Electrical Issue I'm stumped

[TheBear]

2nd fuse down under the right side cover kept blowing intermitnently, (10 amp fuse)  I thought I found the problem with a loose wire on an auxilary fuse panel I installed.  I ran out of the 10 amp fuses, so I through in a 30.  Big mistake.  I road for a week on and off and really didn't notice anything.  I started her up one morning and noticed smoke coming from the left cable.  After pulling her apart I found the brown wire w blk stripes completely cooked.  Same with orange wire  The insulation was completely melted off.  I traced into the headlight bucket and found the black connector coming from the tachometer harness and has a small loop that comes out of the connector and then goes back in, was completely devoid of the insulation. The copper on the tabs was bright orange from the heat.  Connections in both switch housings look fine.  I checked the blinker wires.  Right side is fine.  The left side (portion that was in the headlight bucket) has an arc mark on it.  That could've been from the melted wires in the bucket. I've pulled most of the accessible wiring apart to find the source, but no luck so far.  Any thoughts, before I do a complete tear down ?

[Scott from FL, now in Maine]

Unfortunately, using a bigger fuse will lead to this trouble. The only way you can be confident of the wiring in the future will be to break it down and trace everything that burned. Pay close attention to all the wires around the melted wires, you could have several shorts. Any where the burnt lead touched could have caused damage. My brother did the same thing in his Corvette, he thought he was being smart replacing fuses with breakers that self reset. They reset alright, and the wiring got hotter and hotter till it melted several other wires. Good Luck.

[Grandpot]

With all that damage, you may want to consider replacing the entire wire harness.  There's a dealer on ebay that parts out Valkyries and I have seen harnesses on his site.  I don't recall his name.

Unfortunately you now have what is known as a FUBAR. 

I really feel for you, especially with riding season just starting.

[RP#62]

When a wire burns, it burns from the source of power to the location of the short.  The black wires are power source wires and the orange wire is a left turnsignal feed.  Chances are, you've got a short at one of the left turn signal receptacles, or it it turns out to be the rear, at the disconnect at the rear fender split.  The fact that you've got burnt insulation should make it easy to track down the point of the short. Fix that and replace the burnt wire (and any collateral damage). 

See the diagram below.
-RP

http://www.rattlebars.com/valkfaq/schematics/rpage03.html

[Udo]

One source  for a used harness would be PinwallCycle......

[TheBear]

Thanks for the info and schematic.

Being an old EET that was my thought exactly.  I'll pick up the two controls harnesses, install the correct fuse and go from there.