Random Red Wire

[natemoen]

So I have a random red hot wire up in the headlight bucket area that is always hot even with the key off. Can't find this wire on the wiring diagram. Where does this wire come from?

[BA80]

Start pulling fuses until it loses power. I would bet it's the auxiliary power fuse that kills it.

[bugg100]

Is your ignition switch in place and you have another red wire always hot?

I just got my SG home by hotwiring that spot. I will look early this evening for you...

[natemoen]

Start pulling fuses until it loses power. I would bet it's the auxiliary power fuse that kills it.

Well, now you are going to make me admit that I do not have any of my fuses labeled...

Only dies when the main fuse is pulled.

Is your ignition switch in place and you have another red wire always hot?

Yes. This one is a 16 or 18 awg wire.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Nate,

During my recent rebuild, I also found that always hot Red Wire in the headlight bucket, so it's got to come off of the main fuse line side before the ignition switch. I have an 81 SH. I also don't know what it's supposed to be for?

T.C.

[natemoen]

Hey Nate,

During my recent rebuild, I also found that always hot Red Wire in the headlight bucket, so it's got to come off of the main fuse line side before the ignition switch. I have an 81 SH. I also don't know what it's supposed to be for?

T.C.

It has to be tapped off of that wire someplace in the middle which is just weird to me!

[BA80]

That wire is the one I use for the power outlet in my fairing. The power outlet has it's own in line fuse.

[natemoen]

That wire is the one I use for the power outlet in my fairing. The power outlet has its own in-line fuse.

That is where I had my cig lighter plug hooked to in my fairing before but didn't realize it was always hot till now. I was going to use that wire for my fairing voltmeter and gauge lights but can't do that now since it is always hot. Basically, it is now useless to me unfortunatley.

On a side note, as I was going through this trying to chase this down I found that my right side handlebar pod has 6 wires on it but only 5 coming to in at the connector from the harness. It has a white wire connecting to the blue/black in the harness and a dark blue dead ending from the pod. None of that is shown in the wiring diagram.

[ViperRon]

Original the cigarette lighter in the fairing In the faring they have it go to a separate 10 amp fuse. There is also a brown wire hot when key switch is on. I do not think it has its own fuse in the main just taps off the hot to ignition switch.

[IanDMacDonald]

Yeah. U'll want your voltmeter tapped into a switched source, but going through a relay, and going straight to the battery.

[3Phase]

That Red wire is soldered to the main wire near the regulator/rectifier connection. It's fused at 30A through the main fuse so be careful.

[natemoen]

That Red wire is soldered to the main wire near the regulator/rectifier connection. It's fused at 30A through the main fuse so be careful.

Well that is asinine in my opinion!

[3Phase]

Well that is asinine in my opinion!

It is what it is. That's the unswitched power supply for the cigarette lighter outlet and the (it was a late '70s and early '80s design) 10,000,000 candlepower spotlight?

The Brown wire with that large, gold-colored, two-pole female connector in the headlight shell is switched power for accessories but since one pole already has the hot wire for the front brake light switch plugged into it I guess you can have a stereo or a CB radio.

[ViperRon]

Those two wires work well with several devices that need constant power like in a clock to keep time the RED and then the Brown switched power for power consuming devices. The other thing the Red provides is a good tap for measuring voltage actual current charge and available volts with load applied. I have a digital volt meter multifunctional clock that lets me know how well the alternator is charging and the battery is holding. Going down the road at 4k rpm or better I can slowly see the charge go up until its at 14.05 and at stop lights go down usually maintaining 12 volts with all devices on. True is not like the original amp meter but the wire is run no need for more wires to monitor if I have a problem. The brown wire is switched power works well with stereo and the turn on of the volt meter display. The red wire provides charge to clock battery. So I can see where the engineering provided power for future functions without having to run further wiring. If we just had a 65 amp alternator everything would have been engineered right.

[IanDMacDonald]

Update your R/R, run it straight to the battery, and increase the gauge size on your negative battery cable, and starter solenoid cables. U'll see see well-over 14v even at idle.