New fused PDB install in glove box

Power Distribution Block (PDB) upgrade: Bluesea rear & custom front fuse block

I am planning to add a few more items which would require power. I had a barrier strip PDB set up in the rear of the bike under the seat.

The before picture:



The issue here was that I had 3 circuits that ran all the way back to the front of the bike (GPS, Grips, & datel meter). I have plans to add a few more farkles (radar, air horns, & a starcom1) in the near future. The barrier strips work great for PDB’s, but I didn’t want any more circuits running from the rear to the front, or have the fuses floating around up front if I were to go that route, and I wanted easier access to the fuses.

A friend of mine picked up a Bluesea 6 circuit fuse block, found that it would not fit anywhere on his VFR, and gave it to me. That’s going in the rear of the bike to handle power for my Audiovox CSS-100, 12v outlet (for air compressor), & starcom1. It went in the tail section under the passenger seat:



I found this 6 circuit ganged fuse block at www.delcity.com and decided to see if I could set that up for a PDB in the front. The trick would be finding a place to mount it that would allow access to the fuses with out having to remove a panel. I decided to attempt molding it into the glove box.



Here’s what I came up with. The fuse block is powered by a relay (triggered from the unplugged windshield auto-retract jumper) located right in front of the battery. The fuse block came with a heavy gauge lead wire that I ran through a cable sleeve across the front fairing. I cut out a rectangle in the glove box and trimmed down the mounting feet on the fuse block. I sealed up the exposed side of the fuse block with a coating of RTV black silicone. I set up one of the barrier strips as a ground block zip tied to the nose brace under the instrument cluster, with the ground run back to the battery.

Inside:



Outside:



More pictures here.

I used black RTV to seal the fuse block to the glove box and the exposed side of the fuse block. Any comments / suggestions / criticisms would be greatly appreciated. Let me know what you think, thanks.

Way cool! Very nicely done.

I have often thought that the ideal way would be to attach a Centech, or something like you show to a small pice of wood and then have the wires long enough so that you could just pull the whole thing out of the glovebox to easily access fuses, and/or add or eliminate wiring.

Except that I still like to use glovebox for various odds and ends, and I have never had a fuse or wiring problem from any of the farkles I installed.

I will say, that I would highly recommend routing the ground of the fuse block back to the battery (-) rather than to the frame.

SkooterG said:

I have never had a fuse or wiring problem from any of the farkles I installed.

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Oh dude, you are so jinxed

Thanks. Just to clarrify, the fuse block did not have it's own ground (like a bluesea). So I set up one of the barrier strips like here on fjrtech.com, with it grounded back to the battery. This is what you meant, right?

I usually carry my wallet, cell phone, tire gauge, and kick stand plate in there. That stuff will still fit, just a little tighter now.

-wr

SkooterG said:

Way cool! Very nicely done.
I will say, that I would highly recommend routing the ground of the fuse block back to the battery (-) rather than to the frame.

Click to expand...

Looks good ex !

I did something similar back in 2004 ! I decided to keep all the connections weathertight so everything is in the glovebox.