[couver]

I had seen some of the other threads on distribution blocks and decided to add one to my bike. I wasn't too excited about the un-fused blocks. I did like the Blue Sea fuse box installs I had seen, but I did not like that they were tucked in the tail in a spot that is inaccessible unless the plastics are removed. So, shopping I went...

I found this fuse block on eBay -- it comes with pigtails for 6 fused circuits and 2 hot input leads, so you could run 2 relays or have 3 switched terminals and 3 unswitched. I chose to go with one relay and have all six terminals switched. Note: I added those connectors after buying it -- it comes with just the wires. Here is a link to the sellers store.

My neighbor is a car stereo installer, so he has about a 100 automotive relays lying around, and I found this one in his stuff. Uniquely and conveniently, it has 2 power-out leads, which works perfectly with my fuse block. You should be able to find a similar set-up, although most only have one wire for the power out, but you can just crimp or solder the one wire to the two wires on the fuse block and it will work the same.

After a little tinkering, I decided to mount the fuse block on one side of the rear fender and the relay on the other side -- You will see how nicely this works out in just a bit. I used speed nuts on both sides with stainless screws. Here is a picture of the speed nuts on the fuse block side:

The fuse block does not have common (negative) terminals, but rather than use a plastic strip, I got a stainless bolt and put it in the forward compartment under the seat -- now I can just put a ring terminal on the negative wire from the accesory to be installed and add it to the post (ignore that in-line fuse wire -- it doesn't belong there):

And here is a picture of it all installed. I should probably label this picture so you can see the different parts, but there is a fused connector from the battery positive to the power input on the relay and a jumper connected from the negative battery terminal to the negative post. The relay switch is connected to the license plate light (you can see it at the very rear -- it is a pink/red tee-tap). The negative from the relay goes back to the negative post and the two power wires are connected to the two inputs on the fuse block. Any added accessory would connect to one of the fuse fused terminal wires and the negative post. Note: I did have to sand off the upper front corner of the fuse block to clearance the frame -- it took about 5 minutes of easy sanding with a small hand block -- you could get around this by lowering the attachment point, either by using a regular nut or not clipping the speed nut over the plastic or notching the plastic, but I wanted the stability of the nut over the plastic and the fuse block sanded so easily that it seemed like a fine solution.

What I like about the way this turned out is that it looks OEM, leaves the undertail area mostly free for storage, and all the parts are fully accessible without removing the tail plastics.

As a side note, if I wanted to save myself a lot of trouble, I did come across this clever little 3-way fuse block that is basically plug and play, and would probably be plenty good enough for most needs. Linky.

 

[mg66]

Thats pretty nice. Good job. Did you set it up so the whole fuse block comes off the relay?

 

[couver]

Thats pretty nice. Good job. Did you set it up so the whole fuse block comes off the relay?

Thanks! And yes, I chose to make all of the circuits switched off of the relay. I have an SAE plug for my battery tender that is directly connected to the battery (unswitched) and could be used for other purposes if need be. I had read that most accessories draw power even when not in use, so it seemed best just to switch them all and avoid any surprise draw-downs. If you are planning to use a lot of accessories, you could add a second relay and connect half of the fuse block to one relay (3 circuits) and the other half to the second relay -- since the block has two input wires, it would be easy (one relay to each wire) -- I didn't see the need for it in my application since I only plan to run heated grips, a GPS and a cigarette outlet for charging my cell phone in the tail (and I can always easily change it later if I want to).

 

[couver]

Okay, I had a request via PM to describe the connections a little more completely, so I took a new picture from above the setup and labeled all the connections:

Basically, all you are doing is feeding 12 Volts to the fuse block via the relay. Think of the relay as an automated switch that is normally off until you turn on the ignition, and then it opens and energizes the fuse block. The relay has three inputs: 12 Volts (positive), Ground (negative), and the 12 Volt signal (taken from the tail light) that tells it to open up the circuit and send power. There is only one output from the relay: 12 Volt (positive) that you feed over to the fuse block. The fuse block then feeds the 12 Volt power to each of its circuits and ultimately to your accessory. You accessory also needs a ground (negative), so you have to connect the negative wire from your accessory to the ground bolt.

