RE: Wiring discussion

["Clive Liddell" <cliddell@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Doug,
I have looked at and been very satisfied with the grounding practise on our
bikes (also used on my '91 Mercedes).  Reason is, with a lot of electronics
it keeps the ground absolutely "common" between components. This eliminates
any float in ground voltage which may be the case if random points around
the frame are used, especially if and when a heavy fault to ground would
occur.

I suspect if you clear all of these grounds on your bike it will still be
fine - but will it be as bullet proof as it is now?

I have found that any thing that looks like redundant extra wiring or
material usually is not.   The manufacturers would not put an extra inch of
wire or material that couldn't be well justified!

Regards
Clive Liddell
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
'96 R850R ~81k.km
'01 R1100RT ~65k.km
===============
> I've been doing some dissecting on a defunct wire harness. My
> first quite successful project was to cancel out the safety
> disconnect for my side-stand and rewire to the horn. Now if there
> is a failure with the wiring/switches/relays associated with the
> side-stand "alarm", the bike will not be stuck on the side of the road.
>
>   I did some more dissecting and learned there are a whole bunch
> of wires running all through the bike... wires that can break....
> connections buried, rapped in tape in inaccessible places. Why
> run wires all through a bike when you can ground to the bike,
> right on the spot? Wires break, so why wrap so many together?
> Doing so confuses the issue further when you have to find a
> problem. My fuel injectors have a ground wire that travel deep
> into a mess of wires wrapped in tape, only to end up grounding to
> the bike somewhere waaaaay down the line.
>
>   Why not ground these wires right near the injectors? Placing
> the ground to the bike, near the injectors, places a potential
> bad ground in a logical place, in plane view. What am I missing?
> I'm ready to cut all these particular "green w/yellow stripe"
> wires which wind all over the bike and are all associated with
> the side-stand, clutch, and kill switch safety disconnects. I
> could ground various relays in the fuse box associated with these
> looooong wires running everywhere. The fuel injectors. The kill
> switch can remain by grounding right at the switch. Comments, suggestions?
>
>
> Doug Saylor
> 727.831.3111
>
> Heavily medicated for your protection!
>
> Things to live for:
>
> -alt.binaries.howard-stern
>
> -iPod shuffle (loaded with Howard Stern)
>
> -1995 BMW R1100R... >110K, runs great AND is an award winning
> bike! (Rat Bike @ the 2004 Poverty Riders Rally)

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