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Bad electrical connections & Grounds

850 Combat

850 Combat

Forum Sage
Past Site Supporter
I'm getting two '80 GS850G's and an '82 1100G ready to go on a cross counry trip next week. I have never had a charging problem ever, but did some inspection and testing on these bikes, anyway. On one of the 850's, all the connectors showed signs of overheating, and the main power connector out of the R/R was totally cooked. This bike was charging at about 13.5 volts at 2000 RPM and about 12.9 at 4000. The 1100 was working about the same, but the connectors were not so obviously burnt. Grounding is really iffy as designed, IMO, especially on the 850 Several importand grounds are to the battery box, and to the ignition module mounting plate on the battery box. The battery box and plate are not very well grounded to the frame and battery from the factory, imo. I installed bonding jumpers between them and the battery. The connectors were cleaned and reinstalled. I also installed Duaneage Honda R&R's on these bikes. Both are now charging well within specifications.

So, my observations are two:

Like many have written, bad connections, which are free to fix, are killing your charging system, and you can't tell until it is dead.

Extra grounds look like cheap insurance.

One more valve adjustment and one more charging system check out to go, but my other 850 has only 5000 miles and still looks new.

For what its worth, I think its way easier to remove the battery box than to try to change the R/R in place. Nice place for phillips head screws by the factory.
 
YES pull the box as on my 650L there was a rubber isolator with a steel sleeve insertes inside it. The threads of the retaining bolts were all that was supplying the ground connection. By taking the box of to get at the R/R you effectively are cleaning the grouns. I wire wheeled the bolts and used anit-seize on the threads along with an additional ground strap to the - post at the battery and R/R ground wire and all is within spec, to the letter. ;)
 
850 Combat said:
I'm getting two '80 GS850G's and an '82 1100G ready to go on a cross counry trip next week. I have never had a charging problem ever, but did some inspection and testing on these bikes, anyway. On one of the 850's, all the connectors showed signs of overheating, and the main power connector out of the R/R was totally cooked. This bike was charging at about 13.5 volts at 2000 RPM and about 12.9 at 4000. The 1100 was working about the same, but the connectors were not so obviously burnt. Grounding is really iffy as designed, IMO, especially on the 850 Several importand grounds are to the battery box, and to the ignition module mounting plate on the battery box. The battery box and plate are not very well grounded to the frame and battery from the factory, imo. I installed bonding jumpers between them and the battery. The connectors were cleaned and reinstalled. I also installed Duaneage Honda R&R's on these bikes. Both are now charging well within specifications.

So, my observations are two:

Like many have written, bad connections, which are free to fix, are killing your charging system, and you can't tell until it is dead.

Extra grounds look like cheap insurance.

One more valve adjustment and one more charging system check out to go, but my other 850 has only 5000 miles and still looks new.

For what its worth, I think its way easier to remove the battery box than to try to change the R/R in place. Nice place for phillips head screws by the factory.
Click to expand...


Hey thanks, I am going to run an additional ground between the regulator mounting plate and the battery ground. I checked the connection with a multimeter, and it showed 0 ohms. But the problem with most of these inexpensive digital multimeters are that they are not real accurate. Even a .5 ohm resistance in the ground connection with 2 amps flowing through the wire would equal a 1 volt drop across that connection. This is calculated using the simple ohms law formula, E = IR.
 
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This is why I gave you a metric boatload of extra connectors, there should be enough for all the regulators I sent you, and enough bolts too. I hate the phillips head screws, mine had to be drilled out and so I decided to include M6 bolts with every regulator I ship.

The case of the RR is not grounded internally, it electrically floats. Keep ground leads as short as possible to the frame, which is the best ground conductor there is. For maximum protection clean a ground point and paint it after assembly.

I upgraded the starter leads on my bike from 10 to 8 gauge on the short run to the solenoid and 8 - 6 gauge on the starter feed. Made a difference in spin you could tell.

The battery box is on rubber to protect the electronics and the battery from vibration.
 
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