Grip heaters not working.

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Fatherof2
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Grip heaters not working.

Post by Fatherof2 »

Pretty frustrated.

This should be an easy job. Not sure what is wrong.

Mounted the heaters on the bars. They did not stick at all. Cold bars meant zero adhesion.

I used some electrical tape to secure the ends of the warmers on the bars. I then applied adheasive on the warmsers and inside the grips. One of the heaters got wrinkled a bit while sliding the grip back on. It did not affect the wires connected to the heaters.

The instructions called for JB Weld adhesive as it would not be affected by heat. I used it. Grips are holding strong. Actually kind of worried about having to remove them if need be. Could be a PITA.

Triple checked all the wires, and everything is correct................still no heat.

The only think I did not do was to install an inline fuse. I was planning on picking one up later, but wanted to try these after install.

Could that be the reason they dont work? I thought the fuse was more of a safety precaution.........I thought the heaters would still work.

Connections all seem fine.

I used a splice connector on the yellow wire coming from the light switch..............nothing.

I tried the wire going into the headlight.........nothing.

The lights work fine, and dont seem to fade.

How long should these take to heat up? Do I need to really ride for them to work? That is about the only thing I did not do.

Thanks for any input.

Frustrated.
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Grip heaters not working.

Post by carts69 »

Grip heaters...?? :lol:
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by 6 Riders »

Try riding, your probably not getting enough juice to them at idle. I'd also make it a point to get an in-line fuse on there to make sure you don't burn anything up.
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by royadams »

When I turn mine on, the lights will barley light up. I need to rewind my lighting coil. I hooked mine to the black and red wire at the headlight. If yours is not dimming the lights they are not hooked up right. Mine are moose and have three wires, red goes to ground Blue and white go to high and low on switch, and a red wire goes to switch and goes to power.
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Fatherof2
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Grip heaters not working.

Post by Fatherof2 »

Roy,

I have the same heaters.

I have the red wire from each heater going to the ground.

Two whites going to the high side and two blues going to the low side.

I have the red going to the center on the switch and then I used the splice connector on various wires to no avail.

What do you mean you hooked the Moose red wire to the black AND red wire going to the headlight? How did you connect to TWO wires?

My lights work fine, and do not dim at all.

I spliced into the yellow wire at the light switch, then I tried the black wire at the headlight and finally the red wire at the headlight. No luck.

Thoughts?

Thank you!
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by royadams »

I have the red power wire hooked to one headlight wire and the red grip wires hooked to the other head light wire. I have a 93 kdx 250 my headlight wires are red and black.
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by royadams »

I used the supplied red scotch conectors to tap in to the two wires coming from headlight. I did not use a ground to frame because the lights are a/c not d/c
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Grip heaters not working.

Post by Fatherof2 »

Roy,

I have a 2001 200, and my headlight wires are red and black as well.

So I should take the red wires coming from the grips and splice them into the black headlight wire?

Then take the red wire from the switch and connect it to the red headlight wire?

Are you using splice connectors or do reccomend going directly into the wire?

Thanks so much!
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by royadams »

Yep that's what I did. I just tap in to them with the red conectors supplied I would think it would be best to solder them in but I did not. My grips work ok but I think I will need to rewind my coil to get them to get hotter quicker.
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by Fatherof2 »

Man,

The directions are crazy wrong!

I guess they are intended for street bikes?

Thanks for the input Roy.

I will give it a shot in the AM.

Hopefully I will be toasty for the Sunday ride.

Thanks again!
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by royadams »

Yea I think the directions are for a bike with a dc power supply not a ac system.
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by sthutch »

Fatherof2,
I just got back from hunting and saw that you are having problems. I used the the heater grips from SPI or Trackside which are a two-wire system with a resistor. It looks like these use two separate circuits to heat, as I didn't see a resistor. When just the low heat is on only one circuit is heating and when both circuits are on when it's on high. I don't . Performance wise, my headlight really dims when I turn the heaters on and They really don't heat up until I increase the revs. Hope you got it sorted out.
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Grip heaters not working.

Post by Fatherof2 »

Guys,

I rewired the grips as mentioned above. Nothing.

The lights now dim when I turn the heaters on. (Both high and low.)

They are noticeably dimmer. Thought I had it this time. Nothing.

I went around the house a few times and then around the block. I went through the gears, and the engine was hot.

Do you think I damaged the heaters during install?

Don't know what to think.

Changing tires is easier. Real irritating.

Thanks very much for any input.
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royadams
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by royadams »

With the low output of my coil it takes about 20 min. For mine to get warm
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Fatherof2
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Grip heaters not working.

Post by Fatherof2 »

Roy,

Wow.....I just figured they got hot pretty quick.

I think my bike was running about 15 minutes. Half of that was first and second gear.

Maybe I just need to wait longer.

I will give it a shot. At this point it may be next weekend before I get the chance.

Thanks again for the help.
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by bufftester »

Just for clarity, the black wire from your headlight is frame ground, So you could just run them to a ground or splice to the blacks...same result. The red wire is headlight 12v. If you wired your grips power lead to the red wire then your grips will only work when the lights are on, since the red wire from the headlight is switched. Running your grips power lead to the yellow wire on the switch would allow you to run the heaters with or without the lights on.
If you wrinkled one installing it it is possible that you broke the internal connection on the heater strip. If you have access to a multimeter you can check the resistance by connecting one lead of the dmm to the red wire from the heater and the other lead to the blue wire, check for resistance. Then do the same with the red and white wires. Don't know the exact values but they should be a couple thousand ohms each at least. If its open then you have a broken circuit in that heater.
Have you rewound your lighting coil? Since you now have your heaters competing with your lights, you are likely not going to get much heat out of them until you are running for a while at higher RPMs. Wiring your power to the yellow wire and running without lights will give you more juice at the grips and should heat quicker.
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Grip heaters not working.

Post by Fatherof2 »

Great stuff Buff! Thank you!

I will run the red to the yellow and see if that cures the problem.

I have an in line fuse on the yellow switch wire already. Can I tap the wire in front of the fuse and negate the need for another?

Thanks for everyone's help on this!!
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Grip heaters not working.

Post by Fatherof2 »

So I ran the red heater wire to the yellow switch wire.

Grips do not heat up and the head light does not dim when I turn it on anymore. Seem to be at full strength.

Obviously I am doing something wrong again.

I taped into the yellow wire at the head light switch before the OEM in line fuse.

Should I try the red wire at the headlight switch?

I don't understand why my lights don't dim anymore. Feel like I went backwards.

Thoughts?

Thank you!
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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by bufftester »

This is how it should look according to the wiring diagram. The dotted line would be your white. If the red wire to the grip switch is wired to the red wire to the headlight it will only work if the headlights are on. I don't know what inline fuse you are referring to, there is no OEM in line fuse on the magneto line on my bike or any of the diagrams I have checked. A multimeter will help you make sure you are seeing voltage at all the right places.

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Re: Grip heaters not working.

Post by royadams »

I don't remember my bike having a common ground. Everything has it own wire. I always figured the a/c had in reality two hot wires like a house. If you ground a home circuit it will short out. Dont know though. Did you leave the red grip wire atached to the black headlight wire, then hook the red switch wire to the yellow.
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