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[/Kelly Bundy]

:laughing6-hehe:

Welp, I finally get around to tearing into the bike to find my electrical gremlin.

Coming back from Troutdale last year, I got to BC and started having electrical woes.

Intermittent FI light, flashing sometimes with the turnsignals, etc.

It got worse and worse until it progressed to complete failure to run. Booking down the road, bike shuts down. Cycle kill switch, bike lights up.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I DID manage to limp 'er home in this state, a full day's ride mind you.

Winter came and went, various other priorities took over (many many times) and the Vifffer sat forlornely in the corner, sipping Sta-Bil and warming to the battery tender.

Fast forward to tonight and lookah hyar:

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I didn't fix anything yet, just stuck them together with the common bus to keep them in order. Does anyone know why they are arranged in those groupings?

I mean, they are all grounds, but why separate them?

I'm thinking about tying them all together, soldering and routing straight to the batt just to give a better path to ground and not rely so much on the original path, in case there are other weak points.

I guess I should bring out the FSM and pore over the wiring diagram and see exactly which devices tie into this block, just for info's sake.

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Mate, well done. It doesn't take rocket appliances to see that your connector has had the richard!

[/Ricky trailer park boys]

:goofy:

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Wow, weird... I don't even recognize where or what that is... :huh:

Orange grounding block, left of the battery, wrapped in the wiring harness.

I suggest you run, don't walk, and check yours before your next road trip is ruined. :fing02:

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its a block wrapped under a few layers of tape, and its a reason i always say.. GROUND YOUR BIKE IN AT LEAST 3 PLACES...

in this case.. just solider all of them together and wrap it up.. and add a few grounds straight to the frame. :fing02:

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Wow, weird... I don't even recognize where or what that is... :huh:

Orange grounding block, left of the battery, wrapped in the wiring harness.

I suggest you run, don't walk, and check yours before your next road trip is ruined. :fing02:

I ran my R/R negative direct to the frame, and the positive direct to the battery. I wonder if that would help in your situation?

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I ran my R/R negative direct to the frame, and the positive direct to the battery. I wonder if that would help in your situation?

These grounds are for a bunch of little things, probably including the ECU, possibly the fuel cut relay, etc, which explains my running problems.

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Mate, well done. It doesn't take rocket appliances to see that your connector has had the richard!

[/Ricky trailer park boys]

:goofy:

Another trailer park boys fan, I LOVE IT!!!!

"We'll get two birds stoned at once"

"man he passed, he passed with flying carpets"

"What goes around, is all around"

"Im buying a real diamond, not one of those cubic zarcarbium pieces of crap"

My absolute favorite Rickyisms!!!

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I know from cars that some things are controlled with - inputs rather than +.

Probably not the case here, but something to be mindful of while soldering them all together.

Can anyone confirm that this is not the case?

P.S.

My fav. episode:

Al sits on a couch across from a gay guy and says to him: You work, you clean, you cook, you like watching sports...... Mary me!

That was priceless.

My wife felt insecure ever since :laughing6-hehe:

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gallery_554_345_988465.jpg

100 1096

I didn't fix anything yet, just stuck them together with the common bus to keep them in order. Does anyone know why they are arranged in those groupings?

I mean, they are all grounds, but why separate them?

I'm thinking about tying them all together, soldering and routing straight to the batt just to give a better path to ground and not rely so much on the original path, in case there are other weak points.

I guess I should bring out the FSM and pore over the wiring diagram and see exactly which devices tie into this block, just for info's sake.

I don't think these ground wires are "arranged" for any specific reason, other than the grounds for numerous circuits are run to this ground connector. I think the thing to consider is that there are many individual circuits in the wiring of the bike, but not all have the same voltage or current requirements so some circuits are okay with a smaller connecting and ground wires. For instance, when looking at the wiring diagram, have you ever noticed that the positive side of some circuits are connected together, and the grounds of other circuits are also tied together before terminating at the final ground? On the other hand, you'll also notice that very high current circuits typically have their own dedicated positive and ground wires. That should make sense since it appears in the photo that some ground wires are of a heavier gauge than others. Either way, because the overall wiring consists of numerous circuits and several different harnesses that connect to each other to form a complete harness, then the only way to get "grounds to ground" is through connectors which over time corrode and fail. Also, even though all of these ground legs "see" the same ground, they "see" ground individually. That sorta matters when it comes to making sure a bad ground in one circuit doesn't create a ground feedback loop in another circuit.

