hooked up running lights, now its hard to start my buddy.

Milktown · Post by **Milktown** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:57 am

so i took my voltmeter out today and went through the wires on the front of my my scooter and found ones that were hot only when the key was turned on. spliced those wires and hooked them up to the running lights on my buddy. i put the key in and turn it to the on position and the lights go on so this makes me happy... but when i go to start it now theres barley enough juice to turn the engine over. i think i may have done something very wrong or maybe i drained my battery while working on it? i really dunno. anyone else have this kinda problem? (also i took the horn out of my crown vic and put it on my buddy tho i dont think that has anything to do with this)

jasondavis48108 · Post by **jasondavis48108** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:21 am

Lots of folks have hooked up running lights and it is a drain on the battery. I got a larger Ah battery and mostly kick start the scooter now and that seems to work well.

Post by **ericalm** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:00 pm

The running lights, as is, draw too much power and put a big drain on the battery. Those lights are intended for use as turn signals while the scooter is running.

There are a few solutions:
1. bigger battery
2. lower-wattage (10w) incandescent bulbs
3. low-wattage LEDs

See:
viewtopic.php?t=9599

And
viewtopic.php?t=11051

Skootz Kabootz · Post by **Skootz Kabootz** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 10:12 pm

Thanks for those links Eric. The LED's were the only solution that worked for me. By the time I got incandescents that were low wattage enough not to kill the battery (I went down as far as 7w if I remember correctly - the stock bulbs are 10w and draw too much juice), they were so dim it really wasn't worth it. The LED's I installed with the serge protector (second of Eric's links - thanks again Lil Buddy) are still working perfectly to this day. Not a single issue.