Previous Owner Shenanigans and General Repair, Part 2

Part 2, The Headlight.

One of the first problems I noticed while driving it home, was that the headlight was not working.  I really really really don't want to deal with electrical gremlins, and I prayed this would be easy.  First thing I did was go to the fuse box.  Of course any motorcycle has everything strategically tucked away somewhere. 

Since I would be dealing with electrical stuff, the manual suggests, and I've learned first hand otherwise, that you should disconnect the battery.  This meant removing the battery cover, which is kind of a pain, and then disconnecting the battery.  The cables are short, which makes this difficult.  In hindsight, it would have been worlds easier if I had taken off the seat, but I am apparently not that smart.  Later, as I'm putting it back in, the positive terminal is somewhat stripped.  I seem to find issues like this on the bike a lot.  One or all of the PO's decided that force and blunt retardery definitely work better than "the way". Luckily it catches at the very end and holds securely-ish.  It worries me that my positive battery cable is barely held in place on a maching that shakes worse than an off-balance washing machine...  So unless it lasts until it needs replacement, which moto batteries apprently last significantly less time than car batteries (they're smaller), I will either have to drill it out and use a bigger screw or replace it early.  The idea of drilling the lead block on the positive terminal of a battery is a horrifying idea...  Curse you bad mechanics and PO's.

The electrical fuses, switches & relays on sportsters around this year all go underneath the metal triangle behind the battery box on the left side.  3 phillips head screws to take off the cover, and then little rubber grommets hold the whole thing in place, albeit loosely. 

So you pop it out, and then the fuse holder has to be poppoed out of the big plastic piece.  It sounds confusing in the manual, but once you're doing it, its obvious. 

So I'm looking at the fuse box.  The owners manual and my trusty Clymer both agree that all 4 fuses are supposed to be 15 amp.  But of course, one of the PO's has popped in a 20amp fuse, and right in the slot where the headlight fuse goes.  I take it out and sure enough, it had a little 'splosion inside the fuse.  I replaced it with a 15amp fuse, turned the bike on and:

Nothing, oh man I was bummed.  But I turned on the high beam (which hadn't worked before) and behold, let there be light.  Once this happened, I deduced most of the problem.  I'm not sure what caused the short, and I hope it doesn't happen again, but since the fuse was too big, it went straight to the headlight, which was obviously on low, and blew it out, which caused the 20amp fuse to then blow.  So I went down to cycle gear, picked up a new headlight bulb for $15 ($5 cheaper than Harley), and voila!  The headlight works!