Is this a Short or Bad Ground

[Guest Lightnen]

Hi there Guys:

I've got a bud that has an 86 royal star and I'm not sure about this problem but think its his grounding for the bike volt meter rises or picks up to the normal running area when you put a slite pressure to the clutch handle. Let go of the clutch and the meter drops and at night you can see the head light dim down. He has checked most of the connections and cleaned with contact cleaner plus putting the elletrolite grease on connections.. I think it would be the ground from motor to frame. Does Anyone have any other ideas what this might be..

[Gearhead]

You're probably on the right track. When I first bought my 87 Virago (used), it would die suddenly now and then, or sometimes it would just run poorly and the light would get dim. I found that grounding the handlebars to the frame with another wire fixed the problem. Later I found a loose harness ground wire under the tank on the frame. Tugging on the clutch lever must give the system a backup ground path.

 

Test is easy. Take a piece of wire, connect one end to the frame or even the neg terminal of the battery, then ground the handlebars (or whatever) with the other end. See if the problem clears when you do this. All grounds should be cleaned, greased and tightened anyway - batt to engine, engine to frame, harness to frame. Sometimes it's easier to make a new ground wire and install it that track down the old one.

 

Jeremy

[ScottXD45]

My bike has the same kind of problem except on mine it's when I slightly put upward pressure on the shifter pedel with my foot. Im betting I also have a bad ground somewhere. The guage usually read just over 12 volts but when I put pressure on it it jumps up to about 14.

[Condor]

A short will blow a fuse...if there is one... if not, things start to smoke. A bad ground will cause an electical system to not work....