Replacing the ground wire
I had the seat and the tank removed from the frame this morning to accommodate the valve adjustments. In the process I noticed something odd (as I usually do). I noticed that the green ground wire that connects to the frame was exposed in multiple places due to melted insulation. I had either never noticed before or the exposed ground was relatively new.
I’ve mentioned before that I always feel a bit like an archeologist when working on this bike. I begin to notice strange things that the previous owner did. Or perhaps the previous, previous owner did. The ground cable is no exception. It wasn’t wrapped in with the rest of the harness. It was running along side it.
This burnt out ground could explain a lot of things. Perhaps it was the root of my non-blinky blinker problem?
Needless to say, I cut it off as close to the main harness as I could so I could splice it with a better piece of wire.
I also noticed that the frame were the other end of the ground connected was particularly oxidized and rusted.
I had never considered looking here or cleaning it up until this morning. I hit it with my dremel rotary tool with a wire brush bit. It took the rust off in seconds and exposed some nice clean steal for my ground connection.
All in all a good morning, and I’m fortunate to have stumbled on the ground wire issue. Clearly, a closer inspection is due tomorrow.