Electrical ground question..

Ok so I started cleaning up my wiring a little and got a nice new blade fuse box installed.. I then got the harebrained idea to rewire the rat's nest of junctions under the tank. I move this from the headlight during the initial build and it was functional probably only due to luck, spit and tape.

I am planning on moving all the ground cables to a single feed -- now I'm no certified electrician but I'm pretty handy with this so I'm fairly sure this will be ok but I wanted to just bounce it off you folks for a sanity check.. is this ok?

 

You really want multiple ground paths. With a single ground path, if there is corrosion, or a failure of the ground cable, you will end up with devices finding another path to ground, often resulting in component failure. If no alternative path to ground exists, you end up walking home.

 

you have at least 2 frame grounds,1 from the alternator connector to up to the coil mount bolts, and one from frame to motor ,( it May be at battery ground).
the battery ground goes to the motor. the motor also grounds to the frame with mounting bolts.
electricty will always take the path of least resistance to ground.
my directionals go to ground through the unused bulb

 

Cool thanks - seems like it's ok from a "will it work" standpoint to just use one ground feed but it's a good point you make k-Moe to have redundancy

 

Redundancy in grounds is not a common electrical practice, nor is it a good idea and ground loops can be created where different potentials exists causing current to flow between the grounded points. Anyone working on audio systems is familiar with the ground loop as it is heard as an audible hum (60 Hz) when incorrect grounding schemes are used. For the basic motorcycle electrical system it is not likely to present a problem. That said, follow Yamaha's lead and the entire electrical system with the exception of the starter is grounded at the frame through the ignition coil mounting hardware and the eyelet terminals exiting the main harness. The frame, motor, and battery negative can be thought of as chassis ground and the return for all circuits to battery negative.

 

Ah yeah that was something I was thinking of but the plan was for redundancy via two cables basically both the same length.

So do you think it would be OK to ground everything at the ignition coils via these two wires? How is the starter grounded?

 

it is hooked to motor which has a ground hooked to it. a large ground for a good reason

 

Yes, that is what Yamaha did. Note that the size of the ground wire or wires need to be large enough to carry the full load of all the circuits. Typical install off the battery positive is 14 gauge through the main fuse, so the return side needs to be equal to that or greater.

 

roger that! thanks