Secondary Ground Question...

I'm putting my engine back together, but I'm not sure where the secondary ground goes. I know the first one comes off of the battery and grounds to the block. I can see that there is a secondary black cable that also bolts onto the engine, but I'm not sure where else that is supposed to bolt on. I saw in the wiring diagram I seems that the starter needs to be grounded out, but I don't want to make any mistakes here.

Any ideas of where this secondary ground goes? It's for an 82 Maxim XJ 750.

(also, the starter is not running, I think this is related)

Thank you!
elGato

 

Braided Ground strap goes to the frame. Black plastic coated wire goes from an engine bolt to the battery negative terminal

 

^ What he said. The starter is grounded as soon as you bolt it up to the engine.

 

Thanks Guys! If I'm lucky with the rest of the rebuild I can start her tomorrow! Just dodged a bullet, some of the threads on the threaded rod for the exhaust collars to bolt onto were smashed. I had to cut 1/16th of an inch off and rethread with a die! My first for that, and it was a little scary, lol

 

You're almost there!! Keep us posted

 

you only need 1 ground to either the frame or engine

 

correct, however...the bikes came with a battery to engine ground cable, and a shorter engine to frame cable. So, why not use them both anyway? It never hurts to make sure there's a good solid ground.

That, by the way, is one of the few big big problems with the Suzuki VL1500.....the ground arrangement is very weak, and so we have to 're-ground' things with a stronger, more direct ground. That often is the fix in that case.

Back to our bikes.......I have some that the engine to frame ground cable is a braided cable, and I have some that are simply a very battery-like plastic-coated cable but only about 6 inches long or so.

dave

 

Is the engine rubber mounted with plastic bolts ?
I hear what your saying, more is better but aconnection is a connection

 

Polock, I don't think that hogfiddles said that there wasn't a connection... I think he simply stated that there are TWO connections from the factory. The OP asked where the second connection goes...

Hogfiddles, my '82 XJ650RJ has the plastic coated battery-type cable, as you mentioned.

 

Ditto on my 650max. There are two factory cable type ground connections. I'm thinking there's a significant reason for having both.

Gary H.

 

Tomorrow will be the day! Pics to follow!

 

my heart is aflutter with anticipation

 

Can't wait to see!

 

Two grounds, one answer. Resistance. The amount of resistance as you pull the ground side of the electrical load through a single path(1wire) is much higher than if you use two. I don't profess to be an electrical engineer by any means but think of it this way;
Run your compressor, halogen work lights and electric drill on one 25' drop cord all at once. Either the breaker trips or the cord get hot! Trying to force all of that load to pull through those small wires. Split the load into three different power cords and each one carries a significantly smaller load!

 

I agree with fast. Vehicle manuals make it clear individual body grounds for the different systems "must" have good connection. The battery to mill ground will not be enough.

Gary H.

 

i wonder why mine have always worked so well with only one wire.........just lucky i guess
someone should try three or four wires

 

On some models, there actually are 2 ground wires:

a) XJ550, and XJ700/XJ750-X models use an integrated "dual" ground wire that runs the typical heavy gauge wire from the battery negative to an 1) engine case bolt (large cable) and (2) a smaller wire that runs to the frame (XJ550) or integrates into the main wire harness ground (XJ700 and XJ750-X).
b) XJ650 all models (except Turbo), XJ750 Maxim/Midnight Maxim, and XJ1100 models also use a short braided cable that runs from the chain lock storage box area (to the frame) to an engine case bolt, as well as the battery negative cable (negative battery post to an engine case bolt).

Other models (xj650 Turbo, XJ750 Seca, and XJ900 models) use only a battery negative post-to-engine case ground cable.

Almost all models ground the main wiring harness to the rear coil mounting bolt frame boss, and care should be taken to insure that those main harness ground wires (identified by using closed ring terminals) make really good contact at their mounting point to the frame (i.e clean off corrosion from both the frame and the termianls, etc.),

I believe that Polock has a XJ750 SECA model in his current stable, and thus his bike does only have one main ground cable: negative battery post -to-engine.

 

.....and yup, there are some I have that only have the one cable from the battery. I assumed that the short one had been removed on those few.

Once again, Len has 'the rest of the story'

dave

 

I know you're poking fun but my 650j has indeed the three in Chacal's post. FWIW I mis-connected the braided ground to the frame by the chain lock once. My bike went nuts.

Gary H.

 

Alright, here's the first picture of the finished product! I refinished all of the aluminum covers and they look almost like chrome, however I got them dirty during the reassembly, so I still need to polish them up and get the bike in the sunlight! I'll post those pictures sometime this weekend. She doesn't look too bad for a 32 year old bike. The difference I can really feel is the smoothness, it's awesome. Shifting gears and doing some pulls are incredibly silky. Also, after I reassembled it, it started the first try after about two cranks, blew my mind! Shoutout to Len for supplying me with the parts and advice. And to the entire forum, couldn't of done it without!!