Melted/corroded mystery wire...

[Guest]

Hi,
I found this melted, or maybe just corroded wire on my bike. Anyone know it's purpose?
Thank you
IMG_20141009_102119.jpg

[Brendan W]

Little guy at the back under the cross head screw ? Looks like the earth wire for the starter solenoid.

[Mr.Mom]

Hmmm, the starter is really weak. Looks like it would be a pain to replace. The wire is exposed and all green.

[posplayr]

That is the ground wire for the side plate. It is a fundamental part of the Suzuki circuitous groundings strategy.

Following the single point grounding recommendations in GS Charging Health and you will be happier for it.

[Mr.Mom]

That is the ground wire for the side plate. It is a fundamental part of the Suzuki circuitous groundings strategy.

Following the single point grounding recommendations in GS Charging Health and you will be happier for it.

Hi,
I got around to looking closer at the wire. It turns out the wire sheath melted in the harness. Since this is a ground wire, can I put in a new wire and connect it to a frame grounding point? Ok what I also would like to know is where does the ground wire go, it enters the harness and ends up...does it go to the headlight housing? Is this the harness ground?

Thank you

[Fjbj40]

Follow the SPG by Posplayr, by the looks of it your wiring needs help.

[posplayr]

Hi,
I got around to looking closer at the wire. It turns out the wire sheath melted in the harness. Since this is a ground wire, can I put in a new wire and connect it to a frame grounding point? Ok what I also would like to know is where does the ground wire go, it enters the harness and ends up...does it go to the headlight housing? Is this the harness ground?

Thank you

The simple answer is NO. You need that wire; it is carrying current, just too much current.

B/W is the harness ground for all devices that ground in the harness including the headlight.

The SPG grounding approach I described alleviates the excess stress on this B/W wire.

I have described how the grounding works here.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?140109-High-Performance-Power-and-Grounding

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?139115-Ground-Loops

[Mr.Mom]

The simple answer is NO. You need that wire; it is carrying current, just too much current.

B/W is the harness ground for all devices that ground in the harness including the headlight.

The SPG grounding approach I described alleviates the excess stress on this B/W wire.

I want to replace the wire, can you tell me where it exits/connects opposite end from the solenoid?

Thank you

[posplayr]

I want to replace the wire, can you tell me where it exits/connects opposite end from the solenoid?

Thank you

If you follow the wire you will get to the harness. Start unwrapping the electrical tape. On my GS1100ED you encounter a bundle of ground wires that are all crimped together within about 3"-4". What I did was replace the two wires that had melted insulation (the rest were fine) and chemically cleaned the crimp and soldered it.
There is no other solution as this is essentially the electrical ground "backbone" of the entire harness and it has to be attached to R/R(-).

This is a picture of an 1981 GS750EX with the insulation melted off the B/W ground ring lug wires between the battery box ground and the side plate ground. If you look closely you will see that they are all crimped together inside the harness with other B/W wires. The only wires that got hot are the ground wires with ring lugs. The harness was relatively unharmed as well as the rest of the B/W wires.

This is a testament to Suzuki really screwing up their grounding on certain bikes (I think it is the ones with a single SCR SHUNT R/R).

For those that don't quite grasp what you are looking at. This indicates a high current running from a frame ground ring lug(at the battery box mount) back to the harness common crimp, and then down the other B/W ring lug wire (at the solenoid mount on the side plate) to get back to R/R(-) (through the side plate itself).

This is why I have recommended a ground strap as well as a battery strap for the SPG. The ground strap would have been in parallel to this current path and probably diverted a large portion of the current away from the B/W ring lug wires that melted.