I don't think you're really gaining anything by tying all of these grounds together and running a final lead to the negative terminal of the battery. As long as your negative battery cable is good and well grounded to the frame, then I think the best solution is to connect each of these grounds individually to a terminal strip, with the other side connected to central ground with a heavy gauge wires. Food for thought...

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I love this. Laughed out loud when reading it. :laughing6-hehe:

Sorry for the hijack. Al Bundy is truly one of the funniest characters.

He (Ed O'Neill) is equally funny on 'Modern Family'.

Also, on the electrical front. More areas to ground your wiring doesn't make it more grounded. One ground is all that is required.

Your house and all the wiring (high/low voltage) all goes to a single ground. Adding more wouldn't make a lick of difference.

P.S.

My fav. episode:

Al sits on a couch across from a gay guy and says to him: You work, you clean, you cook, you like watching sports...... Mary me!

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Also, on the electrical front. More areas to ground your wiring doesn't make it more grounded. One ground is all that is required.

Your house and all the wiring (high/low voltage) all goes to a single ground. Adding more wouldn't make a lick of difference.

Sort of. Your house is AC and Ground serves a different function. Although not recommended you can run your house without Ground, if you do keep the weenies and marshmallows handy. In a DC circuit ground is a vital pathway and a bad ground can have some very negative effects especially in a system with micro controllers. In DC the longer the ground the more interference and the greater likelihood of a ground fault. DC grounds are best when they are short(in length) and frequent.

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So when I find this connection on mine, I should probably take all 14 grounds, and add a 15th wire. Solder all 15 together and take lucky wire #15 and ground it to a freshly scuffed area on the chassis?

It seems like it is a good idea just to attach all of these grounds together, but is there going to be an advantage to taking that bunble and then adding an additional ground to the frame?

Jason

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So when I find this connection on mine, I should probably take all 14 grounds, and add a 15th wire. Solder all 15 together and take lucky wire #15 and ground it to a freshly scuffed area on the chassis?

It seems like it is a good idea just to attach all of these grounds together, but is there going to be an advantage to taking that bunble and then adding an additional ground to the frame?

Jason

I don't know what the ground connector wiring looks like on a 5th Gen, but it doesn't matter since I seriously doubt you will be able to solder fifteen 14 gauge wires together. If your connector is toasted like the one in a photo in this thread, you'd be better off splicing in new individual wires ahead of the connector, and then running each new ground wire to the ground post. There is no advantage to combining them...

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Does anyone know why there is a connector there in the first place? Just for convenience maybe in changing out part of the loom?

Maybe the best solution is dispense with the connector and solder the apprpriate wires together, each to their own...

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Hmmm... that's one connector I haven't laid hands on yet. My VFRNess should be arriving soon, so I'll dig into that one when I go in for the 'ness.

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Each of the groups already has a wire going to ground somewhere on the bike, just solder the the wires in each group together, or connect to 2 connection blocks and the wiring will maintain it's integrity for whatever reason Honda did it this way. Probably as suggested previously to keep different current use devices apart. This is a common method in computer main frames and instrumentation and control systems. It helps stop spikes getting into sensitive devices via the back door i.e.through the Earth if commoned with thin wires.

Good idea to check the ultimate frame connections too and clean them to make good contact, tinned copper and aluminium don't mix too well in the long term.

The separation of these earth clumps is a bit of sophistication which Honda used but didn't carry through to their charging system, the fundamental basis of the VFR electrics. :pissed:

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So I figured out a solution. :cheerleader:

I have a spare, partially hacked up wiring harness, so I checked out the orange block.

It was in pristine condition, so I removed it by cutting it from the harness, carefully slid all the connectors out the backside, and will clean and tighten my connectors, slip them into the new/used orange block, douse the whole works in some electrical grease to prevent future corrosion, and put the OEM cap back on, also from the good used part.

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Hmmm... that's one connector I haven't laid hands on yet. My VFRNess should be arriving soon, so I'll dig into that one when I go in for the 'ness.

Is there a thread somewhere listing all the dodgy connectors and where they're located? These photos of charred plastic are beginning to make me nervous...

Glenn

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