Big lights, G1- what did I blow up?

[DirtDiggler]

Well I had this set of super cool KC Daylighters that needed a home, they are a bit of overkill but I mounted on the front of my G1. I ran a large wire from the Positive side of the battery to a heavy duty toggle switch I mounted on the dash. I grounded the lights to the frame. I used them for about 20 minutes this afternoon(had to try them out of course) and suddenly they went out. I then found out that nothing worked- the cart continued to run but once I killed it, I found out that it no longer spins over. I checked it out and found that if I run a new ground to anywhere on the cart, everything works fine including the starter. Could the solution be this simple? There is only one ground wire and it runs from the battery to the solenoid- I assumed the cart grounded through the solenoid case so I loosened the mounting bolts and retighted with no effect. I obviously need to run a dedicated ground for the lights but what did I mess up?

[GMB74]

You blew the ground fuse. Look on the right rear fender, there are two fuse holders. Check them both, but I think you will find the one on top of the fender is blown. Run dedicated lines- both power and ground- to your lights with its own fuse holder. And I hope you have a good battery!

[Mike Mac]

If those KC's are 100 watts each, your gonna put a lot of load on the little generator.
Harbor Freight has 55 w. KC nock off's for $15. apiece. Also ground to battery or to where ever battery cable goes to, not to frame. And install a 20 amp fuse in the circut like GMB said.

[DirtDiggler]

Yall are right- again. Another "duh" moment- the fuse is blown. I broke my own rule as I generally always check fuses first but it didnt occur to me there is a fuse on the GROUND circuit. I have a large battery on it (came off a truck) and the lights will not be used very often so hopefully I wont blow anything else up after I run the dedicated ground wire. What size fuse is supposed to be there? It had a 10 amp- cant believe it ran that long. THANKS AGAIN!

[bersh]

Originally Posted by DirtDiggler

Well I had this set of super cool KC Daylighters that needed a home, they are a bit of overkill but I mounted on the front of my G1. I ran a large wire from the Positive side of the battery to a heavy duty toggle switch I mounted on the dash. I grounded the lights to the frame. I used them for about 20 minutes this afternoon(had to try them out of course) and suddenly they went out. I then found out that nothing worked- the cart continued to run but once I killed it, I found out that it no longer spins over. I checked it out and found that if I run a new ground to anywhere on the cart, everything works fine including the starter. Could the solution be this simple? There is only one ground wire and it runs from the battery to the solenoid- I assumed the cart grounded through the solenoid case so I loosened the mounting bolts and retighted with no effect. I obviously need to run a dedicated ground for the lights but what did I mess up?

You shouldn't run them direct like that as you'll end up frying the switch as well. You should run them through a relay and have them wired direct to the battery.

[smallblock450sl]

You could bump up the main fuses to 20 ampers.