Oxford heated grips install help...

[markersniffen]

Hey all,

So I just attempted a combo upgrade, FZ1 bars with heated grips. The FZ1 bars went on relatively painlessly, took a few hours, and it was dark by the time I finished. Regardless, I took a ride and I love how they feel, although I'm tempted to look into bar risers as I crushed my thumb walking the bike out of my driveway...the lack of bar clearance above the tank is definitely something to get used to...

Anyway, on to the problem. I installed heated grips (Oxford HotGrips - webBikeWorld), and wired them into my relay system. When I had purchased the bike I set up a relay per these instructions:

.: Distribution Block / Powered Relay | Canyon Chasers Motorcycle Sport Touring :.

So I wired in the heated grips and there was a 5 amp fuse right before the positive end. After riding and realizing the little LED that indicates the grips are on was not lit, I checked, and the fuse was blown. So I put in a 10 amp fuse...it sparked and blew as soon as I turned the key. Same with a 20 amp fuse...now I am no electrical engineer, but I know my 12v cigarette lighter socket works great at charging my droid, so the relay system does work...I am just not sure why the grips don't like it.

As I am sitting here in bed typing this, I have a humiliating thought, did I somehow mix the positive and negative ends of my power block when attaching the grips??? I don't want to think I would make that mistake, but I suppose it's possible. :banghead: Ill check in the morning, but I'm guessing that could cause the fuse to blow...

 

[Sith Lord]

I installed the same heated grips on my FZ1 bars without a problem. Just wired in a 5 prong relay into the rear light wire under the left hand rear panel. I'm no elecrical guru, so can't really offer you any real advice, sorry

 

[RJ2112]

Red positive, black negative..... some very simple devices are not sensitive to polarity; most are. If your cigarette lighter socket supplies power to your phone without issue, you have the polarity correct on the bus.

I would expect when you tear this down and look closely, you will see a pinched wire somewhere. If you have broken through the insulation and have bare wire exposed contacting the frame (or any bare metal), this is exactly what would happen.

 

[markersniffen]

I'm officially and idiot.

I had the polarity mixed up connecting the grips to my power block. Once that was fixed the lights came on signifying the grips were active! I didn't use them on the way to work since it was nice out--but then it started to rain, so I flicked them on during the ride back. The lights came on, but they didn't seem to get very hot, in fact I couldn't even tell that they were on. As soon as I pulled into my garage, I took my gloves off and felt the grips. They weren't even warm. I check the fuse again, it was fine, so just for kicks I turned the key and tried flipping them on again. I waited for a minute or two, and now were definitely warming up.

Ah well, I appreciate the responses, if anyone has any thoughts they wouldn't hurt to hear. I'll break it down tomorrow night if I have time, double check all of my connections, etc. Probably something simple.

 

[SovietRobot]

Did you start them on the highest or lowest setting? Most electric things(motors, coils, heaters, etc) need to have full power at start up.

 

[markersniffen]

Each time you turn them on it reverts to the lowest power setting. Each and every time I immediately turned them up to 100%.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[Sith Lord]

Each time you turn them on it reverts to the lowest power setting. Each and every time I immediately turned them up to 100%.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

That's normal. Mine come on at minimum, then I turn them up straight away. Never needed them at max though. -5 Celcius, the 3rd setting is enough.