWG56
Guru
There was a discussion on here a few months back about circuit breakers only protect in 1 direction, and the OEM breaker was set up to protect the VR from a spike from the battery, when it should really be hooked up the other way so the battery is protected from the VR in the chance it goes tits up.Yeppers, it sure did! That was not fun at all,
That's why some of us have installed the fuse block with the 40 amp fuse to protect in both directions.
This is from Eric,
The problem with a circuit breaker is they only provide one way protection and most have them hooked up backwards also the load needed to trip a 40 amp is significant and they are slow to trip. I think even axle said the breakers were to slow to protect electronics. Carrying a spare 40 amp fuse in your tool bag should be fine also every town with a parts store or Walmart you got spares. Can't say the same for a breaker
Not yet but I'm going to pick up the stuff you have here and give her a try.
BWG56
Guru
Its very simple and the fuse block has a mounting hole behind the fuse that I even used 1 of the screws that mounted the breaker to mount the fuse holder. It don't get any easier than that
and I can see the top of the fuse when my seat is off, easy access.
BadDawg Bill
Well-Known Member
That's not correct. A circuit breaker can be hooked up either way it doesn't matter. I think the problem here isn't amps but volts. If the VR starts sending out 16 + volts it will burn up the battery in a short time. A breaker or fuse won't help you out here. A volt gauge would help but where do you put it? You could hook up a resistor inline from the battery to a LED light on the dash so if the voltage goes over 14 volts it would light up. That's what the ECH is doing with the oil light.
TapioK
Well-Known Member
I do agree with Bill here, when my VR went nuts the fuse was the only thing that didn't burn. Hehheheee. Must say my Wires Plus took a rather long abuse before it died. New brain was like $240.
No comments on Zener Diode yet, I am suprised
Tapio
BadDawg Bill
Well-Known Member
Lucas Elec was pure shit.... a joke.... the Zener Diode was a way for Lucas to make a lot of money on repairs. I had Triumph, Jags and MG's back in the day and they were just like Big dogs. The electrics were always a problem. I had a Triumph TR6 that would run for a 1/4 mile and then with a loud backfire quit running. I spent hundreds of dollars trying to fix it along with the Triumph dealer to no avail. I sold it for $800 when it was worth three times that. The guy who bought it found out there was a module in the gas tank that if it was hit from behind would shut off the gas. The $26 module was bad.....I do agree with Bill here, when my VR went nuts the fuse was the only thing that didn't burn. Hehheheee. Must say my Wires Plus took a rather long abuse before it died. New brain was like $240.
No comments on Zener Diode yet, I am suprised
Tapio
BWG56
Guru
I agree with ya on the circuit breaker being hooked up either way, but it will only protect one way, not both ways like a fuse. As far as the voltage, I have the ESC with the voltage monitoring which the oil light does double duty for the monitoring the voltage also. I do have a volt gauge coming and will show some pics of it installed when I get it, I also have the Dakota digital speedo so it should look pretty good together but we'll see when I get it mounted.
DOC's ESC unit is protected by a circuit breaker so the unit doesn't get fried and I believe Axel recommends adding a fuse to his EHC to protect it also from over charging.I do agree with Bill here, when my VR went nuts the fuse was the only thing that didn't burn. Hehheheee. Must say my Wires Plus took a rather long abuse before it died. New brain was like $240.
No comments on Zener Diode yet, I am suprised
Tapio
BadDawg Bill
Well-Known Member
Well, if you take a 40 amp Harley circuit breaker and hook one end to the pos on the battery and touch the other end on the ground it will disconnect no matter which way you do it. Your voltage meter is a great idea but you have the place and space to mount it. If you can't see it, it is useless. After reading your post on the meter I looked over my dog but still can't seem to find a good place to mount one. Also as you and someone else said a fuse is needed on the inline to protect it.
JDouce83
Member
So can someone post a pic further back on the bike as to where I'm looking for this breaker. I have an 03 chopper so I don't know if it's the exact same setup. I know my horn is mounted towards the bottom of the frame where as in the picture it's up higher.
Also I picked up the fuse and am going to wire it up, but just to be clear, I'm splicing it in inline from the VR to the battery??
Also I picked up the fuse and am going to wire it up, but just to be clear, I'm splicing it in inline from the VR to the battery??
should I start to worry about myself!
cdogg556
Guru
Your here with us on BDB, you should be worried for sure! Lol!As far as I understand in reality the breaker or fuse only protects VR from god knows what in the battery. Also I feel I start to like Bill for his always sunny and positive attitudeshould I start to worry about myself!
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BadDawg Bill
Well-Known Member
You have to understand voltage from amps. The stater isn't going to produce more amps than it's meant to do. The amps don't kill a battery because the stater will lose amps not gain amps. It's the voltage that kills batteries. It's the VR that allows the voltage to go beyond 16 volts and that whats cooks a battery.