Wiring loom ground points

[jchesshyre]

I want to go over my electrical system and check all the grounding points for the loom. It's not fault-finding and there's nothing wrong - yet - but I'm thinking on a 19-year-old bike it can't hurt to check they're all corrosion-free so everything's working as well as can be.

Does anyone have a list of where they all are? There's a thread on here asking the same thing from a while back (https://vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16647) but the question didn't really get answered.

[E.Marquez]

The VTR1000F should have 8 ground points.
4 by a terminal and wire
4 by direct contact

Terminal on wire
Battery
Ignition coil front
Ignition coil rear
wiring harness ground (this is located at the thermostat on one of the top screws )

Direct contact
OIl pressure switch
Fan switch
Neutral switch
Starter motor

[jchesshyre]

Thank you!!!

Where is the wiring harness ground?

[E.Marquez]

Thank you!!!

Where is the wiring harness ground?

[VTRDark]

Don't forget all those terminal connections under the fuse box too. Use a flat blade to pry the tab inside the fusebox holder where it clips on and it slides right off the undertray. The main engine earth is at the rear of the engine by the rear CCT...A great big heavy duty Black wire. Also make sure the rear subframe where it bolts onto the frame has a bare metal contact so there is a feed for all the electrics connected there like the R/R which earth's of the subframe.

[E.Marquez]

The main engine earth is at the rear of the engine by the rear CCT...

Yup, that would be the battery ground as mentioned...and commonly found tarnished if not corroded at the engine attachment point.

Also make sure the rear subframe where it bolts onto the frame has a bare metal contact so there is a feed for all the electrics connected there like the R/R which earth's of the subframe.

also a good point, but instead of "clean bare metal" which will oxidize very quickly, clean the two mating surfaces as you suggested, then coat lightly with dielectric silicone, assemble and wipe off the squished out excess.

Or run a ground strap between the main ground and the subframe.. I do that often when parts have been powder coated and might interfere with a good ground.

[jchesshyre]

Resurrecting this old thread of mine because I've been trying to solve an issue with my coolant gauge intermittently not working and have finally, after much irritating head-scratching and fiddling/testing, done so.

I did the testing in the manual and thought I'd narrowed it down to the gauge itself (because grounding the wire at the sensor didn't cause the needle on the gauge to shoot up as it should if the gauge is fine, yet I had good continuity between the connector at the sensor and the gauge itself), so bought a new gauge. Problem still there.

Thought I'd then narrowed it down to the sensor itself being faulty, but fortunately, before buying a new one, I happened to touch the ground connector on the top of the thermostat (while the gauge was working) and this caused it to stop working. I'd previously overlooked this ground connection because of the info in this thread saying this is the main ground point for the wiring loom, because I assumed that if this was faulty then I'd have a lot more problems than just the temp gauge not working.

Can anyone confirm if this actually is the loom earth? I suspect that it isn't, and is instead just the earth for the thermosensor, because disconnecting it has no effect on any other components, and now that I've cleaned its spade connector up the coolant gauge is working perfectly.

The wiring diagram shows a ground connection for the thermosensor which connects to various other ground wires, and then leads to an earth point which is not the main battery earth point. If I am right that this connector on the thermostat is not the main loom ground, can anyone tell me where it is?