electrical accessory

[BigDick]

so I have a old 6 volt siren, ran through a 12 to 6 reducer so as not to burn it up then through a momentary on/off switch (hold it to on to turn on let go to turn off) then to the factory 12 volt accessory thing under the right hand side cover. no problems so far except the siren sounds weak. when I start the bike it is hesitant about starting, idles weakly, and as soon as i give it any throttle it wants to die. I pulled the fuse from the factory thing and my idling/throttle problems go away. what can i do? wire straight into the battery? this is on a 1980 xs1100sg if that helps/makes any difference.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there BD,

The XS11 has a very limited capacity for extra electrical stuff. The TCI won't work well with less than 10.5 volts, and at idle with a large power drain, the charging system won't be putting out much, so it can actually drop that low!?

The manual states that you only can run something with about 55 watts capacity from the aux terminals, and they are essentially direct from the battery, so a direct tap to the battery really won't help.

This is why some of us have gone to LED conversions for brake/tail/turn lights, to free up some amps for stronger driving/ headlights without draining the battery and stressing the charging system beyond it's capacity!!!

So...sounds like the siren requires too much power/amps to run properly on the XS11. I'd bet that if you revved the engine to 2.5k rpm, that it might run the siren a bit stronger/louder/quicker!

Sounds like your power converter is running/drawing power even when the siren is NOT being activated? You might be able to put just a couple of inline resistors on the power line to get the same 6 volts without the use of some fancy power converter?
T.C.

[BigDick]

My wiring goes from the hot side of the accessory hook up to the switch to the reducer to the siren and the siren is just grounded to where it's mounted, so my reducer has no draw on it unless i flip the switch, the siren is my second worry, like I said the bike stumbles and hesitates when i give it juice, pull the fuse (essentially disconnecting everything) and the stumbling problem is gone. If hooking my toy up to the battery or another full time hot wire will solve the problem of stumbling that's more or less my question, but i tend to ramble.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey again,

Sounds like you have a partial drain/short on the AUX terminal and the reducer/switch somehow. You can try connecting a tap directly to the battery, but sounds like you may need to trouble shoot your wiring on the AUX term, your switch, etc. to make sure it's not grounding to the frame. But if your reducer and siren do draw a lot of power, you may get the same symptoms even with the direct battery tap!?!? Good Luck!
T.C.

[BigDick]

thanks for replying, I'll do some checking with my multimeter come morning, it's late and a little chilly and I wanna go play. I'm pretty sure nothing's grounding but I'll double check, set the multimeter to continuity check and check all my contacts to a ground, if I hear that little beep I found the problem. if no beeps are heard I'm gonna try the battery fix, the accessory mount is hot all the time anyway, so all I have to do is put an inline fuse thingy on my wires.