Gonna install a new aux fuse block in the 2007 K1200LT that I bought last summer. Before I begin, I'd kinda like to know what I already have. I've searched Google Images pretty hard but not come up with a match.
Anybody recognize this box? Looks like it had a cover at one time, but here are the guts --->
I have seen about 6 different ones so far but I have never seen that one. Sorry. It does look to have a switched power relay and three fused circuits but that is about all I can determine.
I would agree but look at all those empty spade connectors! I wonder what those are all about? Makes it looks like you could run 6 power connections through the three circuits, which would be totally weird.
It would be easy enough to map it with a multimeter and just pull the fuses and check for ground continuity with the ohm function. Then introduce one fuse at a time and check each spade for voltage. It looks to be well made and water proof.
I have one similar on my RT. This was a dealer installed item that the previous owner had installed. The only thing I found on the internet that is the closest match is:
Well, another day of Googling and I finally found it. And it turns out it's not necessarily "old" because it's still being sold! It's a proprietary fuse box made by Motolights.
If the bike actually had some Motolights, perhaps I would have found it sooner.
That is a pricey unit compared to the Fuzeblock unit. I am curious if you find a reason that justifies the higher price as the Fuzeblock unit seems equally capable with 6 circuits that can be any combination of switched and unstitched.
My RT came with the Moto lights, so I must have the same fuse block. I do not remember seeing the three fuses. I will have to take a look in the morning and take a picture of it.
Hey, it looks really well made. I would continue to use it once you make a map of functions. Way better than the standard 60$ fuse block with screw connections of years back that I use on my K bike.
Here is what I have on my RT. It is a Touratech and has five hots and five grounds. I only see one fuse. It is powering the following:
Motolights
Auxiliary fans
JMB CB
GPS
Hyper Lights
Looked that one up. It has the one 15-amp fuse because that's the total capacity of the box for all five circuits combined. Which is apparently fine for what you got. If you were to power heated gear with it, that might put you over the top. Also, all five circuits are switched. I like having the flexibility to have some unswitched circuits for certain farkles but switched circuits are great especially to prevent parasitic drains.
Going back to the fuse block that's the subject of this thread, I heard back from the good folks at Motolight, and they advised me that they never wrote an Installation Guide, but they gave me the info I needed over the phone.
So for the sake of anybody who might be wondering sometime in the future, and might stumble on this thread, the Motolight Power Fuse Block (#65229) has a capacity of 30 amps. There are three circuits, each has a max power rating of 10 amps. All three circuits are switched. The entire unit is controlled by a single relay.
There are three connections to the bike's wiring harness. Red goes to the +POS terminal on the battery, and this line should be protected with a 30-amp fuse somewhere between the battery and the fuse block. Black goes to ground, and can be grounded to the -NEG terminal on the battery or anywhere on the bike's frame where you can make a good strong connection. The third wire is yellow, it's the trigger wire, and it's located between the upper red wire and the lower black wire.
There are six spade terminals for connecting accessories to the power block--two terminals for each of the three circuits. These six terminals reside in the upper half of the block, above the fuses, or you could say they reside on the "red" half of the block. There are also six spade terminals on the lower half (the "black" half) -- these are all grounds.
In the picture below, the terminals are identified by the fuse they are connected to. To be clear, you can connect two accessories to each circuit as long as the total draw of the two lines doesn't exceed 10 amps, and you should choose a fuse for each circuit based on that total draw.
Today I started looking at some of the other wiring under the seat -- all of it installed by two or perhaps three previous owners.
First thing I found was a 30-amp relay. Tracing wires back from the relay--
one went to ground - OK, so far so good
one was tapped into the headlight - long way to go for a trigger wire, but OK.
one went to a 10-amp circuit on the fuse panel - wait, a switched power source? I already have a switched trigger wire. Why is the power source switched? Weird.
But there's two more wires that disappear down into the bowels. I start tugging away at these two wires and . . . !!! Both are capped off !!! So what I got here is the relay to nowhere. Or maybe the relay to infinity. In any event, clearly this relay is an artifact leftover from some previous something. Yanked it out.
But I did find another relay. Micro relay rated at 10 amps. What's it connected to? A 25-amp linear actuator (part of the sidecar suspension system.) Of course. And that's not all. The relay trigger wire is connected to a switched BMW plug under the seat using 16-gauge wire (unnecessary, but OK), but then the +12 volt power wire going to the linear actuator is 20-gauge. ???
Easy enough to fix. Replaced the relay with a Hella 40/30-amp from my misc spare parts box, and connected that to a 14-gauge relay harness from the same box, then replaced the 20-gauge wire with some tinned fine strand 16-gauge for the 36-inch run to the actuator.
Much less likely now that I will set the bike on fire.
:kaboom:
Finished my electrical "clean-up" on this bike. Removed the radio, intercom and Nav III. Installed a panel mount female coax socket on the left side for my heated gear--connected it to one of the 10-amp circuits on the aux fuse panel. Pretty nice little socket --
I control my heated gear with a wireless battery operated controller that I'll probably store in the "glove box" but if that turns out to be impractical I may eventually mount it somewhere in the open using 3M Dual-Lock.
I installed a Powerlet socket where the intercom connector was--used one of the switched power lines going to the radio to provide power for it. Nice spring-loaded cap --
I'm going to use this socket to power my smartphone. My smartphone will be mounted where the Nav III used to be and I'll use it as my primary nav unit. It's a ruggedized waterproof Android phone with a big screen and I have 5 or 6 nav apps installed with maps for North America stored internally.
Also added a neat little TPMS display over near the left mirror. It's actually an ordinary 12V cigarette socket and the TPMS unit plugs into it. Communicates with pressure sensors that reside on the tire valve stems. Looks like this --
Haven't had a chance to test this yet but it was only $65 on Amazon so no big gamble. And, yes, I realize it has readouts for 4 tires but, with only three sensors on board, the 4th tire will simply read "0" all the time. Since this display uses less than 1 amp, I powered it with another line that taps the unused switched radio power.
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