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Thread: Fixing Earthing Problems - Why and How

  1. #41
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    Am I wasting my time running a 12 gauge wire from braided strap to battery negative terminal? Or does it need to be 4 gauge? I want to try this out. But asking ahead of time.

  2. #42
    Senior Member outthere's Avatar
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    Make that 12g a twisted pair. In other words, take 2 pieces of wire, put 2 ends in a drill chuck, get a hold of the opposite ends and run the drill so there are about 2 twists per inch. Viola, a twisted pair. Stranded needs to be secured along the length with heat shrink or wrapped with tape. Solid wire will stay put.

  3. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by outthere View Post
    Make that 12g a twisted pair. In other words, take 2 pieces of wire, put 2 ends in a drill chuck, get a hold of the opposite ends and run the drill so there are about 2 twists per inch. Viola, a twisted pair. Stranded needs to be secured along the length with heat shrink or wrapped with tape. Solid wire will stay put.
    Perfect. I was wondering if that will work. I will try it out since I have a coil of 12 gauge at home. Thank you. May not fix issues but it'll help with peace of mind.

  4. #44
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    Updated the grounds on sons firebolt. Picked up a 4 ga battery cable at O'Riley's for $9 with connectors on both ends. 24" worked a charm going from the braided ground to Bat Neg. Connected the cable to the left side (sitting on bike) braided connection point routed through the right side rear sub-frame and tupperware to battery. Youo can do this in less than 10 minutes.

    Sad to say i was overzealous cleaning the connections and removed the aluminum coating on the braided connectors. Going to see if I can dip it in a silver concoction from an electronics store.

  5. #45
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    I went with two 10 gauge wires. Bike seems to run ok.

  6. #46
    Senior Member Cooter's Avatar
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    This whole thread is nuts, lol. Yes, you need a good ground path... but the overkill has gotten WAY out of hand.

    Wire doubles in size at the next lower gauge number, so to answer your question cocoabutterlover: Technically, (2) 10 gauge wires make an 8 gauge wire.

    Lengths less than 4 feet of 8 ga wire can hold up to 150 amps at 13.8 volts, 90*F. Thats just about what the whole dang starter draws and 4 gauge? Over 300 amps!. Thats only 100 times where you'd already see a problem in a circuit and have to fix it. Silliness.
    http://www.offroaders.com/technical/...gauge-to-amps/

    Remember, you are not making a circuit. You are supplementing a ground path. The circuit exists already to hold all that current.

    All this fun aside, I would LOVE to see some actual testing. It's easy, and free! Before you go all cray-cray with 4 gauge high strand welding wire and 24 carat solid gold connectors... Use your free Harbor Freight DVOM and measure amps between the points you would like to add that wire. Start the bike, rev it up, hit the lights, and look for a reading.

    IF you see a reading past 1 amp, repair the ground path of the circuit that makes that reading when activated or add an appropriately sized wire at those testing points for the amp reading you got. It would be much smaller than 28 gauge (human hair-ish lol) for just 1 amp but IMO, motorcycles don't like wiring less than 16 gauge. You're still jamming crap under the seat right?

    I found a 1 amp current between the coil mounting bolt and battery negative on my STT. I cleaned the bolt and mount and it went away but...'LAF' Lunatics Awesome Fix. I added a 16 gauge wire anyway

    Glad these bikes don't have stereos with all these ground loops everyones making!
    Great write up John, no offense intended. Just trying to get the theory off of Planet Aspergers and back into reality

  7. #47
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    Well for some feedback; I installed new intake seals; bike ran funny. I took apart my TPS and cleaned it, re-installed it, ran extra ground wires. Took the bike out last night, it ran smoother while the fuse/relay box under the seat was just warm to the touch as opposed to HOT a week before. So at least it helped with that.

  8. #48
    Senior Member Cooter's Avatar
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    I'm not saying adding grounds is a bad idea. I'm saying that electrons are not a mysterious unpredictable substance in the Ether that have to be corralled with the magical copper tubing and witches blood.

    Electricity has rules*. Predictable, simple, repeatable, rules. If you learn those simple rules, there's no guessing.

    Guessing is bad, because it is expensive, time consuming, and frustrating.


    *Electricity can be bad for motorcyclists!
    https://kste.iheart.com/content/2019...-by-lightning/
    Last edited by Cooter; 06-13-2019 at 05:26 PM.

  9. #49
    After thorough cleaning of grounds, i still have misfire. any other thing to be on the lookout for?

    1. I have a wire from the braided earth strap to negative on battery
    2. Cleaned the grounds from the fuse to body
    3. cleaned the negative battery terminal/grounds also
    4. cleaned grounds at the headlight section also

    Could not locate any grounds around the 02sensor my bike is a 2009 xb9sx.

    Should i add an extra cable from fuse ground to negative terminal on battery?

    What else can i be missing?

  10. #50
    Senior Member Cooter's Avatar
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    There is no such thing as a "fuse ground". All your fuses are on the positive side of the circuit. Running any ground to any fuse on your bike would be catastrophically bad.

    I would not run any extra wires to the ground terminal of the battery, I would run them to where that 4ga wire attaches to the seat frame.

    And maybe thats not the problem causing the misfire at all...



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