Tricks to finding an electrical short?

so, my bike has developed an odd little electrical short that affects the Rear running light circuit (but not the brake)

Any tips on how to find the short?

Years ago my buddy, who owned a service station, would replace the fuse with a nail, and then we'd all stand around watching for smoke !

Short of calling a good witch doctor, you need to pull out your trusty multimeter.

Okay, is it a short or is it an open? Meaning, is stuff burning up, or is stuff not turning on when it should?

Most people call opens "shorts" and it doesn't help when giving advice.

Better description of the problem would help. The issues on my buell was a broken wire in the electrical connector to the lights. Both front and back had the same problem, I wired around the connectors. Then there was a pinched wire under the air box. The switches are pretty reliable but I had a relay die on me. Oh an the dead bulb that would light up and blow a fuse when the filaments touched. That was a fun one to find especially at 75c per fuse.

Give a better description of the problem.

Well....I found it by disconnecting various lengths of the harness. ended up being a bare end of a positive turn signal wire touching the radiator. clipped, capped, and problem solved.

issue was that I turned the bike on, and the fuse that ran the rear running light would blow (same fuse controls the non-existent turn signals)

You gotta expect that kind of stuff running around totally naked.........

minimac wrote: You gotta expect that kind of stuff running around totally naked.........

Hey...gotta run around naked while I still can ;)