Am i missing something? power where it should be ground.

[Guest]

new to me GS1000G, inside the fairing where the cig lighter and stereo power and ground wires are, I'm getting power where there should be ground wires. I got out my test light and in the center of the cig. lighter, it lit, I touched it to the outer ring of the cig lighter, and it lit. I tried the same with the ground wire and the power wire for the radio, both lit. I feel like its shorted out somewhere, and I'm told the original stereo burnt up in it and quit working, more reason for me to assume there is a short. where would you guys suggest starting to search for the culprit?

[OldVet66]

You might be reading power on all of those points, but there is no short or you would be frying wires and the battery would drain immediately. We need to see pictures of what you are doing and what type of test equipment you are using. I am assuming all of this is mounted on a fiberglass fairing. If your test light has a ground lead that clips to the battery ground and a probe that lights the light when you complete the circuit, I would assume that maybe there were some melted wires going to the fairing that energized all the points you mentioned but no ground path to the battery or you would indeed have a short. I would suggest tracing the wires from the fairing back inspecting it for heat damage and open the harness covering to find any damaged or melted wiring that might have caused the radio melt down in the first place.

[Steve]

I would be looking for a loose ground wire.

If your test light is grounded to the battery, you can touch any powered wire and see it light up. If that wire goes to a device (light, or something else) you can also see it light up if the ground wire of that device is not connected.

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