You do not have to have a relay harness -- the part that pushes on to the relay and is pre-wired -- it is just convenient and weatherizes the connections a little bit. If all you have is a relay, then you would just put some terminals on the end of some wires and connect them directly to the relay terminals.

Here is a picture of the relay terminals to hep you understand:

Note: Your relay may or may not have the center pin (87a). If it does, don't worry about it, but do NOT connect to it -- it is NOT used for this application -- it is energized when there is NO power to the relay, so it would power up when the bike is turned off. If you get a harness that has a wire on this pin, but not on pin 87, you need to move the wire over to pin 87 -- you can do this by releasing the wire down inside the harness using a very small screwdriver -- the connector will pop out and you can push it back in to the position that you want.

Okay so for the sake of completeness, I will run through the materials:

- One 6-circuit fuse block (here is the eBay store for the one I used)
- One automotive relay (here is one on eBay)
- One relay harness (see link above for relay/harness package)
- One inline ATC fuse holder (12 AWG should work fine)
- One 20-Amp or 30-Amp ATC fuse for the main fuseholder
- Six ATC fuses for each circuit -- the Amp rating depends on what device is connected to the circuit
- One tee-tap to tap the tail light wire
- Various ring terminals, butt splice connectors and male/female spade connectors to make the connections
- One short piece of #8 or #10 wire with ring terminals on each end to connect the negative battery terminal to the ground "bar" (screw)
- You may need some #14 wire for other connections -- my install needed NO extra wire or splicing
- One package of three (3) speednuts, #10 size
- Two #10 x 1-inch stainless screws (could go 3/4-inch, but 1-inch gives better bite) plus washers -- these are for the fuse block side
- One #10 x 1/2-inch stainless screw plus washer -- this is for the relay (there are some wires behind this one, so went shorter)
- One 1/4-inch x 1-1/2 inch stainless bolt for the ground post (I think I used a panhead machine screw because it was the only one that had threads all the way to the head), plus four flat washers, one lock washer and three nuts.

To make the ground post, drill a hole through the plastic that is barely larger than the screw (I used a 5/16th bit for my 1/4-inch bolt). Note: be VERY careful not to overdrill and drill through the fender -- that plastic will bite and draw your bit through pretty darn quick -- you can also dremel or burn the hole out. Put a washer on your bolt and push it through the hole from back to front. Put another washer on it and tighten down one nut -- put loctite where this nut will be since you want it to stay put. Then, put on another washer then add your ring terminals, starting with the one from the relay, then the final flat washer, the lock washer and last nut -- snug this down on the ring terminals. Edit: See close-up picture of this setup below.

Okay, I think that's about it! Good luck!!

 

[mg66]

Holy snappin' ducksh!t batman, it doesn't get any clearer than that. Thanks man.

A gold star and an elephant stamp

 

[toezter]

That bolt and nut is decent enough for a ground? Is it not tapped to the frame or - battery?

I see the positive terminals, but what do you match the ground to on electrical devices?

Very nice set up, me thinks I really need to organize my relay.

 

[couver]

That bolt and nut is decent enough for a ground? Is it not tapped to the frame or - battery?

I see the positive terminals, but what do you match the ground to on electrical devices?

Very nice set up, me thinks I really need to organize my relay.

The bolt has an 8-gauge wire connected over to the battery negative (labeled as "negative jumper" in one of the pictures). Ground for devices would have a ring terminal and be sandwiched onto the bolt -- worst case, all the ring terminals will be tightened together -- I think this will give a pretty good connection. Here is a better picture of the setup (it is missing the lock washer because I forgot to buy one and haven't been back to the hardware store yet), but it shows all six ring terminals installed since I bummed them off my neighbor while he was here with his huge kit of connectors so I would have them when I get around to adding my accesories:

While I was at it, I took a picture of the fuse block from the front side to show the sanding I did to clearance the frame member:

I really think this setup is the way to go -- you can change out a blown fuse or faulty relay by just popping off the rear seat. The only reason to remove the seat is to attach a new device to the ground, but you would most likely have the seat off to run the wires anyway. And, you shouldn't need to remove the tail plastics for any reason once it is set up -- heck, you might even be able to install it all with the plastics on, but it does make it easier to see with them off.

