TIFU: Swapping out stock headlight for LED headlight

[SonOfJorEl]

Hi all, seems I did a bit of a faux pas and need some assistance

I tried to swap out the halogen headlight unit with an LED unit. I connected the green H4 plug to the bikes black H4 socket and tried to test the lamp. Worked great. Nice and bright light too!
Then (i assumed the little bulb with the yellow wire is the DRL) so I pulled the little bulb out and connected the orange cable from the LED unit to the yellow and tried to turn on the bike. That’s where the issue happened. The lights “blinked” and then went dark. Now the headlights won’t come on at all.
Have I blown a fuse? If so, how do I know by looking at the fuse that it’s blown. I opened up the fuse box under the seat and looked at the 20A fuse for the headlights but I can’t tell if it’s blown or not.
I hope I haven’t f***ed up something big here

Everything else seems to work like the horn, blinkers, ignitions etc. so my best guess is the fuse.

 

[CrzystghndKC]

Following. I have the same hookup on some lights I bought and need the same use for the parking lights. Did you cut the plug off before hooking up the orange wire? The small light sockets are notorious for shorting out and popping fuses.

 

[SonOfJorEl]

Following. I have the same hookup on some lights I bought and need the same use for the parking lights. Did you cut the plug off before hooking up the orange wire? The small light sockets are notorious for shorting out and popping fuses.

No I didn’t cut the yellow wire. I just inserted the silver plug of the orange into the socket of the yellow. Figured it’s metal to metal

 

[CrzystghndKC]

No I didn’t cut the yellow wire. I just inserted the silver plug of the orange into the socket of the yellow. Figured it’s metal to metal

So you shorted the plug I'd say.

 

[TURBO200R4]

U can buy a 12 volt test light and some 20amp fuses.
Hook the clamp end to the negitive battery terminal the turn on ignition
and probe each side of fuse on bad fuses only one side will make the test light light up

 

[RazMan]

I would get yourself a cheap multimeter and test the fuse if there is any doubt - an essential part of any toolkit imo.
I seem to recall that I had a fuse problem when connecting the DRL part of my LED headlights - it blew when in 'park' so I left it disconnected but the DRLs still worked somehow

 

[SonOfJorEl]

It was one of the 5A fuses. All good now! Went for a ride last night and it was a huge difference!

 

[RazMan]

How did you connect your headlights? If they are in any way connected to the yellow wire(s) your 5A fuse will probably blow again. The main LED headlight feeds should be to the Blue/Red and Blue/White (Lo & Hi respectively) and if I recall correctly, have a 20A fuse although the LEDs will need much less which explains why they are still working with a 5A circuit, but they will be close to the limit.

 

[SonOfJorEl]

How did you connect your headlights? If they are in any way connected to the yellow wire(s) your 5A fuse will probably blow again. The main LED headlight feeds should be to the Blue/Red and Blue/White (Lo & Hi respectively) and if I recall correctly, have a 20A fuse although the LEDs will need much less which explains why they are still working with a 5A circuit, but they will be close to the limit.

I have skipped the DRL step entirely. I just removed the bulb attached to the yellow wire, put some electrical tape on it and have shoved it off to the back. Only the green plug is connected. I was also under the impression that the 20A fuse was the blame but when nothing changed on swapping it I started changing them all one by one and found that the 5A at position 10 was to blame.

 

[TURBO200R4]

When you remove the parking bulb this allows the yellow and black wires to come together and short the yellow wire to the black wire and a fuse will blow