Author Topic: Electrical Observation on a Pilot: Wierd Indicator lights  (Read 1464 times)

MassOdy

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Electrical Observation on a Pilot: Wierd Indicator lights
« on: September 29, 2004, 11:29:32 AM »
So last weekend I had a chance to look at an odd observance on Pilotnut's Pilot.

He was having issue where the Dash Indicator lites were not working and when he let the machine idle down they would come one and flicker. It was like every other idiot lite was coming on and going out.

Likewise the Head lights were real dim.

If the lites were off the behavior was gone. But, no indicator lites at all.

Electric starter worked.

The issue is as some may know already:
He blew his 15 Amp fuse that feeds the accessories to the Pilot.
Lights are like dead shorts to ground and allowed current to flow and cause the lites to behave irradically.

The brightness of the lites is an indicator of how much current the system is drawing on the accessory side. Remember the old days of Fuses in your home electrical panel. Didn't have a spare 10 AMP or something fuse: Screw in a large light bulb as a patch. It would glow bright and if you drew too much poof.

I studied the schematic and was going to blame a lifted ground. But it all looked fine.

The fuse blew again on us. The head lites were occassionally grounding out internal to the headlite housing affectively causing the fuse to do it job and blow.

Just an FYI to archive in case some one else has similar observances. There is a spare fuse provided in the fuse housing.

Obviously if you have this issue. DON'T short the fuse and getting going = Fire.

Also, don't limit your debugging to the just the headlites.

As we spoke I started to ask to lets work backwards from what was touched last. Changed a headlite bulb, regulator, gauges.....what ever it was go back and inspect.