| Author | Message | ||
     Mark_weiss |
Has anyone developed an alternate ground connection route? I've been having starting difficulty lately and have checked all of the usual suspects. The battery is good, the connections are solid. The ground-to-subframe connection is clean and tight too. For this morning's start I connected a voltmeter between the battery and the engine. During cranking, I was able to note a 3/4 volt, maybe more, drop across this connection. Maybe that's why my clock has been resetting? When I thought about the ground route; battery to subframe, subframe to main frame, main frame to engine, engine to starter, it seems that there are a lot of places to develop resistance. For comparison, my BMW R100 grounds directly to the transmission case. My GSXR 750 grounds directly to the engine case. Taking a quick look about this morning, I did not see any super-obvious spot that could easily take a ground connection directly from the battery. There might be a good spot though, something that is not easily seen externally. Mark SE AZ | ||
| Etennuly |
I have thought about that also. More grounds cannot hurt anything. I have been thinking about a ground wire directly from the battery to a bolt on the starter housing to help with that big power dip on start up. | ||
| Ronmold |
Try taking both + & - clamps from a good set of jumper cables from the Bat ground to the engine, maybe the primary adjuster bolt & the drain plug could be a solid clamping point, and then crank it over. If it changes then you need to look at the grounds again. The stock ground points are good for several hundred amps, way more than the starter could take or the battery could deliver IF the connections are clean. If the jumper cables don't help then you may want to re-check the battery or the starter solenoid. | ||
| Rwven |
http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/467918.html | ||
| Panhead_dan |
I ran a heavy gauge wire from batt neg to one of the starter through bolts. I have no idea if it's helping but I'm confident that it won't hurt anything. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
Good ideas all, but they don't solve the problem. Certainly the stock setup works well, assuming clean connections. The problem is that here are several junctions in the ground path and if each of those points develops just a little corrosion the power drop gets big, quickly. The ground strap pictured may be an improvement over the stock cable, but does nothing to decrease the number of potential failure points. I took a look at the upper screw on the starter case. Access is easy and it can't hurt. I don't think that path would be great for full load though. While peering in there, I noticed the engine side of the rear stabilizer link. Access looks tricky (without rotating the engine) but is a solid connection to the engine. Further, it would not be overly difficult to run a line directly from the battery. Might be doing some measuring this weekend. Mark SE AZ | ||
| Rwven |
Mark, I've never heard of a verified failure of any major ground path other than the battery to frame connection. The only other place that seems to be a problem is the ground connection from the intrument/light cluster to the steering head. I've taken care of that with a similar overkill approach. I suppose you could run a #8 cable from the engine block back to the battery if you wanted to. (Message edited by rwven on December 02, 2010) | ||
| Yamafreak |
What we all need is more cca and a good ground. | ||
| Swampy |
I had a running problem that turned out to be the battery tray grounds. Then I started having a starting problem and it turned out to be the engine to frame ground under the airbox. Then my neutral light started acting up with the resulting starting issues and I found the neutral switch connector very loose. Now everything is peachy. I think that if your engine to frame ground under the air box is cleaned up, that will take care of a bunch of the starting issues and nullify the need for any additional ground straps. | ||
| Mark_weiss |
I need to recheck that one. When I'd had the bike for about 6 months I got stuck at work one day. No start at all, press the button and the lights went out. Turned out to be the engine/frame connection. I don't recall which end was loose. Just a teeny, tiny, bit, but it had wiggled and apparently corroded. Mark SEAZ | ||
| Teeps |
Swampy Posted on Thursday, December 02, 2010 I think that if your engine to frame ground under the air box is cleaned up, that will take care of a bunch of the starting issues and nullify the need for any additional ground straps. I concur as that is the only engine to frame ground path. An auxiliary ground could be added in a similar fashion (as the under air box ground) at one of the front dog bone stays too. | ||
| Rwven |
The engine to frame ground under the airbox hasn't caused me any problems. The main problem has been the battery to subframe ground. When that gets dicey it causes to much current to pass through the fuel pump to subframe ground (which is terminated on the same bolt as the battery) which burns up the quick connector on the fuel pump. Thats what happened to me anyway. | ||
| Uly_man |
The battery-to-Earth on the sub-frame must have no paint on it or it will cause problems. The OEM battery is fully charged at 12.7v (standing after charging) and anything less than 12.5v is near half charged. Use a good meter to measure this. That can be a problem because the engine needs all the CCA from the battery to start it from cold. A very common v-twin problem. The starter relay is also a common/well known problem on the XBs. The CCA is on the margin with this bike. Remember its two 600cc pots on a high compression engine and it needs a lot of power run it up on its first stroke. Even with a perfect bike/battery it does not take much to flatten the battery. |
