Sasquatch Failure

[Nimrod11]

This fix is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet it's maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! It's kicked the bucket, shuffled off it's mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-FIX!!



Dear forum friends,

I just completed a nearly 3000 km trip on my Girly. Unfortunately, the trip I was planning to Bolivia never happened but it was a great trip none the less. I'll post details in another topic.

Anyway, what I wanted to inform here was that I had a failure in my Sasquatch voltage fix. As I posted here some time ago, I had done the fix and was very happy with the results.

However, on the second day of my 8 day trip, the voltage just plummeted and at 8 volts it just dyed on me.

It turns out the fuse and the fuse holder just melted but it didn't blow the fuse. I was using a 40A Maxi fuse so was very surprised to see it melted. I know the original fuse is a 30A one, but I just happened to have a 40A in there.

Obviously a bad quality fuse and holder.

Anyway, the good news is that it took me some 5 minutes to understand what had happened (I was having nightmares of a burned out R/R) and I simply reconnected the original wires.

In my post in the original Sasquatch fix, someone asked me why I had left the original connectors in and whether it wouldn't be best to connect the wires directly - NO, IT ISN'T BETTER TO DO THAT!!!!   :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  I was just so happy that I simply had to reconnect the old wires and everything was OK (except of a dead battery, that is).

Since I did the original fix, I had bought a much nicer fuse holder with a water resistant cap, much better looking material. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to put it in before my trip.

Anyway, for what it's worth, if anyone is going to do the fix, I strongly suggest you use only the very best fuse holder. This is probably true for anything you put on the bike, but here the current is quite severe and bad material will cost your trip. Another important point is make those connections very very well. Vibration is hell on the bikes and the other little mishap I had was the aux relay connected to the tail-light got disconnected. i just had to fix the wire again, but just shows you... I have, in fact, bought a great new wiring from a guy in Japan who makes to order. Very nice wiring, all weatherproof.

Not sure if I am going to re-do the fix now or not. I do have the good material but I have also bought the Denali LED lights so the power drain will not be so high. Let's see... By the way, when the fix failed, I had no extra loads on the bike - no lights, no electric vest or anything, just the GPS. It was a hot day, so the fan was probably working overtime, but nothing extra. It simply failed.

I'll post a picture of the dead fuse later.

[walker]

yeah - jim is a good guy  :)

I would stick with the fuse holder he sells - that metripack one is nice. I used one of those for a bypass on a motorcycle, and the connection from the fuse holder to the battery was getting warm.... I double checked the crimp, it looked ok, but was still warm (not hot) to the touch.

I simply added some solder to the joint and it was no longer warm. Those connections need to be good.... I even have a really nice crimper tool, but it's not made for the heavier battery terminal that jim sells on his site - that thing is very heavy brass, so I wasn't getting the best crimp on the one connection.

[LTB]

To make things really hardcore, take a look at these guys.

http://www.skyllermarks.se/en/products

Hexagonally Crimped Tinned Cables

Hexagonally Crimped Tinned Cables with doubly annealed Tubular Copper Cable Lugs which lets the current flow better

Flexible and easy-to-install cable with high vibration toughness due to high strand count. Air tight Tubular Copper Cable Lugs and supporting Heat Shrink Tubing in each end. The rubber isolation is much more resistant then  to wear and thicker than other isolators.

The idea is not having to change cables ever again.

If it works in a boat, it works in a bike :D

[brad1098]

Many of us have had the same fuse melt-down.  Stretch came up with the solution.  A 80 amp maxi-fuse holder with a 30 amp fuse installed.  The Maxi-fuse is 4x the size of the standard fuse's and can handle the current properly.

[Nimrod11]

Many of us have had the same fuse melt-down.  Stretch came up with the solution.  A 80 amp maxi-fuse holder with a 30 amp fuse installed.  The Maxi-fuse is 4x the size of the standard fuse's and can handle the current properly.

That's what I had!  

[oxnsox]

Not nice when a fix/mod fails.  

But as you know Nimrod if its overheating its a  bad (resistive) connection.  Which either means poor quality parts or poor joints/junctions. (not necessarily one of yours but one of theirs in the part)

Personally I use marine cables and fittings, maybe it's because it's what I have, but really it's because I have the right tools to make the right crimps on the cable lugs.  

FWIW, soldering (or crimp/splder) is not a recommended solution because solder joints are brittle.

[Nimrod11]

I agree, quite sure it was a poor fuse and holder. Can't even remember where I bought it... I still have to find the old fuse (I know I threw it in my bag somewhere) and post a picture here. Amazing that the fuse itself didn't go, just melted. Probably if I had fiddled, it would regain connection but I just pulled it out and reconnected the original harness.

Good tip about the crimp/solder connections. I was wondering about that, as my experience with solder is that it almost always cracks under vibration.

[walker]

if you have a good crimp tool, it will not need the solder, but the heavier battery terminals that easternbeaver (jim) sells - the tool is pretty expensive... so I use pliers, get it as crimped as possible, then use solder to fill the gaps.

Also - the heat shrink tubing he carries is awesome! It shrinks 3 to 1, and has a glue to seal out moisture.

The fuse holder he has, that metripack 280 or whatever it is - has a much larger contact area than most fuse holders - AND - you are crimping and soldering the actual contact.... those fuse holders with the wires attached, you are relying on the factory to do a good job.

I just rode another 200 miles today, and the wires were cool to the touch. Standard auto 30amp fuse, the 12 gauge wire, and that matripack 280 fuse holder. It will do the job just fine.

use jsut enough solder to fill any gaps at the terminal crimps. It's basically only a drop of solder.

If jim made a harness for you, you should be good to go. I made my own, just ordered the parts from him.

[oxnsox]

You should not need to crimp and solder... makes brittle junctions.
It means the crimp is the wrong size for cable. A good electrical supply store will have a range of crimps to suit different cable sizes and with different bolt sizes.  

Using Glue shrink (adhesive lined heatshrink) is great for keeping moisture out of fittings. You can also put some silicon on the join the slide the heat shrink over it. When it compresses the excess silicon will come ou the end of the shrink (and you can wipe it off), and you'll know the join is sealed.

[walker]

the heat shrink supplied with the kit the original poster indicated is called sumitube - and is also quite a bit stiffer than other products I have used in the past. Provided quite a bit of strain relief on the joint compared to the cheap heat shrink I can get at the auto parts store (of course, using several layers of heat shrink would have a similar effect).

It's pretty good stuff.

[tyger]

Nimrod11,
your melt no-blow failure is exactly what happened to my stock wires. I had to clip them from the fusebox because they were shorting out. So i definitely would not stay on the stock wires for long. Whatever was causing the extra resistance/heat may still be doing it and you may get melting in the main fuse box!
You are even closer to the equator than I am, so I bet your fans run a lot... I'm just saying, these fans are a big load and probably a significant contributer to the melt no-blow issue as everything gets heat soaked and they run and run and run and blow the heat back on you and the bike.
Like the guys are saying, the fix is better than the original specs, there's just something somewhere making more resistance than it should and it is probably one of the connections.
Good luck! Oh, and where is this Jim? I want to know more about the kit.

[walker]

ah.

eastern beaver. Jim Davis.

Main page: http://www.easternbeaver.com/ (http://www.easternbeaver.com/)
Here is the one with a lot of types of connectors: http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec_ ... ctors.html (http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec__Products/Connectors/connectors.html)  (the one that says R/R is the regulator rectifier ones).

fuse holders (I am using the 630 one for ATF/ATO fuses): http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec_ ... lders.html (http://www.easternbeaver.com/Main/Elec__Products/Fuseholders/fuseholders.html)