 

[tk1971]

Where are you going to store the tank prop stick-thing (yeah, it's a technical term) now?

tk

 

[couver]

Where are you going to store the tank prop stick-thing (yeah, it's a technical term) now?

tk

Hmm, I know what you are talking about, but didn't know it was stored in here -- bought my bike used, so maybe it is already missing. Where is it normally located? I am guessing that for the number of times I would prop the tank up, I can just cut a hunk of wood or stack up a couple rolls of toilet paper .

 

[dream36realms]

That ground should be fine for what you are trying to do.

 

[matersin]

thats pretty nifty.

 

[couver]

That ground should be fine for what you are trying to do.

Good, good -- thanks for the confirmation.

thats pretty nifty.

Thanks! It came out a lot better than I expected, which is why I decided to write it up.

 

[toezter]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, I see it now in the layout pic. I currently only have one 20A fuse inline with my barrier strips. Although I've never blown a fuse, your set up is a lot easier to determine what is the cause/fault.

 

[tk1971]

If you had it, the tip would be tucked neatly at where you have the wire for "12V Input to Fuse Box Connect Pin 87". If you don't have the prop, then no big deal. If you ever get one, don't shove it (or any piece of metal) down there.

Looks good.

tk

Hmm, I know what you are talking about, but didn't know it was stored in here -- bought my bike used, so maybe it is already missing. Where is it normally located? I am guessing that for the number of times I would prop the tank up, I can just cut a hunk of wood or stack up a couple rolls of toilet paper .

 

[507phantom]

that looks very nice, but holy smokes, what all are you putting on your scoot that's going to require all that?

 

[couver]

that looks very nice, but holy smokes, what all are you putting on your scoot that's going to require all that?

Well, yea, obviously it is overkill, and I think you would want to be careful about running too much stuff on this bike, since I don't think it has an abundance of extra power. Having said that, whether you use one or six of the circuits, this is a nice clean set-up that probably costs less than $20 more than the "canyonchaser" version that has bare terminals and no fuses -- and this setup may actually be easier to install than those little jumper bars. I wanted three things: heated grips, a 12-Volt cigarette outlet in the tail, and a hard-wired GPS circuit. If I ever want to run a heated vest, I will probably just use the pigtail from my battery tender, but I could use a fourth circuit off the fuse block, so it is pretty easy to start using up the circuits.

I will mention again that if I only wanted three circuits and something "plug and play", I probably would have gotten this harness, but my solution gives me an extra three circuits and actually ended up costing about the same amount of money and, IMHO, looks better.

 

[mg66]

Well, yea, obviously it is overkill, and I think you would want to be careful about running too much stuff on this bike, since I don't think it has an abundance of extra power. Having said that, whether you use one or six of the circuits, this is a nice clean set-up that probably costs less than $20 more than the "canyonchaser" version that has bare terminals and no fuses -- and this setup may actually be easier to install than those little jumper bars. I wanted three things: heated grips, a 12-Volt cigarette outlet in the tail, and a hard-wired GPS circuit. If I ever want to run a heated vest, I will probably just use the pigtail from my battery tender, but I could use a fourth circuit off the fuse block, so it is pretty easy to start using up the circuits.

I will mention again that if I only wanted three circuits and something "plug and play", I probably would have gotten this harness, but my solution gives me an extra three circuits and actually ended up costing about the same amount of money and, IMHO, looks better.

That's about what I want to run:

Accessory socket (for GPS or charging cell phone, etc)
Stebel horn
Heated gear (maybe one day)

Probably never use the other 3 but they are there if I want. Easier putting it to start with and not use them rather than try to add another fuse or 2 later and for pretty well exactly the same cost.

 

[badguy]

You win! I don't know what the competition was for or who else might have been competing, but you definitely win!

Seriously though, awesome write up :thumbsup: