The Main Ground Wire on '78-'80

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Those of you that have one of these years, has either had their front coil mount break off from the frame, or you can expect it to break if you keep the bike long enough.

When it does break, you will loose the main ground connection to your wiring harness!!!  

This is how I fixed mine.  (a long time ago!)
I drilled a hole in the socket frame, sanded the paint off in the area, and I was done!
Don't forget your dielectric grease!



click for larger image

[Bill Conquest]

Hi Rob - That's exactly what happened to me! Luckily I had just read a post of yours warning of this so I knew... I presently have it hose clamped on & will execute the proper fix a.s.a.p. ! Thanks for the heads up.
Bill Conquest

[Jon_P]

to combat that problem when i was working on mine, i trimmed my wiring harness down and ran the grounds to the battery ground. i also removed the front coil and replaced it with a dual coil in the rear. that would have been easier than what i did.

[Rob Valdez 79 R65]

Yeah Bill, I had talked about this before, but I had never taken a picture of it, before.  And I suffer from lack of closure if I don't get a picture...  


And Jon, I had my front coil hanging from the frame with zip-ties for the longest time (20 years?).
But when I replaced my coils a couple of years ago, I decided to spruce it up a little, and found two extra long hose clamps in the plumbing section of the hardware store.  They have large-diameter rubber connectors that come with big hose clamps.  They are cheap enough that you can take your hose clamps and recycle the rubber connector in some fashion.

But you solved it with the double coil, which is another solution altogether!

[Semper Gumby]

I re-routed the grounds to the aft coil mount when I went to the single Dyna Coil....same effect!

[guitardad]

to combat that problem when i was working on mine, i trimmed my wiring harness down and ran the grounds to the battery ground. i also removed the front coil and replaced it with a dual coil in the rear. that would have been easier than what i did.

Jon - Is the dual coil a BMW part?  What's the P/N?  

When I pulled everything off Hans to clean up the frame, both coils were hanging by hose clamps.  The front coil mount is there, just held on by JB-Weld.  I went ahead and invested in new coil clamps (about $5 each from Bob's) but I figure the front one is on borrowed time.  

The P.O. had hooked up some jumper wire to run the ground back to the rear coil mount.  But this looks like a cleaner way to do it.

[Jon_P]

k75 coils from ebay. some sell them as a whole unit so you get a couple extra if you would ever need them, i only got one coil, think it cost a whole $15.


being the resident butcher of the 65 i am always looking at parts to see what i can graft on mine.

my bike has parts from all kinds of bikes and other models.

[guitardad]

Thanks - I'll keep an eye out for them.