Heated Grip Install - Electrical Issues

[mlf73]

Hey Guys,

I'm working on installing a set of Symtec heated grips from Murph and I'm having some electrical issues.  I'm wondering if anyone else has done an install lately and can point me in the right direction.  I've got the directions and it seems pretty straight forward.  I'm no genius when it comes to electrical stuff so bear with me and I'll throw what I have done out there.

The wiring seems pretty simple....each grip has three leads....red, white and blue.  Instructions show the blue wires going to the top lug on the toggle switch and the white wires going to the bottom lug with the middle lug being the hot feed.  I'm trying to run these heated grips off of my homemade accessory fuse block so that's where I ran the hot wire too.  The red wire on each of the heated grips is the ground.  I initially had this ground going to the frame where the coils used to be.  My heated grips wont work connected to my fuse block.  If I toggle to hi or low, I get nothing and it seems to cut out my other things going through my fuse block such as my heat trollers.  With the heated grips in the off position, I have good voltage (close to 12V) at both the output of the fuse block and at the hot terminal on the heated grip switch.  If I switch it to high or low, voltage drops to around 1V and my other devices on my fuse block seem to cut off (basing this on heat troller LED going off and LED on phone charging cord plugged into 12V accy outlet going off).  If I switch grips back off then the other devices come back on.

I can hook the heated grips directly to the battery and things seem to work fine as far as I can tell.  I checked my voltage at the switch and everything seems fine.  When in the off position I have 12V in the middle and 0V at both hi and low.  Switch to hi and I have 12V on both sides, switch to low and I see 12V at the top lug and 6.75Vat the lower lug.  Any ideas what I've got bass-ackwards here?  I guess it's got to be something with my accessory block but not sure what.  I'm stumped and about to just hook the grips directly to the battery for the time being.  Thanks for any help/suggestions as usual.

Marlan

[mlf73]

Anybody?  Any suggestions?  I just can't figure this out.  They work fine hooked directly to the battery or to the always-hot accessory leads under the seat.  They just wont work through my accessory fuse block.  I have 12V at the switch positive terminal until I switch to hi or low and then the voltage drops to just over 1V and that's it.  This usually causes my other stuff on my fuse block to cut out also but this last time I just had all other fuses pulled with just the heated grips working off the fuse block.  I gave up and just connected the heated grips to the always-hot leads for now but I don't want to leave them there.   

[timsatx]

It almost sounds like a wiring problem to the accessory fuse block. I know on the one I have I can also run ground to it. That makes it real handy for wiring. If they work fine when hooked directly to the battery then it would seem to point to the accessory fuse block. It would be cool if you could get a decent pic of for my visual senses. Also if you have a diagram that shows how you hooked it up and maybe even the mode of the fuse block.

[mlf73]

Tim

I certainly am thinking it's something with the fuse block also but that just doesn't make sense with what I'm seeing.  I've got a 12V outlet, a dual control heat-troller and my Audiovox CC server powered off of the same fuse block.  I've verified that the 12V outlet and the heat-troller are still working.  I've moved the heated grips to two different positions on the fuse block with the exact same results.  I've tried it with only the heated grips working through the fuse block(other fuses were pulled) with the same results.  I'm pretty sure I've got the heated grips wired up to the switch according to the instructions other than trying to run them off of the fuse block rather than tapping into a switched hot wire near the front somewhere.

I don't have pic of the fuse block but it's pretty much like others have built with parts from the parts store (relay and fuse block) and RadioShack (barrier strip for grounds).  I've metered out the voltages into and out of my relay several times and it seems right and works right for my other stuff.  I'm triggering my relay with a wire to position #8 on the cable going into the Jbox as some have recommended on here.  I just don't understand what's wrong unless I've got something reversed but that doesn't jive since the grip heaters work fine when not going thru the fuse block.

Marlan

[timsatx]

The best thing I can think of is to go thru and really verify the wiring. It almost sounds as if there is a short when you talk about having it hooked up to the fuse block and everything is fine when it is off and then when you turn it on everything shuts off. Also be sure to measure the resistance of the wiring on the heated grips. They might also have a problem with it.

[mlf73]

I'm beginning to think it's a problem with the relay maybe.  I just plugged in my jacket liner and the heat-troller isn't working(it was connected to the fuse block).  It seems as though if I put anything with a load on it, it doesn't work.  I plugged my cell phone into my 12V outlet earlier and that seemed to be charging fine and my cruise still works(used it on a short ride).  I figure the phone charger and the cruise are really low draws whereas the heat-troller with jacket plugged in and the grips pull quite a bit more.  My voltages on my outputs at the fuseblock seem normal (~12V) with no load but the voltages drop down with something trying to work on them.  I'm pretty sure the heated grips and heat-troller aren't the problem....i hooked each of them directly to the battery and they seem to work as they should.  Guess I'll pick up another relay tomorrow and see what that does.  The voltages on the current relay seem to check out but I'm certainly no electronics wiz!

[Rick Hall]

Been mulling this over... If you're not blowing a fuse, and the volts at the grip heater leads drops to 0 volts (+/-) when you flick them on, it indicates there's a cruddy connection 'someplace'.

Heated grips will draw on the order of five amps. LED on your heat-troller will draw a few milli-amps (at most). You can light up a LED with a wet potato in part of the circuit.

Before you get a new relay, double check all connections to/from the battery, don't forget ground too.

Rick

[mlf73]

Been mulling this over... If you're not blowing a fuse, and the volts at the grip heater leads drops to 0 volts (+/-) when you flick them on, it indicates there's a cruddy connection 'someplace'.

Heated grips will draw on the order of five amps. LED on your heat-troller will draw a few milli-amps (at most). You can light up a LED with a wet potato in part of the circuit.

Before you get a new relay, double check all connections to/from the battery, don't forget ground too.

Rick

Thanks Rick.  I'm sure it's something with my fuse block/relay then since I built the thing.  I'll go through all of the connections and see if I can find the shoddy work.  If I can't clear it up maybe I'll just go with one of the fuse blocks from Murph like I probably should have done in the first place.  Always trying to save a buck!!!

[mjrfd99]

  If I can't clear it up maybe I'll just go with one of the fuse blocks from Murph like I probably should have done in the first place.  Always trying to save a buck!!!

Sometimes time is money. Murphs block had me in done in 15 min. Well worth it.

[timsatx]

Seeing as how the fuse block works properly with everything else until you hook up the Grip wiring I doubt the problem lies there. You say that when you hook up the grips to the battery it seems to work fin but my guess is that it doesn't.So that leaves four things as the potential problem, switch, relay, wiring, grips. As Rick mentions, the wiring would include your ground so check it out. Here is another thing you can do. My understanding is that these grips draw ~3 amps on high, but whether it is 3 or 5 amps, you can always but a meter inline to see what the draw is.

Lots of ways to handle this. I would say to first verify all wiring, then check the switch (I read where somebody was actually having problems with their switch), then you can check the function of the relay with your meter.